Internal working platform of Yunnan Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries

5moon11Sun to14On the 2018th, Wang Ning, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee and Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Congress, led a friendly delegation from Yunnan Province to visit Malaysia, thoroughly implemented Xi Jinping's diplomatic thoughts, the Central Peripheral Work Conference and General Secretary Xi Jinping's important speech during his inspection of Yunnan, conscientiously implemented the important achievements of President Xi Jinping's visit to Malaysia, and pragmatically carried out a series of activities such as high-level meetings, cultural and tourism promotion, economic and trade negotiations, and cultural exchanges, deepened the friendship between Yunnan and Malaysia, expanded exchanges and cooperation in various fields, and served to build a high-level strategic China-Malaysia community with a shared future.

To commemorate the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War80On the anniversary, the delegation visited the Nanqiao Mechanical Workers' Monument in Sarawak, visited the descendants of Nanqiao Mechanical Workers, and attended“Heart Connect Travel to Yunnan”The completion ceremony of the Nanqiao Mechanical Worker Memorial Pavilion in Kuching City, Malaysia, commemorate the heroes of Nanqiao Mechanical Workers, carry forward the spirit of Nanqiao Mechanical Workers, and continue to pass on the inheritance.“Keep cutting water”China-Malaysia traditional friendship.

Wang Ning attended“Heart Connect Travel to Yunnan”The completion ceremony of the Nanqiao Mechanical Worker Memorial Pavilion in Kuching City, Malaysia. Photo provided by the Foreign Affairs Office of Yunnan Provincial People's Government

Crossing mountains and seas, named after the stele

5moon14On the day, the Nanqiao Mechanical Pavilion in Malaysia-China Friendship Park in Kuching City, Malaysia was completed, in order to remember the glorious deeds of Nanqiao Mechanics returning to China to fight against the war and commemorate their immortal contributions to China's victory in the War of Resistance against the World Anti-Fascist War.

Time back,1947Year11In the month, Malaysia's first Nanqiao Mechanical Workers' Memorial——“Memorial to the martyrdom of Selangor Overseas Chinese Mechanics Returning to China for the War of Resistance”Completed in Yishan, Kuala Lumpur, Guangdong. The inscription is engraved179Selangor Mechanic18The name of a martyr and recorded their presence on the Burma Highway“Don't be afraid of natural dangers, Baoxiang Wangu”feat.

1951In 2019, the foothills of the flag-raising mountain in Penang, Malaysia were completed.“Memorial to the fellows who died in the anti-Japanese war of overseas Chinese in Penang”, its triangular cone stele is tall16.3Rice, base7Symbol of stairs“July 7 Incident”The copper truck sculpture in front of the stele restores the thrilling scene of a mechanic driving a truck across the Yunnan-Burma Highway. This monument intuitively presents historical details through a long scroll relief mural "Myanmar Highway". Since its establishment, the Penang government and Chinese communities have been working every year.11moon11The public memorial ceremony was held on Sunday, and it has never been interrupted.

Memorial to the fellow Chinese overseas Chinese died in the Anti-Japanese War. Source: Official website of the Consulate General of the People's Republic of China in Penang

1989In 2019, the Yunnan Provincial People's Government commemorated Nanqiao Mechanics“A child's merit”, the first Nanqiao Mechanical Workers Anti-Japanese Monument was built in Kunming Xishan Forest Park. The inscription reads: More than 3,000 maids from southern China have written a heroic and magnificent chapter in the history of overseas Chinese patriotism with their lives, blood and sweat, and have also made indelible achievements in the history of China's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the history of the people of the world's anti-fascist war.

In 2017, Yunnan Province built the first Nanqiao Mechanical Workers' Special Memorial Hall in the country, at the end of the Yunnan-Burma Highway. The museum has been approved by the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China to integrate the historical resources of the Anti-Japanese War and overseas Chinese in western Yunnan and become a national-level Anti-Japanese War memorial facility. The museum collects physical objects, historical materials, photos, books, audio-visual products, etc. related to Nanqiao mechanics.2000The remaining pieces (volume) are comprehensively, objectively and realistically reproduce the historical events and great achievements of the Nanqiao mechanics returning to China to fight against the war in a comprehensive, objective and realistic manner.

These cultural symbols that span mountains and seas are not only a witness to the friendship between China and Malaysia, but also an eternal protection of the national spirit that spans national borders and the common memory of human anti-fascism.

A child's heart, a national memory

 1937After the outbreak of the full-scale war of resistance in 2018, important ports and major external transportation routes in China were basically destroyed.1938The newly built Yunnan-Burma Highway from Kunming, China to Lashio, Myanmar, became the only international channel for China to connect the external world at that time. However, the Yunnan-Burma Highway was rugged and difficult to travel at that time, although there was this wartime“lifeline”, but lacks drivers and mechanics.

 1939Year2In the month, patriotic overseas Chinese leader Chen Jiageng released the "Nanzhou Overseas Chinese Association"6Notice, calling on young drivers and technicians among overseas Chinese to return to China to fight against the war. The requirements include drivers or repairmen who can drive large freight cars and their ages.20to40During the years, I knew Chinese, etc. Within six months, from Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and other places3200Yu Ming drivers, repairmen, engineers, college students, etc. responded to the call and divided them into two parts.9He returned to China and became the backbone of material transportation on the Yunnan-Burma Highway. Among them, there are100Many mechanics returned to China to support the War of Resistance.

In the Nanqiao Mechanical Worker Special Memorial Hall, there is a music score that writes the favorite song of Nanqiao Mechanical Worker who returned to China to participate in the war. This song, written by Tian Han and composed by Nie Er, is called "Farewell to Nanyang".

“See you again, Nanyang! Your sea waves are green and your sea is long, and you are our second hometown. The blood and sweat of our nation have spread all over these hundreds of desolate islands.……See you again, Nanyang! Have you seen the corpse lying across Changbai Mountain and blood flowing in Heilongjiang? This is the survival of the Chinese nation! See you again, Nanyang! See you again, Nanyang! We want to strive for a glimmer of hope!”

The entire journey of the Yunnan-Burma Highway1146The kilometer passes through the Hengduan Mountains and Gaoligong Mountains, crosses the rapids and dangerous shoals such as the Nujiang River, Lancang River and Yangbi River. In addition, the construction is hasty, Nanqiao mechanics need to go through extremely difficult road difficulties in transporting materials. Apart from“Dangerous road pass”Nanqiao mechanics also face the life threats brought by the indiscriminate bombing of Japanese aircraft, raging mosquitoes, and high incidence of malaria.

Faced with difficulties and difficulties, these young people with high fighting spirit still remain unchanged. According to incomplete statistics,1939Year to1942During the year, the Yunnan-Burma Highway was transported to the50Ten thousand tons of military supplies,15000Many cars and other materials,1000Many Nanqiao mechanics sacrificed their precious lives, and an average of one Nanqiao mechanic was sacrificed on every kilometer of the Yunnan-Burma Highway.

Just like the ever-extinguished headlights on the Yunnan-Burma Highway, this memory will illuminate the road of intergenerational inheritance, so that“A child's merit”Shine forever in the long river of history.

 The pavilion is like a torch, illuminating the future

In recent years, the two places of Yunnan and Malaysia have remembered and inherited the spirit of Nanqiao mechanics through various rituals and actions.

Yunnan holds a commemoration of thousands of people every Qingming Festival, singing "Farewell to the Nanyang Sea" to allow the descendants of mechanics to share the soul of heroes with citizens; Malaysian Chinese News held it for many years“Retrace the Burmese Road”During the event, the descendants of Nanqiao mechanics drove to retake the road of the war of resistance of their parents.

Cultural creation has become a bridge of exchanges. Yunnan launched the symphony set of "Ode to the South Overseas Chinese", and the Malaysian overseas Chinese group produced the stage play "The Monument of the Child", using artistic language to tell the story of the Southern Overseas Chinese mechanics.

From the circular memorial wall in Kuala Lumpur to the rainforest memorial pavilion in Kuching, from the west mountain in Kunming“A child's merit”To the Wancheng“The Soul of Hua·The Light of Overseas Chinese”These monuments spanning mountains and seas have long surpassed the physical form of stone carvings and copper castings.

When a Malaysian teenager touches the memorial wall engraved with his grandfather’s name, and when an Yunnan student talks with a young mechanic in a holographic image, history is no longer the lead type in textbooks, but becomes the memory of life surging in his blood.