Whenever there is war or when a country is weak and overwhelmed by foreign enemies, people are displaced, as are Syrians and Afghans 20 years ago.
At the end of the 19th century, when the eight-nation coalition army marched into Beijing, the land of China was full of smoke, and the people were living in poverty, the hardworking and tenacious Chinese people also embarked on this road.
But unlike those who had fled alone and wandered alone, this time a thousand Chinese left China en masse, migrated overseas, and sailed three times on the island of Borneo.
Under the vigorous operation of the "father of pioneering" Ng Nai Sang, in 1901, land in the Sibu area of Sarawak was leased for 999 years.
Since then, more than 1,000 people who have migrated overseas have deeply rooted themselves on tropical islands, reclaiming fertile land with one knife and one hoe, and building houses brick by brick.
After more than 120 years of struggle for generations, a Chinese city was built in a foreign country.
Sibu – Borneo Island "New Fuzhou"
At the end of the 19th century, China was still the world of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, of course, by this time Cixi had already sold China almost as much.
And the Guangxu Emperor wanted to work hard and promote the 100-day restoration with Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao and others, but unfortunately died in the end.
Among the participants in the reform was a filial piety from Fuzhou, Huang Naixiang, who was also pursued by the Qing government at the time, and he was able to escape back to Fuzhou with the help of friends.
Because after arriving in Fuzhou, he could only watch the poverty of the people under natural disasters and man-made disasters.
This made him feel that "non-revolution is not enough to save the country, and non-colonization is not enough to gather the masses", so he "decided to go to the South Sea Islands" and "open up a life path for his compatriots".
In 1899, Wong Nai Sang, who knew the destiny of heaven, first came to Singapore with his family, and then went to Malaya, Sumatra and other places alone.
In May of the following year, Wong traveled to Sarawak, in the northwest of Borneo, the world's third largest island, which was still independent and under the rule of the Raj, or king.
He tasted the quality of the water and checked the level of soil fertilization, and decided that the Sibu at that time could be reclaimed.
It is understood that the "Raj" Sah Rukh in the Sarawak region is suffering from the sparsely populated land and lack of manpower to reclaim the territory.
After negotiating and signing a treaty, Huang Naixiang's "puller" established the "New Fuzhou Agricultural Reclamation Company", and Huang Naicang was the owner of the farm, known locally as the "Hong Kong owner".
At that time, the Reclamation Treaty signed between Wong Nai Sang and the King of Sarawak had 17 articles, the most important of which was "the right to the land reclaimed for 999 years".
The length of the lease stipulated in this article is simply unprecedented, and there is no one to come, which can be described as shaking the world.
Moreover, the "Reclamation Covenant" also stipulates that "our peasants have the right to freedom of movement, freedom of belief, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of establishing companies and commerce, freedom of purchasing firearms, and freedom of shipbuilding; No Nadine tax, no public service, no conscription...".
These terms were so favorable to the coming Chinese that the Reclamation Treaty was praised by Sun Yat-sen as "the first treaty of equality signed between China and a foreign country in modern times."
Subsequently, Huang Naixiang returned to Fuzhou for recruitment.
From 1901 to 1902, a total of 1,118 Fuzhou people came to Sibu in three groups to engage in large-scale reclamation work under the leadership of Huang Naichang and others.
At that time, Sibu was still a vast primeval forest, full of low-lying swamps, thorns, wild beasts, and diseases such as typhoid fever and dysentery threatened people's lives at all times.
They lived in stilt houses three feet above the ground, where many people huddled together to eat pots and bowls, and more than 70 people died of various diseases in the first year.
But the hardworking Chinese were not afraid of hardships and dangers, and they started by trying to grow rice and sweet potatoes, although they repeatedly lost but fought again, and finally introduced high-value rubber.
When the rubber was harvested in 1907, the value of 700 yuan per quintal encouraged confidence.
In 1908, most of the Fuzhou people in Sibu began to change rubber cultivation and achieved considerable success.
After the hardest and bitterest start-up years, from the 2020s, the Fuzhou people of Sibu began to set up companies, set up factories, set up shops, and develop transportation, and they finally successfully laid a foundation here.
Rubber, picture from the Internet
Gradually, the Fuzhou people of Sibu have achieved great results in several major industries in Sarawak, and the most successful is the rubber industry.
By 1950, there were more than 12,000 acres of rubber plantations in the area.
Then came pepper farming, which was started by the Fuzhou people of Sibu and eventually spread to the Chinese diaspora throughout Sarawak.
Ninety percent of the pepper exported from all of Malaysia is produced in Sarawak, and Sibu naturally accounts for a considerable share of it.
Rubber, picture from the Internet
After the Fuzhou people of Sibu were not left behind in the maritime industry, in 1937 they jointly purchased a 2,000-ton ocean-going steamship and named it "New Fuzhou".
20 years later, it developed into Sarawak Steamship Company with 8 ships, often sailing between Kuching, Sibu, Minturu, Labuan, Singapore and Brunei.
As for the light industry, it is full of Chinese style, and they have opened factories in almost every industry.
In particular, Sarawak is rich in timber resources, and ninety percent of the sawmills in the 60s of the 20th century were run by Chinese.
Ocean liner, picture from the Internet
The influence and contribution of the Fuzhou people can also be seen in the naming of the streets, which have 19 streets named after Chinese ancestors, of which 15 are Fuzhou.
Among the streets named after the people of Fuzhou, the most famous is Wong Nai Cang Street, which was named by the Sibu City Council.
Wong Nai Cang Street is a crossroad connecting Lampin and Kampung Aipo Road, with a total length of about 200 meters, which has become one of the busiest main streets in Sibu City.
In Sibu, the whole city is full of Chinese plaques, and you feel like an open city on the coast of China.
Fuzhou dialect has become a commercial and social language in Sibu, and even a small number of Indians, Eurasian and other people can converse in Mandarin, and of course English and Bahasa Malaysia are also unimpeded.
In this way, Shibu started from scratch, and the development history of more than 100 years is all soaked with the blood and sweat of Fuzhou people, and it has also become a small city with a "Fuzhou taste" carrying a cultural mission.
In 2010, Sibu had a population of about 200,000, of which 70% were Chinese, while Fuzhou accounted for more than 90,000.
In Sibu City, Fuzhou people are the most economically powerful group, the streets are full of familiar Fuzhou rural sounds, and the city is full of Chinese faces, this is a Chinese city that exists overseas.
No matter how far "immigrant" goes, it never changes its local pronunciation
The Fuzhou people of Sibu experienced the change of three regimes during the reign of the Brooke regime, the fall of the Japanese invasion of the south, and the British colonial period.
In 1963, Sarawak joined the newly formed country, and Malaysia became a state until now.
That is, from the 60s of the 20th century, Fuzhou people began to get involved in the political field and invest in the timber industry.
At this time, the Fuzhou people living in the suburbs of the Lajang River basin began to move to Sibu and other urban areas because they faced public security and difficulties in making a living.
Timber industry, image from the Internet
This was the phenomenon of "re-immigration" after the Fuzhou people came to Sibu in 1901, moving from the suburbs to urban areas or other towns in the state, and this situation lasted for a decade before it eased.
In the 80s of the 20th century, as Fuzhou people from the suburbs flocked to the urban area, the urban area of Sibu expanded many times, and Fuzhou dialect was even stronger in the local mainstream language.
Fuzhou people gradually participated in all walks of life, including finance, hardware, supermarkets, shipping, etc., and began to invest heavily in the timber industry, which was the second economic transformation of Sibu Fuzhou people.
Since then, the people of Fuzhou have changed from peasant status to financial and timber industries, and the profits of the latter are much more considerable than the former.
In the late 90s of the 20th century, Sibu already had 5 Chinese banks, which provided financial backing for the economic development of the local overseas Chinese.
After 2000, Sibu's economy diversified and modernized, with tourism, manufacturing, food processing, shipbuilding and other industries rising rapidly.
It was the people of Fuzhou who promoted the economic take-off of Sibu, making Sibu quickly rise to become an emerging modern city full of vitality and vitality.
Today, 121 years later, Sibu Fuzhou Reclamation Farm is developing steadily, and the population of Fuzhou residents has grown rapidly and has become the largest Chinese dialect group in Sarawak.
After 1980, Fuzhou's population accounted for 38.36% of Sarawak's total population, making it the most populous Chinese group in Sarawak.
According to the 2010 Malaysian Census, Sarawak accounts for 210,000 of the country's 350,000 Fuzhou people, while Sibu gathers more than 93,000.
Fuzhou people have not only become the main ethnic group in the local population in terms of population, but also in a leading position in professions and industries.
Since 1970, "Fuzhou nationals have been working in the following industries: banking and finance companies, import and export business, wholesale trading houses, hotels, bars and nightclubs, printing and publishing houses, bakery and fruit shops, etc." ”
Moreover, the Fuzhou people of Sibu were more far-sighted, and they laid out the timber harvesting industry in advance, "even before the rapid expansion of the forest industry, Fuzhou people were the majority in the forestry industry, logging, wood and rattan manufacturing, furniture manufacturing and building material supply." ”
The commercial power of the Fuzhou community continued to grow, and it soon became one of the global trade and wealthy people.
Fuzhou people uphold the tradition of Chinese and attach great importance to education.
Since before 2000, Sibu School only had high school and pre-university classes, many parents sent their children to study abroad in order to obtain a higher education.
The main places of study are Singapore, as well as Hong Kong and Taiwan in China, the United States and Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Not many young students return to their hometowns after studying abroad, staying in the local area to take root, and gradually, older parents have to follow their children to "cling to relatives".
In addition, Sibu is a typical inland town, with underdeveloped land, sea and air transportation, and in recent years due to the decline of the timber industry with the decline of forests.
As a result, many people are moving to Kuching, the capital of Sarawak, and other up-and-coming towns such as Bintulu, Miri and even the neighbouring state of Sabah.
Sibu Fuzhou, getting rid of the problem of public security, from the suburbs to the urban area, and for better living conditions, and then from the city to other cities and even more countries, there has been a greater wave of "re-immigration" than in the 60s of the 20th century.
Looking around, where there is seawater, there are footprints of the Sibu Fuzhou people.
As far as Europe, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and even Solomon Islands, New Guinea, as close as Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand and other places, you can find the traces of the Sibu Fuzhou people.
Of course, there are many factors for Sibu Fuzhou people to migrate overseas.
In addition to immigrants to let their children receive higher education, some are for economic development, some pursue a better quality of retirement, and some want to reunite with their families.
Their immigrants regard their current place of residence as a permanent home, and a new sense of identity gradually emerges, and over time they change from another country to hometown.
In this repeated "immigration", the unchanging Fuzhou dialect plays an important role.
Although the younger generation of Fuzhou people are no longer good at speaking the Fuzhou dialect, young parents will ask their parents-in-law to teach their children and grandchildren in Chinese or Fuzhou dialect as much as possible, so that the dialect can be passed on.
Moreover, Fuzhou cuisine has always represented their style.
Even in Australia, Fuzhou people who go out of Sibu can also eat various Fuzhou delicacies such as mixed noodles, fried noodles, stewed noodles, light cakes, horse ears, dingbian paste, egg swallows, and dried vegetable powder.
Sibu Hokkien people have opened restaurants in many countries, and most of the ingredients sold in them are imported from Sibu, and diners from all over the world have strengthened their understanding of Fuzhou or Sibu through Fuzhou cuisine.
The photos posted in restaurants of Rajang River or Sibu Street View indirectly tell diners from all over the world about this strong taste of home.
Back at the beginning of the reclamation, Fuzhou's predecessors opened up this territory with blue strands and calluses.
From their attachment to their homeland to their identification with the Malaysian homeland, after a complex emotional transition, their indigenous spirit of Sibu went from alienation to intimacy and active participation in nation-building.
With the popularization of higher education, adhering to the spirit of Fuzhou people's natural love of wandering and unease with the status quo, a large number of Sibu Fuzhou people began to migrate to all corners of the world, and this migration has not stopped to this day.
It is precisely because of this that Fuzhou talents have blossomed all over the world.
The way to success for the people of Fuzhou in Sibu
Compared to 121 years ago, the livelihood of the people of Sibu Fuzhou has changed from subsistence rice cultivation to pepper, rubber, logging, shipbuilding and finance, and even today's diversified, collective, and global business operations.
It can be said that they have broken new ground overseas and become a model for the development of overseas Chinese.
And the main reason why they have achieved so high is that:
First of all, the people of Fuzhou have embodied and inherited the spirit of Fuzhou, that is, "the pioneering spirit of daring to take risks, dare to sacrifice, tenacious fighting spirit, hard work, diligence and thrift, prudence in pursuing the long term, peace-loving, strong rural affection, and eager to pursue a better world for future generations." ”
Guided by this spirit, the Fuzhou people of Sibu have a strong sense of organization and collectivity, "Fuzhou people are well-known witnesses among other local Chinese ethnic groups, and they are competitive. ”
Moreover, the organized collective migration of the Sibu Fuzhou people was the first in the history of Chinese's overseas migration, and it was this characteristic that laid the foundation for their success.
Organization and collective consciousness have made Fuzhou people more willing to huddle in business activities and take advantage of cooperation, and this competitive advantage is the key to their success over other ethnic groups of Chinese.
Secondly, the people of Sibu Fuzhou tenaciously adhere to the inheritance of Han culture.
In Sibu, Fuzhou people are in an advantageous position in terms of politics and economy, and because of the large number of people and high social status, Fuzhou dialect has naturally become the commercial language and social language of Sibu.
The Fuzhou people of Sibu retain more of their Chinese identity, and they are also very persistent in sticking to their own dialect, and they generally converse with other family members in Fuzhou dialect at home.
Moreover, the Fuzhou people of Sarawak are more closely connected to their hometown in Fujian, China, and even in the era when China was almost completely cut off from the outside world, the Fuzhou people of Sarawak often returned to their hometown.
The people of Fuzhou in Sibu attach great importance to the education of their children, and in Sibu, Chinese schools and Chinese language education have always received great attention.
From the establishment of the first school in 1903, by 1935 there were as many as 40 schools with a student population of 2,500.
Most of these schools emphasize both Chinese and English, and provide a steady stream of talents for Sibu Fuzhou.
Since then, the Fuzhou people of Sibu, based in Sibu, have spread to all parts of Sarawak, to Sabah, to other parts of the world, and many talents have emerged.
Including entrepreneurs, bankers, scientists, professors, etc., it has effectively promoted the progress and quality of Sibu Fuzhou people.
Third, Fuzhou people are relatively good at communicating between government and business.
"The main elements of the Fuzhou community are active in politics and have gained political influence within the newly established state government."
They influence government decision-making through political participation, creating a more favorable business environment, and thus obtaining more business benefits.
The people of Fuzhou won the timber industry in the 70s of the 20th century, and it can be said that they almost monopolized this industry.
In addition to hard work and daring to compete, Fuzhou people also have good relations with the ruling authorities and are able to get more policy preferences from the ruling authorities.
The Fuzhou people are also very good at dealing with other ethnic groups, so it does not take long for "Fuzhou people to occupy the position of all social strata in their region", and they have a good relationship with the Daya people, the main local ethnic group.
Malaysian Chinese Studies scholar Lim Ching Ching said: "Sarawak's harmonious ethnic relations have always been talked about, and in 2014, Malaysian Prime Minister's Minister Tan Sri called on the people of Peninsular Malaysia to learn religious tolerance and racial harmony from the people of Sabah and Sarawak. ”
In Sibu, Sarawak, Malaysia, and other provinces, the Chinese are not a minority, on the contrary, they are a people who occupy a dominant position in terms of economy and culture.
The people of Fuzhou in Sibu adhere to the traditional inheritance of Han culture, think together, work hard together, and maintain a long-term enterprising spirit, which is the most critical factor for them to successfully break into a new world overseas.
"Brothers are of the same heart, and their profits are broken", this statement is not deceptive.
Bibliography:
[1] Tang Yi, "New Fuzhou" on the banks of the Rajang River, Mindu Culture, 2017(4);
[2] Huang Mengli, Fuzhou people of Shiwu, Min Du Culture, 2015(8).