1970s Macau Dr Sun Yat Sen Memorial House Residence Moorish Architecture Memorial Postcard
Front: A colour photograph showing the historic Residence of Dr Sun Yat Sen in Macau, also known as the Sun Yat Sen Memorial House, a magnificent building dedicated to the founding father of the Republic of China. The grand two-storey mansion features striking Moorish or Mughal influenced architecture with distinctive pointed Islamic-style arches, ornate columns, decorative balustrades, and intricate detailing throughout its facade. The building is painted in pale cream and white with green accents on the columns and railings, and features multiple arched openings forming covered verandas on both the ground and upper floors. A small framed plaque with Chinese characters reading Guo Fu Ji Nian Guan, meaning Memorial Hall of the Father of the Nation, is visible on the central facade. Tall arched windows with louvred shutters are visible on the right side of the building. The structure is surrounded by an ornate boundary wall featuring matching Moorish arched balustrades and stone pillars topped with decorative finials. In the foreground are large mature flame trees with their distinctive bright red orange flowering blossoms providing dramatic natural framing for the building, with a grassy lawn area visible at the base of the trees. Three local residents are visible in the lower portion of the image, including two men on bicycles and a third person with a tricycle pedicab parked along the wall, providing a sense of scale and daily life around this historic monument. The bright blue sky peeks through the foliage of the trees.
Back: The reverse is a divided back postcard with green printed text reading POST CARD – MACAO running across the centre right. A vertical centre divider line runs down the middle. The upper left contains the caption in English reading Residence of Dr. Sun Yet Sen, with Chinese characters indicating Sun Zhong Shan’s former residence and Memorial Hall of the Father of the Nation. The vertical centre divider contains the credit Photo by Chi-Woon Kong Distributed by Leung Wai Yin (Macao) Tel. 82566. The reference number 201 appears at the top centre and a decorative stamp box outlined with a wavy border appears in the upper right corner marked STAMP. At the bottom of the card is a printed biblical verse reading The Lord is shall preserve thy going out and thy Coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore. The card is unposted and unwritten with no stamp, postmark, or handwritten message.
Estimated Era: Circa 1970s. The Sun Yat Sen Memorial House was originally built between 1912 and 1930 as a residence for Dr Sun Yat Sen’s family, with the current building completed in 1933 after the original was destroyed in a 1930 explosion. The vintage bicycles and pedicabs, photographic style, and the publishing information for Leung Wai Yin Macao place this postcard within the 1970s during the Portuguese colonial period of Macau. The building still stands today as a museum dedicated to the revolutionary leader.
