Author: CHUNG Yoon Ngan
Date: 07-05-08 01:54
Tales of Malaya, now Malaysia
1858 - A village boy - (003)
(I skip 001 &002 as they are about the origin of surname Chung and the founder
of the Chung family)
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美不美, 鄉中水.---Mei3 bu4 mei3, xiang zhong shui3,
親不親, 故鄉人.---Qin bu4 qin, gu4 xiang ren2
Irrespective of its quality, home water is beautiful,
Irrespective of his relationship, a fellow townsfolk is a relative.
Chinese wisdom words of the past
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http://yn.chung.id.au/Dongguan&Moiyen.jpg
This is a brief history of Dongguan, my ancestors' birth place. Dongguan
Prefecture (東莞郡) was established in 331AD, the 6th year reign of Emperor
Cheng (成皇帝) of the East Jin Dynasty (東晉朝 317AD to 410AD). During that
time the present day city of Dongguan was called Baoan county (寶安縣) but
in 757AD, in the second year reign of Emperor Su Zong (肅宗皇帝) of the
Tang Dynasty (唐朝 618AD to 907AD), it was renamed Dongguan county (東莞
縣). Why was it called Dongguan? It was named Dongguan because it was situated
to the east of the city of Guangzhou (廣州), the capital of present day
Guangdong province (廣東省). There were abundant of Guan (莞) grass in the
area. The literary name was "The land to the east of Guangzhou (東) where
abundant of Guan grass (莞) grew."
The world famous incident happened in Dongguan county was in the early of
19th century. In the third month of 1839AD Lin Zexu (林則徐), the Commissioner,
arrived at Guangzhou city. Commissioner Lin confiscated 200,283 chests
of opium from the foreign merchants in Guangzhou. In the following month,
he burned them in Humen bay (虎門) in Dongguan county. Due to the burning
and banning of opium China and Britain went to war. This war was called
the Opium War. China lost the war and was forced not only to pay compensation
but also cede to Britain the island of Hong Kong.
The year was the eighth year reign of Emperor Xian Feng (咸豐皇帝) of the
Qing Dynasty (1644AD to 1912AD) or 1858AD, that Chung Pinyuan (鄭品源) was
born in the village called Fengguang (鳳港), where for many generations,
his ancestors had lived. His parents were Hakka Chinese and were poor peasants
who had no land of their own - instead they rented about an acre of land
from the landlord in the village. By planting rice and some cash crops in
the field they managed to escape starvation.
The following year, Pinyuan's mother gave birth to a baby boy who was called
Chung Pinsheng (鄭品勝). Now, the produce from the rented acre of land had
to support a family of four, including the rent, in the form of produce,
to the landlord. To them life was a constant struggle, but somehow they
managed to scrape through year after year. They must have been working very
hard to sustain themselves, otherwise they could have starved. This was
the adverse environment under which Pinyuan and Pinsheng grew up.
Although Pinyuan and Pinsheng had never had any formal education they knew
that life was tough, and as peasants, they could not rid themselves of their
persistent poverty stricken fate. By the time they were in their teens,
the brothers began toiling the fields, helping their parents. They disliked
farming, but they had no choice as they were too young to do anything else.
At the age of about twenty, Pinyuan got himself a job as an assistant to
a businessman who lived in the same village. Pinyuan followed his boss traveling
from village to village buying pigs and cows, transporting them to be sold
to the butchers in the towns, not far from his village. Pinyuan was young,
tough and strong and had no problems carrying the animals. He discovered
that life was not much better off than growing rice and vegetables.
On many occasions, when he was in town Pinyuan heard strange stories about
the lands across the ocean. Occasionally, he saw a " Hong Mao Ren 紅毛人
" or an European, wearing tight costumes with a piece of colour cloth tied
to his neck. There were a few rich men in town who had returned home after
working for many years in a faraway foreign land called Jiu Jin Shan (舊
金山) in the country was called Hua Ji Guo (花旗國 flowery flag country)
[California U.S.A.]. Pinyuan wished he could go there too and make a lot
of money so that he could buy some land for his parents.
Not long afterwards, Pinyuan heard that there were people coming to the
town to recruit workers to work in a place called Xin Jin Shan (新金山)
[Melbourne, Australia]. They offered to pay for all the expenses to go to
the foreign land. The stories of Xin Jin Shan were unfamiliar to him, having
only heard about Jiu Jin Shan.
Pinyuan went home and told his parents about going to work in a foreign
land and also told them the stories he heard on how a few rich men made
their fortune by working in foreign lands. To his surprise his parents allowed
him to go. They even asked him to take his younger brother along. His parents
must have been sick of their poverty stricken lives and they did not want
their children to follow their foot steps and remain poor as peasants all
their lives.
When the contractors arrived in the town the two brothers signed up or put
their thumb prints on the marked dotted lines on the contract, not knowing
that they had signed away their freedom for three years. Under the conditions
of the contract they had to work for the contractors for three years without
any pay, but food, shelter and clothing would be provided. The contractors
would pay for their passage to get to Xin Jin Shan. They would be free to
embark upon their own undertakings after they had given three years of free
labour to their contractors as indentured labourers[1A*] or "human pigs
賣豬仔". For their sons, Pinyuan's parents received twenty silver-coin dollars
from the contractors, ten dollars for each son.
A month later, the two brothers bade farewell to their parents and promised
to send money home regularly. The two brothers and many others followed
the contractors on their journey to the strange land.
The contractors took them to Hong Kong, then a British territory, and from
there they embarked on a British steamer and sailed for Australia.
After sailing for several weeks they arrived at Port Melbourne and were
immediately transported to Bendigo, which was about 150 kilometers northwest
of the city of Melbourne. They were sheltered in tents which were to become
their homes for a few years.
Pinyuan and Pinsheng began their lives as indentured labourers in a new
and strange land, Australia. Life was harsh - they panned for gold throughout
the day and often into the night. There were many thousands of Chinese miners
digging for gold in that region. In the small colony of Victoria, in Eastern
Australia, it was estimated that at that time there were 9,377 Chinese in
a population of 1,150,000. Pinyuan and Pinsheng worked and lived among the
Chinese who were aliens in language, thought and customs, from the European
inhabitants who seldom came into contact with them. They maintained their
Chinese way of life.
Pinyuan and Pinsheng did not receive any wages but they managed to borrow
some money from their bosses and sent them regularly to their parents who
were overjoyed to receive their remittances.
Soon after, the two brothers' three year contract was over and they were
free from their slave bondage. They continued to pan for gold. However,
this time the gold they obtained did not go to the contractors but to themselves.
Pinyuan and Pinsheng worked hard and very industriously, making significant
sums of money, some of which they to their parents.
Somehow, Pinsheng married an English girl by the name of Mary. As far as
Pinyuan was concerned he was quite happy to remain single. But after ten
years of marriage Mary bore no children and Pinyuan began to worry because
their parents in the Old Mountain of the Ancestors (China) were longing
for grandchildren. Pinyuan's parents urged him to return to Tang Shan (唐
山 or China) to get married since the Hong Mao (紅毛 red hair) daughter-in-law
was 'barren'. Pinyuan's parents sent him a message saying that they had
match-made him a young and beautiful Hakka girl from the neighbouring village.
As a filial piety son Pinyuan agreed to go home.
Note:
[1A*] Indentured Labour
The records of indentured labour or "human pigs 豬仔" could go back to 1519AD.
The Portuguese were the first Europeans who kidnapped Chinese for use on
their vessels and their tiny colony in Goa in India. They made raids along
the sea coast from India to China. They sold off the surplus of the people
they had kidnapped to the Dutch who needed labour for their colonies in
the East Indies (present day Indonesia). The Dutch organized the Chinese
"pigs" system of contract to recruit Chinese labourers. At that time the
Qing Government did not allow any Chinese to leave China without permission.
If any Chinese were caught leaving China without permission he would be
put to death. However, due to poverty and suppression by the Qing Government
many Chinese men risked their lives leaving China. After the failure of
the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (太平天國) in 1864, the Hakka Chinese, especially
the remnants of the Taiping revolutionists, desperately wanted to leave China.
In 1860 the Western Powers forced the Qing Government to sign a treaty allowing
Chinese to leave China. After this treaty the trade of "human pigs" flourished.
In the 1850s the cost to recruit one indentured labourer was forty silver
dollars, including payment to his family and his transport. The man signed
a contract which stated that he would work for three years. Most of these
"human pigs" were illiterate and they just simply put their thumb marks
on the contracts. To redeem himself an indentured labourer had to work for
three years for the contractors. Food, shelter and clothing would be provided
for by the contractors.
CHUNG Yoon-Ngan (鄭永元)
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