Nanyang 1931: From piglets to giants

Chapter 60 Northern Fujian Guild Hall
In a blink of an eye, more than half a month has passed.

With Qian Qiwen's introduction, Zheng Yi directly bought a three-story building facing the street and converted it into his own office as his personal administrative secretary studio.

The candidates were found by Qian Qiwen, and of course, they were all selected and interviewed by Zheng Yi himself.

These people have one characteristic in common, that is, they are all from northern Fujian, either from Fuqing or Xinghua.

In the context of the Nanyang environment, people from Xinghua and Fuqing are almost always put together, and are rarely specifically distinguished. As for Zheng Yi, whose ancestral home is Fuzhou, there are too few of them in Nanyang. There are only a few in Indonesia, and there may be less than a hundred in Malaya, so it is impossible to form a faction.

To be honest, as a modern person, Zheng Yi is not very adaptable to the situation where fellow villagers stick together and look for their fellow villagers for help in everything.

But when in Rome, do as the Romans do. Everyone does the same. Li Xiaoshi's family all uses people from Xinyi, Zhang Yucai's family all uses people from Zhaoqing, Wang Zhaosong's family all uses people from Wenchang, and even Mr. Tan Kah Kee, who said he treated everyone equally, but the people he used were 100% from southern Fujian, and most of them were from his hometown of Xiamen.

If Zheng Yi wanted to gain a foothold in Nanyang and establish his own power, he would not be able to escape the test of his fellow villagers.

Without fellow villagers, it is difficult to get things done in Southeast Asia.

Fortunately, the Fuqing Gang in Nanyang has no leader. So far, the only tycoon families in the entire Nanyang are the Lin and Huang families in Indonesia. There is no well-known one in Malaya, especially in Kuala Lumpur.

Moreover, the main business of the Lin and Huang families was tobacco, and they did not have much contact with other tycoons in Southeast Asia. In fact, they were dogs of the colonists, not much different from the Straits Chinese who had always been looked down upon by these new Chinese immigrants. They also had an unusual relationship with the Japanese.

Therefore, such people cannot represent the people of Fuqing and Xinghua and become the leaders of the Chamber of Commerce.

Simply put, it's too dark.

Of course, other chamber of commerce leaders such as Zhang Yucai also have a dark side. Objectively speaking, the eldest brother should not laugh at the second brother. There are very few Nanyang tycoons of the older generation who do not have blood on their hands.

But now everyone is really whitewashed, and no matter what, the blood they stained was all done in secret. The most crucial thing is the crime of secretly communicating with Japan. In today's Nanyang environment, even the Hongmen and Huaji cannot tolerate this.

This is the current situation of Fuqing people in Southeast Asia.

They are either stinky rickshaw pullers, bastards, or traitors, and are basically at the bottom of the contempt chain of each villager.

Therefore, when Zheng Yi rose to power and raised the banner of the Northern Fujian people.

Although everyone felt that it was a bit far-fetched for him, a native of Fuzhou, to represent the people of Fuqing and Xinghua, everyone still gathered around Zheng Yi with great enthusiasm.

Although Qian Qiwen did not have much influence in Nanyang and her connections were not very strong, she did manage to at least know everyone and have a say in everyone.

Therefore, under her mediation, all the Fuqing compatriots, big and small, in Kuala Lumpur gathered under his command, and they all expressed that they were willing to listen to him from now on.

Among these so-called Fuqing bosses, eight out of ten are car dealers, and the remaining two are pure criminals who commit murder, robbery, kidnapping, extortion, opium trafficking, and prostitution. They are the kind of people who do all kinds of evil. Yet they call him a boss, which makes him laugh and cry for a moment.

Under everyone's encouragement, the Northern Fujian Chamber of Commerce was officially established without Zheng Yi himself understanding what was going on.

Moreover, the Chamber of Commerce is located in Zheng Yi’s three-story building.

So even though he bought it for office use, he had to convert the first floor into a gathering hall.

Just like Xuehuatang.

Not only that, these rickshaw pullers also spontaneously started to raise money to pay membership fees to President Zheng Yi.

A group of coolies pulling rickshaws managed to pool together a huge sum of 2.8 million, all of which was donated by the rickshaw drivers, some with a penny or another with a penny. It is said that rickshaw drivers from not only Kuala Lumpur, but also New Town, Penang, Malacca, and even Singapore made donations.

This money was eventually used in his name to build Chinese primary schools in several locations and a Chinese secondary school in Kuala Lumpur.

Zheng Yi even inexplicably became the honorary principal of this Chinese middle school because of this. This can be regarded as the path dependence of the presidents in the Nanyang region.

Southeast Asia, especially Malaya, never had an education bureau, yet the proportion of Chinese attending school was higher than in mainland China. Virtually everyone had access to education, at least elementary school, thanks to the generous donations from the presidents of these chambers of commerce. Chinese donated money to build schools and subsidize tuition as a means of enhancing their reputation and prestige. Even in modern Malaya, this custom is largely preserved.

Whether a Chinese businessman is respected by the locals does not depend on how much assets he owns. Malaysian Chinese will not call someone "Dad" online just because he is rich, saying, "You fucking have so much money but you don't spend it on me."

Only those Chinese businessmen who donate money to build schools and ancestral halls will be respected by everyone.

But the problem is, Zheng Yi didn’t donate a penny!

He only had 1.4 million yuan in his hands, which was given to him by Mr. Chen and Li Xiaoshi to start his business, and he really used it. For him, no matter how much money he had, it would not be enough for industrial development, so how could he use it for charity?

The money was obviously donated by other people.

Especially those cart drivers and the laborers who dig out manure.

It was remitted bit by bit, penny by penny.

But somehow he gained fame and became the real president of the Chamber of Commerce.

These Fuqing people pulling carts shocked Zheng Yi in a way he had never expected.

Of course, Zheng Yi also knew that there must be a calculation behind this, and it might even be Qian Qiwen who was calculating against him. No matter how you looked at it, this matter seemed to have been planned for a long time.

Primary education is a basic need for Fuqing people. One of the fundamental reasons why it is difficult for Fuqing people to stick together is that the accents in northern Fujian are both unique and numerous.

In the most exaggerated areas, two neighboring villages may have two completely different accents.

Although it may be similar to the dialect of Suzhou and Shanghai, if you slow down and speak carefully, you can still communicate.
However, due to the huge language differences, it is indeed difficult for people in northern Fujian to be as closely united as people in southern Fujian. There is even a situation where newcomers to Southeast Asia will receive unconditional support from strangers.

Therefore, going to school and learning Beijing Mandarin are the basic needs of the people of Fuqing.

These schools would have been built whether Zheng Yi was there or not.

The only difference is that he was given the title of honorary principal, making the ignorant public believe that he actually paid the majority of the money for building the school.

The people of Fuqing are a bullied group in Nanyang. Everyone in this group really wants a responsible president to make decisions for them.

In an almost anarchic society like Nanyang, the president of the chamber of commerce is very important, and it is also very important to stick together.

Finally, they had a person like Zheng Yi in northern Fujian. Whether he was rich or not was not certain, but he was definitely influential. Moreover, the money he earned was not only clean money, but also developed money, advanced money, and high-end money.

What are you waiting for if you don’t hug this thigh?

Moreover, everyone has their own ideas. After all, technology needs to be passed on, and factory production requires recruiting workers. So, Zheng Yi should be placed in the position of president of the Northern Fujian Chamber of Commerce first.

When recruiting workers, wouldn’t Zheng Yi have the nerve to recruit more people from Fuqing?
Isn’t working in a factory much more comfortable than pulling a rickshaw or doing hard labor?

If people from Fuqing can learn advanced mechanical technology, they will be able to gain a foothold in Southeast Asia in the future!
So just like that, Zheng Yi became the leader of the people in Fuqing, Xinghua and other northern Fujian areas.

At first glance, his power is no less than that of Li Jiqian, the leader of Xinyi.

He really doesn't have any prestige now. After all, he hasn't done anything for the Fuqing Gang. It may be difficult for him to take the Fuqing Gang to cause trouble outside.

But if someone comes to him and knocks on his door for something, they really have to get through the Fuqing Gang.

(End of this chapter)