Cheng Liren and his wife (second from left and first from left)
Hello everyone, I'm Lantai.
Today, Lantai would like to introduce you to a legendary volunteer prisoner of war, who did not choose to return to China or go to Taiwan after being captured, but went to India like several other prisoners of war, and from India to Argentina in South America.
He made a name for himself in Argentina, not only becoming the largest jewelry merchant in the country, but also owning a 600,000-acre farm, not to mention the brother-in-law of former Argentine President Raul Alfonsín.
He is Cheng Liren, who was born in Guizhou.
Anti-Beauty Morning
01、
Cheng Liren, formerly known as Cheng Guogang.
Born in 1926 in a wealthy merchant family in Xujiaba District, Sinan County, Guizhou Province, Cheng Liren was able to study from primary school to university because of his family's wealth.
In the year of the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, 19-year-old Cheng Liren was admitted to the foreign language department of a university in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, which was still called the Spanish Department at that time Xi.
In July 1949, Cheng Liren, who graduated from university, found that the current situation was chaotic, so that he, a top student in the foreign language department, could not find a job, in order to make a living, Cheng Liren joined the 95th Army of the Kuomintang and became a grassroots officer.
The 95th Army of the Kuomintang, formed in 1938, was originally a unit formed because the "Sichuan Army" went out of Sichuan to resist Japan and Sichuan was empty, and the troops have been stationed in Chengdu for a long time.
In May 1946, the 95th Army was reorganized into the 39th Division of the Kuomintang. In September 1948, the number of the 95th Army was restored again.
On December 9, 1949, the 95th Army declared an uprising under the leadership of Liu Wenhui, Deng Xihou, Pan Wenhua and other "Sichuan Army" generals, and the 95th Army was immediately incorporated into the 60th Army of the People's Liberation Army.
In 1951, as a soldier of the 180th Division of the 60th Army of the Chinese Volunteers, Cheng Liren went to North Korea with the troops to participate in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, and on May 27, 1951, Cheng Liren was captured.
Regarding Cheng Liren's capture, his own account is very different from the account of his comrades-in-arms.
Volunteer Army veteran Zhang Zeshi
Cheng Liren's own statement was that he was captured by exhaustion, while his comrade-in-arms Zhang Zeshi unceremoniously said in his autobiographical documentary literary work "My Korean War" that Cheng Liren surrendered voluntarily.
Regardless of whether Cheng Liren surrendered voluntarily or not, it is a fact that he served the US army in the prisoner of war camp and specially compiled materials for the volunteer prisoners of war to learn Xi.
Therefore, the old man Zhang Zeshi, who has a firm position, denounced Cheng Liren as a "hardcore traitor" in his memories.
However, although Cheng Liren did not take a firm stand, and even took the initiative to serve the US military in order to make his life better in the prisoner of war camp, he had also been said to be a "hardcore traitor."
This is because Cheng Liren was appointed by the Americans as the captain of the 4th Brigade of the 86th Wing of the prisoner of war camp because of his proficient English and cooperative attitude, managing more than 1,000 prisoners of war.
Monument to the People's Heroes
However, later, the actual power of the prisoner of war camp was seized by Dai Yushu and Zhao Mingming, who took a firm position, and Cheng Liren did not retaliate against Dai Yushu, Zhao Mingming, and Zhang Zeshi for this.
Cheng Liren was later beaten by Dai Yushu and other staunch people in the prisoner of war camp for providing help to Wu Peili, a priest with the American army, and he did not choose to take revenge on Dai Yushu and others by the hands of the US military.
But he also did not gain the trust of the self-proclaimed Kuomintang veterans in the prisoner of war camp, and those Kuomintang veterans thought that Cheng Liren was singing a "bitter meat trick" with Dai Yushu and others.
India
02、
It may be precisely because of the ambiguous position that Cheng Liren did not choose to return to China with Dai Yushu and other determined fighters, but he did not choose to go to Taiwan, but chose to go to India with 10 other volunteer prisoners of war.
No matter what Cheng Liren thought, but after arriving in India, Cheng Liren was very disappointed in his situation.
This is because although India abolished the caste system at the legal level in 1946, at the time of Cheng Liren's arrival in India, the caste system was indeed prevalent in Indian society.
The Chinese in India are regarded by the Indians as fifth-class Dalits, meaning untouchables, because they are mainly engaged in work such as shoemaking (which requires cowhide).
Therefore, although Cheng Liren is fluent in English and Spanish, it is still difficult to find a suitable job in India.
A year later, Cheng Liren, disillusioned with India, chose to become a seafarer, and his main purpose was to leave India with the ship.
In 1955, Cheng Liren arrived in Argentina in South America.
Argentina is the size of 16 Guizhou, but its population is about the same as Guizhou, with only about 30 million people. Moreover, agriculture and animal husbandry are relatively developed, many products are exported first in the world, and the industry also has a certain foundation, and it was one of the few developed countries in South America at that time (now it is an underdeveloped country).
Argentine specialty: rhodochrosite jewelry
Due to his special experience and his solid language skills (English/Spanish), Cheng Liren chose to engage in the international jewelry trade, mainly selling rhodochrotic jewelry, a specialty of Argentina, to India, where jewelry is in great demand. It then imports large quantities of soybean meal from India and sells it to large cattle farmers in Argentina.
The speed of information flow in the 50s of the 20th century was completely incomparable with that of the 21st century, and there were not many people in Argentina who could know where India was at that time, so Cheng Liren's business could be said to be a unique business.
The relatively cheap rhodochrosite in Argentina can be sold at a sky-high price when it is shipped to India, and with the outbreak of the "container revolution", the logistics cost of shipping has dropped sharply, and Cheng Liren has become a huge rich man in Argentina.
By 1968, the 42-year-old Cheng Liren had become one of the largest local jewelers in Argentina and the richest Chinese businessman in Argentina.
And according to the memories of the children of local overseas Chinese in Argentina, Cheng Liren's reputation among the local Chinese is also very good.
In the 80s of the 20th century, Cheng Liren was not only the largest jeweler in Argentina, with 600,000 acres of land under his name, two listed companies, but also the brother-in-law of the then Argentine President Raul Alfonsin.
In 1986, Cheng Liren, who had been away from his hometown for many years, returned to Guizhou to visit relatives, and he donated a sum of dollars to his hometown of Xujiaba, Sinan County, Guizhou Province, for public welfare undertakings such as building office roads.
Xujiaba, Sinan County, Guizhou
Not only that, Cheng Liren also sponsored several comrades-in-arms of the volunteer army who were farming in Sinan County, but the comrades-in-arms were unwilling to accept it.
It's not that Cheng Liren didn't have a firm stance back then, but Cheng Liren gave dollars, and in Sinan County, Guizhou in 1986, dollars really couldn't be used.
Later, Cheng Liren also tried to introduce a South American cash crop, jojoba, to Guizhou, but it did not seem to be very successful.
The last news about Mr. Cheng Liren was in 2015.
At that time, Cheng Liren sent a representative to visit the Hubei Yangtze River International Chamber of Commerce in Wuhan.
The above is a brief introduction to Cheng Liren, if you have anything to say, please leave a message in the comment area to discuss.
END
Resources:
"The Deputy Director of the Standing Committee of the Guizhou Provincial People's Congress Led a Delegation to Three South American Countries to Inspect Overseas Chinese Affairs", China News Network;
"Volunteer Army Veterans Leave Argentina to Become the President's Brother-in-law", Southeast Net;
My Korean War, Zhang Zeshi, Jincheng Publishing House;