Re: hakka: Tales of a Hakka Town (6)

[KONG-KHEN_KOO@HP-Singapore-om1.om.hp.com]

     Related to force 136 and Pusing.
     
     
     Based on the book written by a veteran of Force 136, the Television 
     Corporation of Singapore (TCS) has made a television drama series on 
     the force, entitled 'The Price of Peace' (Heping de Daijia).
     
     Part of the filming was done arund the area and in Batu Gajah - a town 
     about 20 minutes drive from Pusing.  Some of the members of Force 136 
     who were captured by the Japanese were incarcerated in the prison 
     there.
     
     And about 10 minutes from Pusing towards the Kledang Range, is a small 
     town called Papan.  The injured members of the force came out of their 
     jungle hideout and seek treatment in the clinic in this town.  The 
     lady doctor Kathigesu who treated them was apprehended and tortured by 
     the Japanese soldiers.  She did not give away any of her patients and 
     was later decorated by the British for her bravery after the war 
     ended.
     
     The majority of the inhabitants in the Pusing /Papan area are Hakka.  
     Prior to the war, in the ealy 1900's and up till the 1950's, this area 
     is a hive of tin mining activities, and the towns busy.
     
     Pusing is now a sleepy town off the main highway from Ipoh to Lumut.
     
     Papan is practically a dead town with a few shop houses still standing 
     The building that housed the old clinic is still standing.
     
     
     Koo


______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re: hakka: Tales of a Hakka Town (6)
Author:  chungyn (chungyn@mozart.collective.com.au) at HP-Singapore,mimegw19
Date:    11/10/98 11:14 AM


     
     
    Tales of a Hakka Town (6)
     
   The Chinese Communist Party was founded in July 1921. In 1924 the 
Chinese Communists sent agents to Malaya, a British Colony, to spread 
Communism to the "Overseas Chinese". However, their political rival was 
"Kuomintang," the Nationalist Party, which was founded in China after Dr 
Sun Yat-sen had overthrew the Qing Dynasty. The influence of the 
Kuomintang among the Overseas Chinese was very strong. Although 
Kuomintang had been declared an illegal society by the British authority 
it had struck deep roots among the Overseas Chinese.    
     
  The Communists achieved little success as there were no oppressed 
labour force and downtrodden peasants in Malaya. The Overseas Chinese 
were too busy working with the intention to make some money so that they 
could return to their homes and families they left behind. Laour was quite 
well paid after the Fisrt World War.
     
 The Communists found the Khehs or Hakkas and the Hainanese were ready to 
listen to the "freedoms in the future". In those days the Hainanese were  
depised by other dialects who considered them people of aboriginal blood 
with poor mentality. They thought they took up Communism to get even
with other dialects. The Hakkas were known in China as the gipsies. The 
Hainanese monopolizied the food trade like running restaurants, coffee 
shops and lodging-houses. The Hakkas were mostly rubber tappers and tin 
mine workers.
     
In those days the majority of the new migrants from China were illiterate. 
The Communists established night schools for them so that they could 
learn a few Chinese characters. There the Communists taught them
Marxsim. Most of them could not understand the creed of Marxism. However, 
when the Communists preached the similarity of the Communist Revolution 
and the Taiping Revolution the Hakkas took it seriously as they had lost 
in the Taiping Revolution.      
     
 The Hakkas flocked to the Communist movements. Illigal trade unions and 
craft guides were formed. The Malayan Comminist Party was formed in 
Singapore in 1935.
     
Three months before the Japanese attacked Malaya the British Government in 
England sent Lieutenant Colonel Spencer Chapman to Singapore with the 
intention to train a special force called 136 to remain behind if Japan 
overran Malaya. There were no well established organizations except
the Malayan Communist Party. As soon as the Japanese attcked Malaya the 
Communists had been asking the British to train them, but the British 
refused. Just ten days before the British surrendered to the Japanese 
the British Colonial Authority finally accepted to train the Communists 
at the 101 Special Training School in Singapore. Altogether 
the British only trained 165 Communists. One of them was from this little 
town Pusing.
     
Later when the Japanese had occupied the whole of Malaya these 165 
Communist became the core of the Malayan People's Anti- Japanese-Army 
(MPAJA).  A formidable MPAJA force was formed in Pusing. For three years 
and eight months the MPAJA gave the Japanese the headache.
     
CHUNG Yoon-Ngan.
     
     
     
==================================================================== 
Hakka Global Network mailing list (hakka@mini.brooklaw.edu) 
Subscribe: mail majordomo@brooklaw.edu with body "subscribe hakka" 
Unsubscribe: mail majordomo@brooklaw.edu with  "unsubscribe hakka"