Nanyang 1931: From piglets to giants

Chapter 90 Remarks on the launch
Tomorrow, October 1st, this book will be officially on the shelves.

Anyway, thank you all for your support.

I won't say anything about playing the victim. Anyway, the Nanyang category is relatively niche. Not many people write about it, and not many people read it. The purpose is your subscription. Although there are few readers, if they all read the original version, the author can still make a living.

I'm currently unemployed. After much thought, I decided to give up dual-opening and focus on writing this book. So in the first month, I will try to update every day as much as I can, and strive to write more than 10,000 words every day. Maybe I'll be able to do it later.

This book should actually have a lot of staying power, because I set it to start in 1937 and officially enter the plot.

But later I felt that 1937 was too tight, so I moved it forward a little, to 1931, thinking that by the time it was put on the shelves, I would have written up to the climax of 1937.

In the end, I only wrote 1933 words until .
I accidentally wrote something in ink, hahahaha.

As for why I have to write about Nanyang, it is such a niche region, so why do I have to associate it with Nanyang? This may be my personal sentiment.

I personally have always believed that the history of the Chinese in Southeast Asia should actually be considered as part of the history of Chinese civilization and the history of humiliation, and it is a history of humiliation that has never been overcome.

At present, the attitude of most netizens in China towards the Nanyang Chinese is that they are foreigners, and whatever happens has nothing to do with us. Some even have a hostile attitude, or dislike them for kissing frogs.

You can't win a debate with others on the Internet, so I can only write down some of my thoughts in the book as much as possible to make my idea known.

All I can say is that from the information I currently have:

1. During the Anti-Japanese War, more than 40,000 Chinese from Guangdong returned to Southeast Asia to fight in the war. There are no specific statistics on those from Fujian, but it is estimated that there should be more than those from Guangdong.

Second, in 1938, a Chinese mechanics team was formed in Nanyang, with more than people signing up. These people all had high-paying jobs in Malaya with a monthly salary of more than yuan. They were all engineers. Among them, more than had never been to China, and more than of them were even fourth-generation Chinese.

I've read many letters left by the Nanyang Overseas Chinese Mechanic Workers. Most of them were from passionate young men who had kept it a secret from their parents, or who, despite their parents' persuasion, were determined to return to China to fight. Many were newly married or about to get married. Mechanics of that era are a bit like programmers today—talent is everywhere. Damn, the KMT even embezzled the money donated to them from Nanyang to buy them clothes.

3. Among all the Chinese who returned to China to fight against Japan, one third died, one third stayed in the country, and one third returned to Southeast Asia.

I won’t mention those who stayed in the country because they were not allowed to mention them. As for those who returned to Southeast Asia, Baldy didn’t arrange either ships or travel expenses, so most of them had to beg for food all the way back to Southeast Asia from Yunnan.

Objectively speaking, in the past, the Chinese in Southeast Asia did nothing wrong to China.

Fourth, before Pearl Harbor, donations from Southeast Asian Chinese accounted for more than one-third of the Nationalist Government’s military expenditure, and even accounted for more than 90%. Without the donations from Southeast Asian Chinese, it might not have been certain whether the country could have survived until the United States entered the war in 42.

30. In fact, overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia made great contributions to the motherland in the first years. Tan Kah Kee was just a representative. He was not the only one who gave up his family wealth and chose to return to China. It was just that most of the Chinese who participated in the construction in the first years did not go back due to some special reasons.

6. In the early days of reform and opening up, overseas Chinese investment in Malaysia alone accounted for more than half of all foreign investment.

The good times in China have only lasted a few days. Even if they are foreigners, does it mean that their love or death has nothing to do with us?
As for the situation of the Chinese in Southeast Asia after World War II and before the reform and opening up, and whether anyone cared about them, I won’t go into details, as many people know about it.

Anyway, I personally hold this view: the modern history of the Chinese in Southeast Asia is part of the history of humiliation of the Chinese nation, and it is a page that has not been completely turned over to this day.

I didn't really feel like I was writing foreign history.

Finally, I'm just making a humble plea: everyone, please subscribe tomorrow! It's hard to read niche books; few people read them to begin with. If you pirate them, I'll be in trouble.

(End of this chapter)