Descendants of Nanyang Volunteers strive to preserve memories and legacy of wartime heroes

Although more than 80 years have passed, Zhang Hua, a Nanyang Volunteer descendant, remains deeply committed to preserving and sharing the legacy of the overseas Chinese wartime heroes.

“In 1939, my grandfather Zhang Jinbing returned to China (from Malaysia), joining the ninth batch of Nanyang Volunteers to participate in the war against Japanese aggression,” said Zhang, 53, who is now a doctor in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

Nanyang Volunteers were overseas Chinese from Southeast Asia who volunteered as drivers and mechanics during the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45).

After the full outbreak of the war in 1937, China’s coastal ports were cut off by Japanese forces. This made land transportation networks, mainly the line linking Southwest China’s Yunnan province with Myanmar and the other one connecting Guangxi with Vietnam, critical lifelines.

However, there was a severe shortage of domestic truck drivers and technicians, especially those who could speak both Chinese and English.

Following an appeal by Tan Kah Kee, a patriotic overseas Chinese businessman and philanthropist, more than 3,200 volunteers from Southeast Asia arrived in China between February and September 1939.

Before the Yunnan-Myanmar Road was cut off in 1942, the Nanyang Volunteers transported over 500,000 metric tons of military supplies, more than 15,000 vehicles, and countless civilian goods through the route, according to Xinhua News Agency.

Zhang Hua said her grandfather, who was originally from South China’s Guangdong province, was an accountant and did not even know how to drive. But he managed to pass the test to get the driver’s license in a month and signed up immediately to work on the Yunnan-Myanmar Road.

“My grandfather used to show us the photos of overturned trucks and told us how extremely cautious one had to be while driving on the mountainous road,” said Zhang Hua.

After Zhang Jinbing passed away, Zhang Hua joined the Nanning Association of Families of Nanyang Volunteers, where she got to learn the full story of the overseas Chinese mechanics and felt an obligation to pass on the spirit of the Nanyang Volunteers.

Though less known than the Yunnan-Myanmar Road, the route between Guangxi and Vietnam transported more than 10,000 tons of goods per month, the highest monthly transport volume among China’s key international supply routes at that time.

Lu Xiaoguang, 68, nephew of Nanyang Volunteer Lu Hanchu, said his uncle returned to China to transport goods on the Guangxi-Vietnam route when he was only 19.

“He had a stable job in Malaysia but at a critical moment when China was in peril and homeland called, he gave up all that comfort and returned to serve,” Lu Xiaoguang said.

In August, Lu Xiaoguang went to Malaysia to meet his relatives there for the first time. “Over all these years, neither war nor distance could cut the blood bond that connects us,” he said.

Some of the Nanyang Volunteers also took part in the famous Battle of the Kunlun Pass in Guangxi.

Deng Zusheng, 38, said his grandfather Deng Linying sold all his assets in Thailand and returned to China in 1938.

“On Dec 16, 1939, he received an urgent order to participate in the Battle of Kunlun Pass, where he was tasked with transporting weapons and ammunition. That made him a key target of attacks,” said Deng Zusheng, recalling how his grandfather narrowly escaped a deadly attack that killed the other two people in the vehicle.

More than 1,000 Nanyang Volunteers sacrificed their lives during the war. In October 2022, the last surviving Nanyang Volunteer Jiang Yin-sheng passed away in Chongqing.

But their contributions to the victory in the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War are being remembered across generations.

In Guangxi, the Nanning Association of Families of Nanyang Volunteers has partnered with the Yinxiang Automobile School to establish a memorial exhibition room dedicated to the volunteers.

The history of Nanyang Volunteers is one of the most special and touching stories that exemplified the support of the overseas Chinese for their motherland during wartime, said Goh Tian Chuan, president of The Federation of Chinese Associations Malaysia (Huazong).

“The overseas Chinese provided critical backing to China, leaving behind numerous moving and heroic stories as well as historic sites.”

In Malaysia, Huazong and other local Chinese associations established culture and history museums to preserve memories, including the history of overseas Chinese who participated in the resistance against Japanese aggression.

As this year marks the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War, Goh said Chinese associations across Malaysia are organizing various exhibitions and lectures to pass on the history, and also hold public memorial ceremonies at World War II-related monuments to pay tribute to the martyrs.

Besides participating directly in the resistance, overseas Chinese also played a key role in financing wartime expenditure, said Chin Chong Foh, chairman of the Yu Cai Foundation Centre for Chinese Studies at Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman in Malaysia.

“In 1940 alone, China’s total war cost amounted to 1.8 billion yuan, of which overseas Chinese remittances accounted for 1.1 billion yuan,” said Chin, adding that around 70 percent of those remittances came from Southeast Asia.

Tragically, the patriotic support of overseas Chinese made them the target of Japanese troops when the latter invaded Southeast Asian countries during World War II.

“In the first three months of 1942, Japan carried out systematic massacres and brutal suppression against ethnic Chinese communities, particularly those in rural areas,” said Chin.

Even Lee Kuan Yew, then a 19-year-old who later won global renown as the founding father of modern Singapore and served as the city-state’s first prime minister, was almost a victim of the Sook Ching Massacre operation to “screen” and “cleanse” anti-Japanese Chinese in February and March 1942.

Some 70,000 people were executed during Sook Ching, according to Lee. But Japan claimed that the number was only about 5,000.

“From then until today, Chinese communities in Singapore and Malaysia, together with peoples of other ethnic groups, have drawn a common conviction: only a nation with strong military capability can safeguard its homeland and protect its people,” said Hue Guan Thye, a senior research fellow of the Department of Chinese Studies at the National University of Singapore.

Hue, who is also the director of the Center for Research on Southeast Asian Chinese Documents at Xiamen University Malaysia, said the center has been making continuous efforts to preserve a wide collection of oral histories from Singapore and Malaysia about the Japanese occupation, including first-hand testimonies of families of the victims as well as survivors.

“Historically and in contemporary reality, China and Southeast Asian nations share a community of common destiny,” said Hue, noting it is important to draw lessons and warnings from wartime history to safeguard peaceful coexistence.

Preserving memories is what Loo Kun Ying, lead researcher of the Nanyang Volunteer Drivers’ and Mechanics’ Archive Center of Malaysia, has been doing over the past two decades.

Loo and her husband Low Toh Nam began research on Nanyang Volunteers in 2007. Before Low passed away in 2019, they jointly interviewed seven such volunteers and over 90 descendants.

Loo is currently working to finish the last book of a trilogy on Nanyang Volunteers, which focuses on the reunion of Nanyang Volunteers’ families that lost contact with each other after the war.

About 30 Nanyang Volunteers’ descendants have come to Loo and Low for help to find their families, and the researchers successfully reconnected about 10 families.

In a recent case, artificial intelligence was used to help a Nanyang Volunteer descendant, whose father was buried alive when the son was only three months old, find his father from old photos.

“Though aimed at defending China against Japanese aggression, the participation of the Nanyang Volunteers on the battlefield in China effectively constrained Japan’s southward expansion into Southeast Asia,” said Loo.

Zhang Hua from Guangxi, the granddaughter of Nanyang Volunteer Zhang Jinbing, said the history of Nanyang Volunteers serves as a natural bond for fostering friendly exchanges between China and Southeast Asian countries.

Her father’s cousin and his descendants still live in Malaysia, yet they have never met.

“Now that China and Malaysia have implemented mutual visa exemption, my biggest wish is to visit them as soon as possible — so that our family can reunite,” said Zhang Hua. “My grandfather would be happy too (if he could see this).”

Contact the writers at kelly@chinadailyapac.com