Zheng Shimei was born in 1903 to an overseas Chinese family in Anhai, Jinjiang, Fujian Province. When Zheng Shimei was young, his father, who was a businessman in Nanyang, brought back house building materials from the Philippines and built the first "Fanzai Building" for his family in Jinjiang (a common name for the Chinese and Western residential buildings built by overseas Chinese returning to their hometowns in southern Fujian during the Republic of China). When the May Fourth Movement broke out, Zheng Shimei was studying at the Anhai Yangzheng School in Jinjiang, and under the influence of the school's encouragement of students to pursue the truth and progress of saving the country and strengthening the country, Zheng Shimei sprouted the consciousness that he could not settle for the good life in front of him and did nothing for the country and society.
In 1919, Zheng Shimei went to the Philippines with his father and brother to work and study half-time, and later taught at the Overseas Chinese Public School in Manila. Although he was far away in a foreign land, the internal and external troubles of the motherland and the various natural and man-made disasters encountered in his hometown of Anhai closely touched his heart. Together with his fellow villagers in the Philippines, he rehearsed live newspaper dramas such as "Hate the Fall of the Country", raised funds through performances, and contributed money to the relief of his hometown. In the 1920s, china under the Beiyang government was politically unstable and warlords became more and more fierce. During this period, Zheng Shimei, who had briefly returned to China to visit his relatives, personally experienced the social turmoil and the hardships of people's livelihood under the chaos of the war and horses, which further strengthened his determination to explore a good way to save the country.
In 1928, Zheng Shimei went to the Philippines again, where he taught at Yilang Huashang High School and served as the secretary of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce. Since then, Zheng Shimei has begun to participate in the daily conference work of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce. With his efforts, the leading power of the association is firmly in the hands of patriotic overseas Chinese, and it has also attracted more overseas Chinese from Yilang to participate in the anti-imperialist and national salvation activities advocated by the Chinese Chamber of Commerce.
After the "9.18" incident and the "1.28" incident, the Kuomintang's passive anti-Japanese resistance aroused the anger of overseas Chinese in the Philippines, and overseas Chinese spontaneously organized and carried out various anti-Japanese activities. Zheng Shimei and others often made current affairs reports at the Huashang Middle School, publicizing the anti-Japanese struggle to save the country and boycotting Japanese goods. In 1935, cai Tingkai, a patriotic general of the Nineteenth Route Army, visited Yilang, and the Yilang Overseas Chinese Society held a welcome meeting attended by thousands of people in the auditorium of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce.
In 1936, Zheng Shimei and others initiated the organization of the Yilang Overseas Chinese Salvation Association (hereinafter referred to as the Salvation Association), which confronted the Kuomintang agents who secretly sabotaged it, so that the anti-Japanese patriotic progressive forces among the overseas Chinese in the Philippines grew stronger and stronger. The main activities carried out by the Salvation Society were: compiling and printing the publication "National Struggle" to publicize unity against Japan and the anti-civil war; contacting the Philippine political circles to expose the evil deeds of the Kuomintang and winning sympathy and support; holding book clubs and organizing overseas Chinese from all strata to participate in the salvation movement; uniting the "Agreement Society" and the "Haiping Society" and other overseas Chinese groups to establish a national united front for overseas Chinese to resist Japan; through the Yilang Overseas Chinese Women's National Salvation Association, collecting donations and sponsoring the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army; and organizing four groups of overseas Chinese young people to return to China to resist Japan and rush to Yan'an or join the New Fourth Army.
After the outbreak of the Pacific War, the Japanese invaded Yilang and arrested the anti-Japanese backbone among the overseas Chinese, and Zheng Shimei and others were forced to disperse and move to many places for concealment. In order to help Zheng Shimei evade the enemy's whistle-blowing and search, his brother once released the false news of Zheng Shimei's illness and death, but was cursed by the Kuomintang agents for "early death and early good", which shows that the Kuomintang reactionary forces at that time were jealous of his influence in the Philippine Overseas Chinese Society. In 1944, in order to restore the Philippines and cooperate with the counteroffensive of the US military, Zheng Shimei, Together with Xu Li, leader of the Federation of Overseas Chinese Labor Organizations in the Philippines, and others, established the "United Front Work Committee of the Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines" to unite and coordinate the anti-Japanese work of all circles and overseas Chinese groups in the Philippines, and to form the "Overseas Chinese Anti-Japanese Volunteer Army" and fought until the final victory of the world anti-fascist war. During this period, Zheng Shimei and others also founded the "Communiqué of Overseas Chinese Businessmen" to clearly support the political ideas of the Communist Party of China.
In 1947, in order to escape the persecution of the reactionaries in the United States and Chiang Kai-shek, Zheng Shimei was forced to withdraw to Hong Kong. In Hong Kong, he extensively united people from all walks of life and continued to carry out anti-civil war, anti-dictatorship, anti-hunger, anti-persecution and other propaganda work against the Kuomintang's corrupt rule. After the founding of New China, Zheng Shimei returned to China, first serving in the United Front Work Department of the CPC Central Committee, and then going to Fujian to engage in overseas Chinese affairs. In 1964, Zheng Shimei died of illness in Jinjiang due to overwork. Before his death, he shouted: "Long live the Chinese Communist Party!" In this way, he shows that he has no regrets about his lifelong revolutionary convictions and experience of struggle. Under his influence, a total of 16 cousins and nephews joined the Communist Party and became a famous "party member's home" in Jinjiang, a hometown of overseas Chinese.
(Courtesy of overseas Chinese History Museum of China)
![During World War II, a Japanese army hid in the mountains for nearly thirty years, and after leaving the mountain, he was picked up by a special plane and became a national hero[fig]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAP///wAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs=)