TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Three supposed pictures of a youthful Republic of China (ROC) founder Sun Yat-sen (孫中山) actually show a famous Japanese actor and a Chinese engineer, reports said Friday (Dec. 4).
The Taiwan Fact Check Center focused its research on the pictures to find out if they really were the former president of the ROC and founder of the Kuomintang (KMT), as some netizens claimed, CNA reported. It determined the photos were not old enough and were actually of different people.
Two of the photos show Chinese oil engineer Wang Demin (王德民) during his high-school years and on his 1955 application form for university. The man featured in the third picture was late Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune (三船敏郎), who starred in several movies by prominent director Akira Kurosawa (黒澤明).
The photo of the actor, who was born in China, has been repeatedly misinterpreted as showing other young Chinese politicians from the middle of the 20th century, according to experts.