Chinese Revolutionary Honored With LES Statue

CHINATOWN, NY — A statue of a Chinese revolutionary that's been standing in a Lower East Side Park for the past seven years will become permanent, the city announced in honor of Lunar New Year on Tuesday.

The statue of Dr. Sun Yat-sen has been in Columbus Park will become a Parks Department monument.

Chinese New Year kicked off on Tuesday with the Better Chinatown Society's annual firecracker festival to celebrate the Year of the Pig. In addition to making the statue permanent in honor of the traditional new year, the northern plaza in Columbus Park will be named after Yat-sen as well.

The statue of Yat-sen is still technically pending formal approval from the Public Design Commission, according to the city.

"By moving to honor Dr. Sun Yat-sen with a permanent monument, we are also honoring the many Chinese-Americans who call Chinatown, and New York City, home," Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a statement.

The celebratory move by the city in partnership with the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association and Councilmember Margaret Chin is in the midst of heightened tensions regarding a planned neighborhood-jail around the corner at 125 White St.

The planned jail is slated to be built where the existing Manhattan Detention Complex, known as the Tombs, is sited, which is a part of a larger city project to close Rikers Island facilities, reduce the city's jail population from 8,000 to 5,000, and create smaller jails aimed to be more humane.

Many in the Chinatown community larger Lower Manhattan neighborhoods have slammed the mayor for what they see as a shoddy public process with reversals on where the jail would be located and a failure to address community concerns.

The de Blasio administration extended an olive branch to Chinatown community members in December at a closed-door meeting, which activist Jan Yee leaked in a recording.

On Tuesday, de Blasio visited Chinatown again to announce the formal commemoration of Yat-sen alongside Councilmember Margaret Chin and CCBA President Eric Ng.

"We are happy to see the statue of Dr. Sun Yat-sen becoming a permanent icon in the Chinatown community," Ng said in a statement.

"He learned the democracy idea from the United States and then in 1911 founded the first republic government in Asia - Republic of China. Dr. Sun Yat-sen spent some time in New York City during the Chinese Revolution."

Sun played a central role in the overthrow of the imperial Qing dynasty and became Provisional President of the Republic of China when it was founded.

Ng said that the early-20th century revolutionary even delivered a speech to the association in March 1911 to encourage Chinese-Americans to support the revolution in China.

"By making the statue of Dr. Sun Yat-sen permanent, we are sending a clear message that Chinese American history matters," Councilmember Chin said in a statement.

Photo credit: Rush Perez of Councilmember Margaret Chin's office. Photo caption: CCBA President Eric Ng, Mayor Bill de Blasio, and Councilmember Margaret Chin announce the plans to make permanent the statue of Dr. Sun Yat-sen in Columbus Park, Chinatown on Tues., Feb. 5, 2019.