In March this year, Zhang Xinmin, vice president of the Guangdong Myanmar Returned Overseas Chinese Friendship Association, Cun Yingxin, former chairman of the Jiangmen Women's Federation, and other villagers made a special trip to visit the Jiangmen Overseas Chinese Federation and presented the newly published memoirs of the late Myanmar returned overseas Chinese Zhang Peidao "Kwaixiang Fire". Zhang Xinmin and Cun Yingxin, two villagers, introduced the life deeds and patriotic stories of the legendary revolutionary Zhang Peidao, which made people can't help but be in awe of the 200,000-word memoir in front of them.
A 200,000-word manuscript of returned overseas Chinese from Myanmar tells the precious history of the revolution
The book "Tinder in Kwai Township: Memoirs of Zhang Peidao, a Burmese Chinese Revolutionary Senior" was compiled by Professor Zhang Xinmin based on the handwritten diary of his father Zhang Peidao. The 200,000-word masterpiece "Tinder in Kwai Township" not only records in detail the peasant movement in the Xinhui area of Jiangmen and the workers' movement with the Taikoo Dockyard in Hong Kong as the main line during the First Domestic Revolution, but also describes in detail the patriotic progress of the Chinese society in Myanmar and the cause of resisting Japanese aggression and saving the country from 1929 to 1952, which is a very rare first-hand precious historical material. Experts in the history of overseas Chinese believe that Zhang Peidao's memoirs are rare cultural and historical materials of the "three relatives" that returned overseas Chinese from Myanmar have "personally seen, heard, and experienced," and has high reference value and research value. Zhang Peidao's revolutionary footprints throughout Jiangmen Xinhui, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Myanmar, experienced the period of the Great Revolution, the provincial and Hong Kong strikes, the War of Resistance against Japan, overseas schools, etc., these personal experience of historical events, have been reviewed and restored in Zhang Peidao's pen, which is a rare corroboration and historical material for the history of the party, the history of the revolution, the history of the war of resistance in Myanmar, and the history of Chinese education in Myanmar.
Zhang Peidao: The pursuit of light is unswerving
Zhang Peidao, a veteran of the Burmese overseas Chinese revolution, was a native of Xinhui, Guangdong, and was named Zhang Tingsheng during the Great Revolution. In the twenties of the last century, he was displaced in the old society and experienced a lot of hardships. In 1922, he participated in the seamen's strike in Hong Kong, read a lot of progressive books and periodicals, began to accept the influence of communist and Marxist-Leninist ideas, and had the desire and demand to participate in the revolution, so he returned to his hometown Jiangmen Xinhui in 1924 to participate in the revolution and join the Communist Party. First of all, during the period of cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, he assisted Ye Jizhuang, secretary of the Jianghui branch of the Communist Party of China (the first Minister of Foreign Trade after the founding of New China), to reorganize the Jiangmen City Party Department of the Kuomintang and served as the head of the Propaganda Department. After that, he traveled to 13 townships in Xinhui to organize peasant associations and peasant self-defense armies. He gave lectures at peasant night schools and gave speeches at mass meetings in Jiangmen to propagate revolutionary ideas, which were well received by the toiling masses. He successively served as the director of the Propaganda Department of the Xinhui County Farmers' Joint Office, the instructor of the Third District Farmers' Association, a member of the Standing Committee of the Jiangmen Federation of Industry, Agriculture, Commerce and Learning, and the head of the Propaganda Department. In 1927, Chiang Kai-shek betrayed the revolution. After the failure of the Communist-led Nanchang Uprising, preparations were made to launch the Guangzhou Uprising. Zhang Peidao actively participated in the Wuyi Rebellion in response to the Guangzhou Uprising in the Xinhui area of Jiangmen. The party organization sent him to Macao twice to attend meetings convened by the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee, and Ye Jizhuang handed him over the plan to bring back the Wuyi riots, and he was responsible for the division of labor, and he was appointed director of the anti-rebellion committee. With the failure of the Canton Uprising, so did the Wuyi Uprising. Many revolutionaries sacrificed their precious lives, and the White Terror was everywhere. Zhang Peidao had to go to Hong Kong via Macao, where he continued his revolutionary activities at the Taikoo Dockyard under the direct leadership of Deng Fa, secretary of the Hong Kong branch of China. Later, due to the harsh environment, he could not continue to gain a foothold in Hong Kong, and with the approval of Secretary Deng Fa, he had to leave his hometown, leave his wife and children, and travel to the unfamiliar Burma in 1929. In the 20 years since Zhang Peidao arrived in Burma, he has been unswervingly engaged in the patriotic, democratic and progressive cause of Burma and China with the mission of a Communist Party member. In 1942, he rejoined the Communist Party, and according to the instructions of the overseas Chinese party organization, he used his advantages and connections in Mandalay, Myanmar, to extensively unite overseas Chinese in Myanmar and create an anti-Japanese salvation organization for overseas Chinese youth in Myanmar - the Burmese-Chinese Wartime Service Corps and the Wartime Task Force (referred to as the War Workers' Corps) to publicize anti-Japanese resistance in various parts of northern Myanmar and contribute his own strength to the cause of the Anti-Japanese War.
Zhang Xinmin: Inheriting his father's legacy and continuing to write patriotic poems for returned overseas Chinese
The 200,000-word revolutionary history of Mr. Zhang Peidao, a returned overseas Chinese from Myanmar, "The Tinder of Kwai Township -- Memoirs of Zhang Peidao, a veteran of the Burmese Chinese Revolution," was compiled and published day and night by Professor Zhang Xinmin, the son of Mr. Zhang Peidao. And the organizer Zhang Xinmin is also an 87-year-old elder, so old to sit on the desk day and night to sort out a thick memoir, his mind and perseverance can be described as amazing, amazing. Professor Zhang Xinmin said: "The manuscript of the memoirs left by my father Zhang Peidao is a valuable spiritual wealth, which is of great significance for the later generations to study the history of the revolution and the history of overseas Chinese, so no matter what difficulties I encounter, I will also let them edit them into a book and publish them for public circulation. ”
Zhang Xinmin is a native of Xinhui County, Guangdong Province. Born on September 18, 1937 in Mogok, the holy land of gems in Myanmar, he is the son of Mr. Zhang Peidao, a veteran of the Burmese Chinese revolution. When he was young, he studied at Mogok Overseas Chinese Revival School. In 1951, he graduated from Nanyang High School (Wild Wind Class) in Yangon. At the end of 1952, he returned to his motherland for further study, and in 1963, he graduated from the Department of Foreign Languages of Sun Yat-sen University in Guangdong Province, majoring in English. In 1965, in order to meet the needs of the struggle to aid Vietnam and resist the United States, he was conscripted into the army to train military English talents for the People's Liberation Army, during which he compiled and published English textbooks, making contributions to the training of military English talents of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. In 1986, he served as the executive director of the English Professional Committee of Guangdong Provincial University, and also served as the editor-in-chief of "College English Teaching". Until his retirement in 1998, he was awarded many commendations by the General Staff Department, the General Political Department and the General Logistics Department of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. He is currently the vice president of the Guangdong Myanmar Returned Overseas Chinese Friendship Association and the director of the Guangdong Overseas Chinese Writers Federation. (Jiangmen Overseas Chinese Media Center: Huang Baijun/Photo Report)
Professor Zhang Xinmin (right) returned to his hometown to donate books
Ms. Cun Yingxin (right), a relative of Zhang Peidao, donated books to her hometown
The cover of Zhang Peidao's memoir "Tinder in Kwai Township".