Nanyang 1931: From piglets to giants

Chapter 86: All the talents have arrived
Dongdong, dongdongcha, dongdong, dongdongcha.

As Zheng Yi simply completed the process, the whole of Penang suddenly changed from solemn and dignified to lively and cheerful.

There were Cantonese opera singers, stilt walkers, dragon and lion dances, and all kinds of random folk art performances. There was no particular order, the main focus was on creating a lively atmosphere.

Penang, whose population has suddenly increased to over 800,000, has been turned into a large rural village where a temple fair is being held.

The Hua Temple, serving as the main venue, is a bit more upscale, as some celebrities have been invited to attend.

Among the female stars, the most popular ones in China, Butterfly, Chen Yumei and Li Lili, were specially invited, and among the male stars, Gao Zhanfei and Jin Yan were invited.

It’s a pity that Zheng Yi has neither interest nor time to watch their performance.

As for the celebration, the whole of Penang was naturally packed with guests, and wise men came in droves. Local people from Nanyang were not so crowded, and many foreign or domestic bigwigs came to show their support. Zheng Yi had to take out his precious time to socialize. The things they talked about might be useful or useless, but they had to be talked about.

This is also the reason why Zheng Yi doesn't like to do these useless things. It's a waste of time.

From the UK, Mr. Henry flew over in person.

On the domestic side, not only Li Huaishuang came, but even Kong Caishen came in person, and he didn't dare not to accompany him.

In Europe, companies such as ASEA and Atlas, which had cooperated with him, sent their vice presidents to congratulate him. Even Siemens, a company he had never met, sent a vice president to seek cooperation with him.

In the United States, DuPont was a partner, and even Citibank and Morgan Bank sent representatives to offer their congratulations.

Standard Oil and Gulf Oil also sent people, and even sent several government officials and Philippine Colonial Bureau officials. I don’t know what that means.

Even on the Japanese side, Kiichiro Toyoda once again came uninvited, bringing his Japanese inspection team with him. He stood out among the guests and made this originally perfect celebration a little flawed.

Since the distinguished guests had come, Zheng Yi had no choice but to take them on a tour of Penang.

"Please look, this is the petrochemical project in Penang. The entire site has been subcontracted into 22 smaller sites, all working simultaneously. The number of workers required is more than double what we had previously imagined.
These Chinese in Nanyang, and the presidents of these chambers of commerce, have all shown an extremely fiery passion for the project itself.”

"Not only that, even now, the construction site is still recruiting workers. Recently, there are still many chemical workers fleeing from the mainland, an average of one to two hundred people every day, and almost all of them are shipped directly to Penang by ship."

"The number of construction workers on the entire site now exceeds 70,000, and the number is still increasing. Throughout Malaya, the massive wave of unemployment among Chinese workers has been greatly alleviated, and many areas are even facing labor shortages."

Henry: "They really are employing more people than we expected. They're working day and night, 24 hours a day?"

Zheng Yi nodded. "That's right. We Chinese lack sufficient experienced construction workers. Only diligence, hard work, and perseverance can help us overseas gain a foothold. Diligence can make up for lack of talent, and the early bird catches the worm. Mr. Henry, you see, our progress is not behind our previous assumptions."

"This also includes a lot of time for our Chinese workers to learn. It will be slower in the early stage, but after they learn, the originally immature workers will become skilled workers, and the construction speed will be much faster.
We estimate that this project, which was originally planned to be completed in about two and a half years, can be completed in two years at most, and most likely within one and a half years.”

As he spoke, even Zheng Yi couldn't help but puff out his chest in front of Henry and other foreigners, feeling quite proud and complacent.

Since the project started, all the workers he saw showed fiery enthusiasm. They were willing to endure any hardship for the progress of the project and did not need any forced management at all.

All the workers have a smile of hope on their faces every day, and when they see him, the chief designer, at the construction site, they bow to him from the bottom of their hearts.

Under the huge subjective initiative, the construction speed is beyond imagination. To be honest, the performance of these workers really makes him stand up a little straighter in front of these foreigners.

Henry was genuinely surprised when he heard this and couldn't help but ask, "That's an oil storage tank over there, right? The scaffolding... is made of wood? I don't see any safety ropes." Zheng Yi nodded, "It's made of wood, so there's no safety rope. If someone falls, the safety rope would easily break the wooden frame."

Henry: “Why wooden ones?”

Zheng Yi: "Wooden scaffolding is faster to make, and... Nanyang is short of iron. Although they have their own blast furnaces, compared to our factory, and with the booming demand for iron in various industries in Nanyang, it's still not enough. They need to import a lot, so... they are reluctant to use iron for scaffolding."

Henry: “What if that person falls down while working on the construction?”

Zheng Yi: “…………”

What the hell can I do? Just die.

The oil storage tank has been built to a height of more than ten meters. Even if a god falls from such a high place, he will be smashed into pieces.

Zheng Yi: "I actually tried to persuade them, but they all said...it was to meet the deadline, to...save some steam."

In addition to meeting deadlines and saving iron materials, a large part of the reason, or the main reason, was actually to get angry with those foreign engineers.

After all, Europeans and Americans have always been rather arrogant towards the Chinese. As for Zheng Yi, everyone was humble and polite, but he could imagine their attitude towards others, especially ordinary workers, even if no one told him.

Faced with the arrogance of European and American engineers, there are indeed not many areas where Chinese workers can fight back and gain their admiration, or even just shock them.

Even if it means gambling with your life.

Zheng Yi could actually understand this feeling. After all, if you are not as skilled as others, not as smart as others, not as respectable as others, and not as good as others in everything, if you still want to gain respect from others, the only thing you can fight for is your life.

They are Chinese, not Indians who don't care about dignity.

Sure enough, after hearing this, Henry showed a look of shock and admiration on his face, and said solemnly: "China is a great country with a long history. I have been to Siam, the Middle East, Africa, Central America, and of course India.

Even though we're both colonies, the people there are far less ambitious than you. They have top talent like Mr. Zheng, as well as hardworking and dedicated people like you. I believe that as long as they can achieve political clarity, they'll rise again in time."

Zheng Yi was quite pleased with this and nodded in approval.

Even in the so-called slave era when their bones were pulled out, the Chinese people never accepted their fate. At least, there would never be any so-called literati who would dare to smile and say that this was fucking civilized when they saw prostitutes serving the powers on the streets.

Even in the Nanyang region, there were quite a few Chinese prostitutes and dancers. The ones in Singapore were not much different from Pattaya in later generations. However, these prostitutes voluntarily donated their earnings to build private schools, middle schools, and even the later Nanyang University.

This is a nation that may sink, but will never be willing to sink. In Zheng Yi's eyes, this is also the biggest difference between the Chinese and other so-called third world countries.

Just hearing these words, Li Huaishuang, Kong Caishen and others beside him all looked unhappy.

They act as if the current difficult times in the country are all due to the incompetence of their government.

In fact, a very objective fact is that the better the Nanyang Chinese do, the more embarrassed they become.

After all, the more Chinese there are in Nanyang, the worse they are doing in China. If the country is really peaceful and prosperous, who the hell is crazy to leave their hometown and come to Nanyang to struggle, or go to Penang to devote their youth.

(End of this chapter)