Chapter 21 Section 4 Patriotic Feelings

Huang Zhonghan, Hu Wenhu, and Tan Kah Kee, three well-known overseas Chinese entrepreneurs, reached their peak economic career in the first half of this century, especially in the 1920s and 1930s.Their enterprises have prospered the economy of the host country, created employment opportunities, trained thousands of entrepreneurs and technical professionals, and contributed money and effort to set up cultural, educational and social welfare undertakings, contributing to the social and economic development of the host country. made a significant contribution. Like many overseas Chinese at that time, although they lived overseas for a long time, they still never forget the troubled motherland and poured out their childlike feelings.

When the 1911 Revolution broke out, Huang Zhonghan donated 50,000 dong to the Revolutionary Party in the name of "Descendants of Xuanyuan". In 1915, during the War of Protecting the Law, he remitted 25,000 dong to support Cai E's struggle against Yuan Shikai in Yunnan.He has also donated money to overseas Chinese schools many times, so that overseas Chinese children have the opportunity to learn Chinese culture.Hu Wenhu "takes popularizing education and eradicating illiteracy as his mission", and has donated successively to a number of domestic universities and middle schools. In 1935, he announced that he would donate 3.5 million yuan to build 1,000 primary schools across the country within 10 years. Due to the Japanese invasion and subsequent changes in the current situation, this plan failed to materialize.He also actively donated money to set up medical and health charities and relief victims in the country.From the "September 18th" Incident in 1931 to the outbreak of the Pacific War in 1941, Japan invaded step by step, and the Chinese nation was at the moment of life and death. Hu Wenhu donated money and medicine to support the anti-Japanese patriotic actions of overseas Chinese. For more than a year in April 1939, Hu Wenhu subscribed a total of 2.5 million yuan in "Anti-Japanese National Salvation Bonds", plus charitable donations, exceeding 3 million yuan, showing the precious patriotic enthusiasm of an overseas Chinese.Although Hu Wenhu only went to school in his hometown of Yongding, Fujian Province for a few years when he was a child, he had a deep affection for his hometown where "the graves of the ancestors are located and where relatives and relatives of the clan live", and "he always thinks about it", and he actively planned the construction of his hometown. .After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, he proposed the establishment of "Fujian Economic Construction Co., Ltd.", hoping to use the small and medium capital of overseas Chinese to raise 30 billion yuan in French currency to develop and build Fujian, and invest 1 billion yuan himself.However, due to various insurmountable difficulties, the company died without doing anything.In this regard, Hu Wenhu was heartbroken.

Tan Kah Kee's spirit of pouring money into education and loving the country and hometown is even more touching. Long before the Revolution of 1911, he met Sun Yat-sen in Singapore and joined the Tongmenghui in 1910.After the victory of the Revolution of 1911, he raised 200,000 yuan to support Fujian after recovery and support Sun Yat-sen.And since 1913, a primary school was established in Jimei, his hometown, and 10 additional schools of various types were successively established, plus hospitals, libraries, and science centers, collectively called Jimei Schools. In 1921, he pledged to donate 1 million yuan for the start-up fee and 3 million yuan for the annual fee, and founded Xiamen University as a sole proprietorship.When his economic career was hit by the world economic crisis and faced with difficulties, he still firmly said, "I would rather sell the building and support Xiamen University."He really sold three buildings to maintain Xiamen University. In 1937, Xiamen University was changed to national, and he was quite distressed.Tan Kah Kee is the only overseas Chinese in Chinese history who founded and maintained a private university for 16 years, donating a total of more than 4 million yuan to the university.He also enthusiastically founded and sponsored many schools in the places where overseas Chinese lived, including Taonan, Aitong, Chongfu and other primary schools in Singapore, Nanqiao Normal School, Fishery Navigation School, and the most famous one was the Nanyang Overseas Chinese High School established in 1919. The first fully formal Huaqiao High School.The educational institutions founded by Tan Kah Kee have created tens of thousands of talents for China and Southeast Asia, and many of them are still playing an active role in the political, economic, scientific, cultural and educational fields of China and Southeast Asia today.

The patriotic spirit and lofty national integrity that Tan Kah Kee showed in the Anti-Japanese National Salvation Movement was a very glorious page in his life. In 1928, Japan sent troops to occupy Jinan, Shandong, creating the "Jinan Tragedy".After hearing the news, Tan Kah Kee immediately took the lead in organizing the "Shandong Tragedy Relief Association" and was elected as the chairman. For the first time, he united the overseas Chinese anti-Japanese forces, carried out anti-Japanese propaganda, and raised more than 1.3 million yuan to relieve the suffering compatriots. After the "July 7" Incident in 1937, Tan Kah Kee was elected as the chairman of the "Congress Committee for Relief of Wounded Soldiers and Refugees of the Motherland" organized by overseas Chinese in Singapore, and carried out fundraising and anti-Japanese national salvation activities. until the end. In October 1938, the "Nanyang Overseas Chinese Association for Relief from the Motherland" (hereinafter referred to as "Nanqiao Association") was established, and Tan Kah Kee was elected as the chairman. The "Southern Overseas Chinese Association" is nominally "raising relief for the motherland's refugees", but actually supports the motherland's war of resistance with financial, material and human resources. It is a patriotic anti-Japanese organization of overseas Chinese in Nanyang.Under the leadership of Tan Kah Kee, the Nanqiao Association organized overseas Chinese to actively support the motherland in the war of resistance.The greatest contribution of the Nanqiao Association is the repatriation of huge sums of money raised through various means, amounting to more than 500 million yuan.In 1939, the military expenditure of the Anti-Japanese War was 1.8 billion yuan, which shows that the amount is huge.The Nanqiao Association also organized more than 3,200 mechanics to return to China to serve.When the countercurrent of Wang Jingwei's treason and surrender appeared, Chen Kah Kee was righteous and struck head-on. He once put forward a proposal to the National Political Council: "The enemy has not left the country and is a traitor." Although there are only 11 big characters, the words are important. Known as "the greatest proposal in ancient and modern China and abroad". In 1940, the 67-year-old Tan Kah Kee personally led the "Nanyang Overseas Chinese Returning Condolences Group" and returned to the motherland.He said that he "has a heart, and this heart misses the motherland anytime, anywhere"!When I returned to China this time, "what I brought with me was a heart, a naked and sincere heart."During the 9 months of returning to China, the condolence team conducted condolences and inspections in 15 provinces.The trip to the motherland during the Anti-Japanese War made him see the hope of the nation and the country, and also had a huge impact on his personal political thought, which strengthened his confidence and determination to persist in patriotism and pursuit of progress. In December 1941, when the Pacific War broke out, Tan Kah Kee came forward to organize the "Singapore Overseas Chinese Resisting the Enemy Support Association".After the fall of Singapore, he took refuge in Java, Indonesia.During the more than three years in refuge, he wrote the autobiographical "Memoirs of Nanqiao", and he carried a small packet of "potassium cyanide" with him. Noble national integrity.When the war ended and Tan Kah Kee returned safely to Singapore, he received a grand welcome.