There is such a Chinese, who was forced to travel to the United States to earn a living when he was young.
Because he was not accustomed to americans oppressing the Chinese, he established a gang to protect the local overseas Chinese, so that the Chinese in the United States could stand up and live in the United States, and even US President Roosevelt was once his little brother.
This person is the patriotic overseas Chinese leader Situ Meitang.
How did Stu Mei Tang fight against the US government and protect overseas Chinese?
How were the Chinese treated abroad at that time, and why did they need to rely on gangs to provide protection?
Today we will talk about Situ Meitang and the history of overseas Chinese blood and tears he experienced.
First, leave the history of blood and tears in the United States
In 1880, the Qing government reached its most dangerous time. There are great powers in the west who are plotting against each other, there are Japan in the east who are eager to move, and the life of the people at home is also difficult.
When the 12-year-old Situ Meitang was wandering the streets, he heard a wealthy businessman bragging: "The United States is a good place!" There were beautiful women everywhere, gold and silver everywhere. As long as you can say that the Tao will come, you can make a lot of money. ”
These words deeply attracted Situ Meitang.
At that time, coastal farmers crossed the ocean to earn a living overseas. In his opinion, instead of eating with his mother and living without eating, it is better to go overseas to fight and maybe eat a meal of meat.
With the mentality of fighting, Situ Meitang borrowed 50 dragon silver from his mother. It went all the way from Shandong to Hong Kong, and then took a steamship to San Francisco, USA.
When Situ Meitang stepped out of the ship, what he saw was neither gold nor beauty, but a stinking and baked horse dung, and before he could react, the horse manure and dirt wrapped around his whole body.
This was the meeting gift given to the Chinese by the United States at that time.
The rich businessman was right that America is indeed a paradise, but this paradise is only open to the rich. If you are a rich man in a suit and a lot of money, this is a paradise of happiness that can satisfy all your desires.
But if you're just a poor man in native cloth with only a few copper plates on his body, you're probably not as good as a rat in America.
Situ Meitang clearly belongs to the latter.
When he and a few of his companions had found the pond to wash their dirty things, they were surrounded by a group of hooligans who pressed their heads in the mud on the pretext that they were polluting the water source, and stepped on their hands with one foot and slammed the other foot on the other side.
Situ Meitang only felt a blackness in front of his eyes, followed by severe pain from all over his body. It was only after the hooligans had left for ten minutes that he struggled to get up from the mud, and there were already several unconscious people around him.
Young and vigorous, he was angry, and wanted to take advantage of the black light at night to settle accounts with those hooligans. But he was stopped by his compatriots, who also had blue noses and swollen faces, and the other side told him: This is the land of the white people, and we can't fight them. Let's go......
Although Situ Meitang was angry, he also understood that his ability was limited. I had to clench my fists and follow the group to find a job.
At first, due to the language barrier, they could only do some low-level work such as cleaning dishes and washing toilets near San Francisco through the introduction of other overseas Chinese. Not only are wages low, but they are also discriminated against by white Americans.
According to the record in "Remembering the Old Man of Situ Meitang", Situ Meitang, who was working as a handyman in a restaurant at that time, was always called "yellow pig" by white people. Some people like to "accidentally" sprinkle hot soup on him; some people like to beat him when they are drunk; and even once a white man who was not accustomed to him let his son throw him with a stone, and the child directly picked up a fist-sized stone and smashed it on his head, smashing his head and bleeding. But Situ Meitang did not dare to fight back, and could only endure the severe pain to sweep away the blood stains, and then continue to work.
Second, throw yourself into Hongmen
Such a situation was very common in the United States at that time, and the oppression of Chinese was just like the abuse of black slaves, which was allowed by the US government
And an act of entertainment that is promoted by white people.
U.S. law does not protect any Chinese.
In order to protect themselves from bullying, some Chinese people began to come together to report for warmth. Everyone eats and lives together, usually goes to work together, and when hooligans come to find trouble, they unite to fight violence with violence.
Situ Meitang is one of them.
It is rumored that Situ Meitang stole some martial arts when he was young, and when he was in a group with others, he learned some things from those who knew martial arts, so his fist and foot kung fu was not bad, and he once beat a group of American hooligans with a knife and a stick. Relying on such means, Situ Meitang lived a few days of peaceful life.
Unfortunately, the good times did not last long, and when the authorities realized that the Chinese were gradually developing their power, they immediately intervened to curb this situation. They hired hooligans to harass the Chinese at work, and once the Chinese resisted, a large number of police officers would surround them and then arrest all the Chinese to prevent the Chinese from forming a community.
Some Chinese who are good at kung fu will also be lynched. When a good person entered, when he was released, his skin was already fleshy, and his flesh and blood were blurred.
Such a tragic situation was seen by Situ Meitang. He realized that such means alone could not protect himself and his fellow citizens.
It is still necessary to find an organization, and many people can take care of each other.
At that time, the most powerful Chinese organization in the United States was Hongmen.
In 1885, the 17-year-old Situ Meitang took the oath and officially joined the Hongmen ZhigongTang. After that, under the introduction of his fellow villagers, he went to work as a cook in a Chinese restaurant called "Huixian Lou" in Chinatown, and lived a relatively peaceful life.
However, this peaceful life was shattered by an accident within a few days, when American hooligans went to Chinese restaurants to eat overlord meals, and these people not only liked to eat and drink for free, but also liked to smash shops and beat people and humiliate waitresses. However, due to the DISREGARD of the US government, the Chinese can only watch and dare to be angry.
One day in 1886, Situ Meitang, as usual, was washing dishes while joking with the chef. Chatting and chatting, he heard movement in the lobby, originally thought which white person did not buy it, but when he walked over to see, he found that a tall white drunk, while smashing the store, flirted with a Chinese female customer.
Because the other party was tall and white, other Chinese workers did not dare to move. Seeing that others were afraid of himself, the white man spat out fragrant aromas and said all kinds of filthy words that humiliated the Chinese.
Situ Meitang looked at the white man in front of him, and his mind came to mind the oppression of him by the white people for many years. Hot-blooded, he rushed to the white man and slammed into the man's temples, chest and throat, killing the other party.
A Chinese man actually killed a white man! The incident caused a huge stir in the local area, and many white people went to the city hall and the police station to report the crime, demanding that the Chinese be brought to justice.
As a result, Situ Meitang was arrested and imprisoned that afternoon. He was sentenced to death at a court trial full of white men. Stu meitang, who was imprisoned, thought that being executed by a group of white people would be his end.
Unexpectedly, the prison director informed him: "You have been exempted from the death penalty and sentenced to 10 months in prison." "This makes him confused, white people can be so kind?
He learned later.
It turned out that this was not white benevolence, but hongmen's brothers and overseas Chinese, in order to protect him, raised funds and trust relations at the first time he was arrested, and spent $1,000 to bribe the judge to revise the verdict.
After being released from prison, Situ Meitang was taken to an overseas Chinese family to help people take care of their children as a nanny in order to avoid the wind.
3. Self-reliance portal
In 1894, with the help of overseas Chinese, Situ Meitang was sent to work as a cook on the American warship "Paul Mo".
During this time, he traveled with warships to countries in South America and Western Europe, where he saw how Americans and other Europeans brutalized local minorities. This made him concerned about the situation of his Chinese compatriots in the United States, if we do not unite
Will we end up like these people?
With this thought, Situ Meitang left the warship.
Found the brother of the previous Hongmen Zhigongtang and established the "An Liang Tang" in Boston.
This is an organization that uses the slogan of "hoeing the strong to help the weak, eliminating violence and peace and goodness", to oppose the Us hooligans and the government, and to protect overseas Chinese. Because it is still nominally subordinate to zhigongtang, it is considered a Hongmen branch. Therefore, it also received the support and help of Hongmen.
According to Situ Meitang's own recollection: at that time, he was very enthusiastic and very proud. When they saw someone bullying the Chinese, they took someone up to do it. He always had two pistols hidden around his waist, ready to fight with the American police or the local gang.
Situ Meitang's fighting spirit of not being afraid of death also inspires others at all times. When many Chinese people face the oppression of whites, they no longer only promise, they have become fierce, and they fight with their lives at every turn.
The U.S. authorities have tried to repeat the trick, bribing hooligans to target the Chinese, and then secretly leading the police to reap the benefits of the fishermen. As a result, Situ Meitang directly took people and cleaned up the hooligans and the police.
It is rumored that several "habitual criminals" have also "evaporated from the world" in this conflict. After this incident, the authorities also instigated and no longer dared to target the Chinese casually.
With this battle, Situ Meitang and his An Liang Tang became famous,
It has received response and support from overseas Chinese and overseas Chinese from all over the world. In addition, he himself knows very well about human feelings, fairness in doing things, and morality. In a short period of time, An Liang Tang became the strongest group under the Hongmen Zhi gongtang. In the end, it has developed into a super organization covering 31 cities in the United States and has more than 20,000 gangs. Situ Meitang himself became the leader of the Chinese in the United States.
4. Patriotic overseas Chinese collar
After the United States had firmly established its roots, Situ Meitang understood that if it wanted to develop and grow, it would not be feasible to suppress it by force alone, and it would have to protect its own interests in a formal and legitimate way through legal means.
So, in 1905, he hired an American lawyer who graduated from Columbia Law School, named Franklin Roosevelt.
That's right, it was President Roosevelt who would become the first President roosevelt in U.S. history to serve four consecutive terms.
The Chinese who can make the US president a younger brother under his hands are estimated to be only Situ Meitang.
In the decades that followed, the Chinese and overseas Chinese in the United States received the respect and protection they deserved. They can also be like white people, straightening their waists in the United States, instead of being given a "meet and greet gift" by Americans when they first arrived in the United States, as before, and they did not have to worry about being smashed and humiliated.
Even many desperate Chinese, or vulnerable orphans and widows, can find a job here.
Of course, Situ Meitang's contribution is far less than this.
He tried to turn the tide, twice saving Sun Yat-sen and the water and fire.
During the period of the All-out War of Resistance, he also led overseas Chinese and Hongmen to donate to the motherland, raising about 3.3 million US dollars, contributing a huge amount.
It was precisely because of this contribution that before the 1949 CPPCC session, Chairman Mao specially summoned Situ Meitang and invited him to attend the Political Consultative Conference on behalf of overseas Chinese in the United States.
Situ Meitang, who was 84 years old at the time, accepted the invitation and agreed without hesitation.
This incident even shocked the US authorities. They sent someone to threaten Situ Meitang, saying, "If you leave, you don't want to come back." At the same time, the FBI also sent people from all walks of life to investigate and even detain some overseas Chinese who were associated with Situ Meitang.
But soon, these actions disappeared under the interference of Hongmen An liangtang. Situ Meitang also finally returned to the motherland after more than 60 years of absence.
When he returned to China, Chairman Mao and Premier Zhou gave him a warm welcome. He was invited to attend the founding ceremony on October 1, 1949.
On the day of the celebration, Situ Meitang stood on Tiananmen Square with Chairman Mao and the founding fathers to watch the ceremony. This shows its status.
On May 8, 1955, Situ Meitang died of cerebral hemorrhage in Beijing at the age of 87.
On May 10, more than 700 people from all walks of life in the country and people from all walks of life in the capital attended the public ceremony, and Premier Zhou personally supported his spirit and sent it to Babaoshan Cemetery for burial.
Once upon a time, overseas Chinese had always been like orphans. Not only are they not paid attention to by the Chinese people, but they also face humiliation and harm from foreigners. Calling the heavens unworthy, calling the earth unspiritual. The appearance of Situ Meitang changed this situation.
Although he was born into poverty and did not receive any higher education, he understood the principles of national righteousness and national righteousness. He not only formed gangs to fight against the US authorities and safeguard the dignity and interests of overseas Chinese. At a time when the country is in danger, it is generously donating money to help the country in the best it can. Let the country and even the world see the patriotism of overseas Chinese, this pattern and boldness are worth learning and remembering by our contemporaries.