Go back in time and be a chaebol

Chapter 1736: Changes in Malaysia (First update, please subscribe)
Although it is located in the tropics, the early morning in Kuala Lumpur is still a bit cool.

The iron-gray sky showed a hint of paleness in the east. The moon and a few stars were still in the sky, peeking at the living beings in the world below. The world was gradually reviving.

The monks in the temple rang the bronze bell in the bell tower, and the deep and rich bell sound echoed over the city for a long time.

The houses in the city are lined up one after another, one area after another. Not only are these houses neatly arranged in uniformity, they are even the same brick red in color.

Red brick building.

I don’t know when it started, but it became a major feature of Kuala Lumpur. Rows of two-story red brick buildings appeared around Kuala Lumpur and became a symbol of the Chinese community.

For the people here, this red brick building with a floor height of only 2.8 meters, made of red bricks and prefabricated panels, although it looks simple, is actually enviable. After all, most Malaysians live in small pigeon cages with a floor height of only 2.4 meters, two rooms of 44 square meters, and three rooms of 60 square meters. In fact, it is the Malaysian version of the Khrushchev building - or even worse, after all, the floor height of the Khrushchev is 2.5 meters.

However, in Malaysia, this is called a "new village" and is specifically for Malays who come from the countryside to work in the city. For Malaysians who have just moved from their drafty bamboo houses to the "new village", such houses are also very high-end.

After all, there is running water, a toilet, and a kitchen. Although they are so small that it is difficult to turn around, at least it is similar to the new life in the movies.

Compared with the apartments in the new village, these two-story red brick buildings naturally became a paradise.

But most of the people living here are Tang people, not because of prejudice, but because Tang people have provident funds, and these houses are built with provident funds. Before paying the provident funds for two years, Tang people also have to live in apartments.

Of course, in many cases they don’t even live there for two years. Usually they can move into a new home after about a year.

As for the Malays...no one will take care of them.

The morning light shone through the half-open door, illuminating half of the room. In the living room, Zhang Dalei, the head of the family, hurriedly drank a bowl of porridge as usual, grabbed a steamed bun and stuffed it into his mouth, while walking out with the car keys. Before he left the house, his wife said in a somewhat stiff Mandarin:

"The dishes are ready. Eat some first before you go."

"It's good to eat a steamed bun. You don't know that steamed buns taste better when eaten dry. When I was in my hometown, I couldn't eat a steamed bun even if I worked all year round. At that time, my mother said... No more talking, let's go! Making money is more important."

After taking a big bite of the steamed bun, Zhang Dalei went out, started the car, and drove the taxi out of the alley. The alley was still empty at this time.

While driving the taxi, Zhang Dalei thought of his mother again, and then he sighed:
"Mom, it's good. My son can have enough food now. He can eat steamed buns and rice every day. He can't finish them all. He can also eat meat every day, big fish and meat..."

As he was talking, he felt his eyes getting wet. He quickly stopped the car on the side of the road, held the steering wheel, and tears rolled down his face.

I miss my mother again, but I can never see her again. She must have starved to death.

Just as Zhang Dalei was wiping his tears and nose with a tissue, someone knocked on the car window. It was a foreigner.

"Hello sir, can I rent your car?"

Zhang Dalei didn't find it strange to speak Mandarin to foreigners. After all, there were quite a few foreigners in SEA.

"Of course, this is a taxi, I rent it out."

Simon looked at the driver and said:

"I mean long-term rental. How much is it for one day?"

"At least 30 yuan a day."

"I'm going to Bangkok and I might be delayed for a few days on the way. If you're willing, I can pay you 50 yuan a day."

From Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok!
That's thousands of kilometers, just drive north along Highway 1.

Zhang Dalei quickly nodded and agreed to the big deal, but he called home before leaving.

Then he drove a yellow taxi out of the city and onto Highway 1 via the ring road.

Highway 1 is the only transnational highway in Southeast Asia. It starts from Singapore, passes through Malaysia and Siam, and ends in Shan State. The highway goes north along the coast. Due to its unique geographical environment, on one side there is the vast sea and sky with crashing waves and endless blue waves dotted with sails; on the other side there are green mountains. The scenery along the way is breathtaking and it is known as the most beautiful highway in the world.

Many foreigners travel along Highway 1 by car, but it is rare to see people like Simon who hire a taxi.

In fact, Simon just didn't want to drive himself.

Not long after the car drove onto Highway 1, Zhang Dalei glanced in the rearview mirror and began to speak:
"Sir, you've found the right person. Seven years ago, when I first arrived here, I was on the construction site of Highway 7..."

"Oh? Are you a new immigrant?"

Simon immediately became interested.

"Yes, they came during those years. A lot of people came during those years. They came from all over the place, not only from several southwestern provinces, but also from Central China..." Then Zhang Dalei talked about the people from various places he met on the construction site, and talked about how they couldn't help crying when they ate meat for the first time on the construction site:
“At that time, I was so greedy!”

Finally, when talking about the word "greedy", Zhang Dalei deliberately emphasized the tone, as if without emphasizing it, it would not show how greedy he was.

Simon looked at the driver, nodded to show his understanding, and then asked:
"If there is a new village along the way, can you take me to see it?"

New villages are not only found in cities. The new villages in cities are apartments, while the new villages outside cities are plantations or mining areas.

"Okay, I see."

After driving for more than an hour, Zhang Dalei looked at the sign on the side of the road and turned the steering wheel to drive off the highway. After driving onto a simple road, he soon saw a village. The village was surrounded by rice fields, with hundreds of red brick and tile houses neatly scattered among them.

This is the new village, where the immigrants live.

As the taxi drove into the village, Simon took a special look at the entrance of the village - there was a small temple there, and monks in yellow robes were doing their homework.

When Simon saw the temple, his brows raised slightly. Whether in Surabaya or in Malaysia, temples and churches are very common. The Tang people either believe in Christianity, Buddhism or Taoism, which are completely different from the locals. Local women marry Tang people and convert to Buddhism.

Perhaps, this is one of the characteristics of this place.

Over the past decade or so, the changes here have been extremely obvious, from population to beliefs, almost everything has changed.

If you don't pay close attention to this change, you might even ignore it, but it has indeed changed everything.

After the car drove into the village, Simon got out. Carrying a camera, he looked no different from an ordinary tourist. The houses on both sides of the road were exactly the same, with nothing new. There were some old people chatting on the side of the road, but they were speaking in dialect, which Simon could not understand at all.

When he reached the center of the village, in addition to the village office, Simon also saw an ancestral hall. The ancestral hall was completely different from the surrounding houses. It was a Lingnan-style building. He said to himself with some doubt:
"Are all the people living here one family?"

Looking at the plaque on the ancestral hall, Simon’s doubts grew even stronger—“Chiayi Hall.”

After entering the ancestral hall, the main hall is dedicated to the emperors of the Ming Dynasty, from Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang to Emperor Chongzhen, and next to it are the tablets of Guan Yu and others. There is a couplet written on the doorpost, which reads:

"I am ashamed to be a minister of the Northern Dynasty, where the moral principles are solemn; I would rather be a guest of the Southern Dynasty, where the books are written down."

Not only that, the ancestral hall is also filled with various plaques, numbering hundreds.

After taking a few photos with his camera, Simon started chatting with the old man who was looking after the ancestral hall. From him, he learned that this village was full of Tang people who moved from Vietnam. They were Mingxiang people.

After the old man explained the origin of the "Ming Xiang people", Simon finally understood that they were Ming people who fled to Vietnam in the late Ming Dynasty and were unwilling to be ruled by a foreign race. The Ming Xiang people were originally called Ming Xiang, which means the incense of the Ming Dynasty. For hundreds of years, they have been continuing the incense of the Ming Dynasty, and it continues to this day.

The old man pointed at the couplet and said proudly:

"We brought this couplet from Saigon. We didn't bring anything else at the time except these tablets and plaques. The ones hanging in other places now are all written in imitation of this couplet..."

From the old man, Simon roughly learned the origin of this village - they came from Vietnam to escape the war.

In the next few days, Simon visited several new villages. The Tang people in those new villages included soldiers withdrawn from Fuguo and other places, refugees from more than ten years ago, and many new immigrants in the past few years. They all took root here. Although the couplets said "Southern Guests", these "Southern Guests" eventually integrated into the local area and became part of this country.

"Malaysia..."

Simon muttered to himself while saying this name:
"It has long been just a geographical term."

It is just a geographical term. On the way, he also went to several Malay villages. Compared with the clean environment and neat brick houses in the new village, those Malay villages are mostly primitive and backward. They still live in bamboo and wooden houses like in primitive society. Only a few landlords live in brick houses with Middle Eastern style.

Poverty can be seen at a glance and it exists objectively.

In school, the children learn Mandarin. The reason they learn Mandarin is to move to the city. For these poor country people, working in the city is their only choice to escape poverty.

In a roadside grocery store, Simon saw a dozen children of different ages gathered around a small TV, watching cartoons, laughing and speaking stiff Mandarin.

Listening to the children's laughter and words, Simon picked up the camera, took a picture of them, and then said to himself:
"Perhaps, this is the true fusion..."

After he got on the car again, Zhang Dalei looked at the thoughtful guest and asked:
"Sir, where are we going next?"

“Let’s go to Siam!”

Simon looked out the window at the village that looked like a primitive tribe, and said:

“There’s nothing to see here anymore…”

(End of this chapter)