Like earlier reformers we’ve looked at, Sun drifted back towards more traditional parts of Chinese culture as he got older. When Liang Qichao shocked China with the announcement that Japan had claimed all of Germany’s territorial concessions in the wake of World War I, riots broke out in Beijing. Spurred on by the New Culture Movement and Chen Duxiu, the Chinese intelligentsia protested Japanese imperialism and cast off traditional Chinese culture.

Sun was not supportive. Seeing the protests as unorganized and undisciplined, he felt they were detrimental to the cause of reunifying China. Sun began to feel that traditional Chinese loyalty to family and clan might provide the social cohesion necessary to drive unification.