Source: People's Daily Overseas Edition
On February 11, 1938, Su Qing (fourth from the left) and a group of Thai overseas Chinese youth returned from Bangkok by boat to participate in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.
In 1943, Su Qing captured binoculars and leather gloves while fighting back against the "sweeping" of the Japanese puppet army in the Zhenjiazhuang area of Xingxian County, Shanxi Province.
Su Qing's family photo. Su Qing is on the left side of the first row, and su Suisheng is the third person from the left in the second row.
At the "Centennial Voyage of Pure Overseas Chinese Hearts - Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Founding of the Communist Party of China" at the Museum of Overseas Chinese History in China, a permit for the return of overseas Chinese issued by Bangkok's Fortress County in 1937 silently tells the historical story of Thai returnees returning to China to participate in the War of Resistance Against Japan. The owner of the return certificate is Su Qing, a returnee from Thailand and a veteran of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, whose children donated the return certificate to the Overseas Chinese History Museum in 2014, along with 34 historical relics preserved by Su Qing.
The badge of the New Fourth Army, the certificate of graduation from the Yan'an Anti-Japanese Military and Political University, the telescopes and leather gloves of Japanese officers captured during the War of Resistance Against Japan... The cultural relics donated by these children of Su Qing are eye-catching in the museum. Su Suisheng, the eldest son of Su Qing, told this reporter that it is his common wish and his brothers and sisters to let more people understand the contributions of overseas Chinese and ethnic Chinese in the development of the Chinese revolution. The following are Su Suisheng's memories of his father.
Return to China——
It is a common wish to return to Japan
In February 1938, the anti-Japanese flames spread all over the land of China, and my father Su Qing returned from Thailand. At the time, he had just turned 20. Before leaving, on the steamship that was about to leave Bangkok, he left a group photo with his fellow overseas Chinese youth in Thailand. The young man in the group photo is dressed in a shirt, smiling and full of energy. Returning to Japan to resist Japan is their common aspiration.
Before returning to China, my father was already deeply involved in a series of activities led by the Communist Party in Thailand. Born in Jieyang, Guangdong in 1918, he went to Thailand with his parents in 1926 to earn a living. In 1927, the first Kuomintang-Communist cooperation broke down, and some CCP members went into exile in Southeast Asia. In 1929, when my father was a working student at The Radhoo Circle Primary School in Bangkok, he was exposed to communist ideas through members of local Communist Party organizations. After the "September 18" incident in 1931, my father actively participated in the local anti-Japanese salvation movement, and successively participated in the "Anti-Imperialist Grand Alliance" led by the Communist Party in Thailand, the "Workers' Anti-Japanese Salvation Congress" and the "Student Anti-Japanese Salvation Congress" under the leadership of the Communist Party in Thailand. In October 1937, my father joined the Communist Party in Thailand. In February 1938, his father was sent back to China to study by the Thai branch of the Communist Party.
After landing in Shantou, Guangdong Province, his father and his party went to Longyan, Fujian Province, to join the second detachment of the New Fourth Army, and then they were arranged by the organization to study in Yan'an, and were assigned to the Ninth Military Team of the Fourth Phase of the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University (referred to as "Kang Da"). The experience of studying hard in Thailand made my father cherish the opportunity to study after returning home. In the Kang Da, his father was commended by the brigade, and the prize notebook is preserved to this day. On his father's graduation certificate, there is Mao Zedong's inscription: "Brave, firm and composed." Learn from the struggle. Ready to sacrifice everything for the cause of national liberation. "That's exactly what father believes.
Throwing pens from Rong was my father's ideal after completing his studies. In 1940, his father continued his studies at the Anti-Japanese Military and Political College in Yan'an. After graduating in 1942, he was assigned to the 358th Brigade of the 120th Division in northwest Jinbei as a combat staff officer at the headquarters of the third sub-district of the Jinsui Military Region, and began his career as a horseman.
Combat --
Always rush to the front one
Of all the donations, my father seized a telescope from a Japanese officer, one of my brothers and sisters' favorites. This is the spoils of war captured by my father when he participated in the Battle of Zhenjiazhuang in the War of Resistance Against Japan and annihilated the Japanese Kou Chunchuan Brigade. My father once told us about the thrilling process of this battle, and we were deeply impressed.
In September 1943, the troops of the Jinsui Military Region of the Eighth Route Army counterattacked the "sweeping" of the Japanese puppet army in the Zhenjiazhuang area of Xingxian County, Shanxi Province, and the Japanese Chunchuan Brigade was encircled by the Eighth Route Army for three consecutive times in Zhenjiazhuang. On the night of October 8, more than a hundred Japanese Kou attempted to sneak into the eighth route army command post where my father was located in order to break through the encirclement of the eighth route army. At that time, his father, who was a combat staff officer of the military sub-district, immediately rushed to the front-line command post of the military region to report the situation and requested that the front-line send reinforcements. His father was running wildly in the mountain stream, and the Japanese on both sides of the mountain stream kept shooting at his father. Father successfully arrived at the front command post to report on the situation, and brought reinforcements to repel the sneaking enemy troops. In the end, the Eighth Route Army annihilated the enemy army on October 11, annihilating more than 700 Japanese Kou and capturing 2 heavy machine guns, 15 light machine guns, and 203 long and short guns. During the battle, my father captured the telescopes and leather gloves of Japanese officers, and there was a piece of white silk in the mottled leather mirror shell, which was stained with dark red blood.
As a child, our brothers and sisters loved this telescope. When my father was idle, he would sit on the roof of his house and use this telescope to teach us to look at the stars, which is the Big Dipper, which is Libra, which is Orion... The practical knowledge that these fathers accumulated to identify directions when they marched and fought became an interesting talking point for us when we were entertained. Later, we learned that this souvenir was bought with the blood of his father and comrades-in-arms, and the "story" of the war that his father said was the nine deaths he personally experienced.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, my father participated in anti-sweeping and anti-encroachment battles many times, and for his meritorious service in combat, he was twice awarded the general order of the military sub-district. When marching and fighting, my father always rushed to the front one. My father's comrades-in-arms once told me that at that time, he often helped other soldiers carry guns, and one of them carried several guns on his shoulders, as if they were hitting with iron.
Heritage——
Let more people understand the contributions of overseas Chinese and ethnic Chinese
From returning to Japan at the age of 20 to participate in the Liberation War, to serving in the guangzhou municipal government department after the founding of New China, my father's life has been doing his part for the motherland he loves. In the 1930s, like their father, many overseas Chinese in Thailand returned from Thailand to participate in the War of Resistance, and many of them gave their precious lives in the war.
In 1970, under the influence of my father, I joined the army at the age of 17. The night before I left, my father called me away and told me to be in the army to "first believe in the party, second, believe in the masses of the people, and third, believe in the socialist road." At that time, I was still in the rebellious period, I did not understand very well, but when I repeatedly encountered difficulties and choices in the army and the subsequent life path, these three points of my father made me always walk on the right path of growth. Loving the country and the party is his firm belief, but also his lifelong education for our brothers and sisters, although the professions are different, 6 of our brothers and sisters are "old party members" who joined the party early.
After retiring from the army, I engaged in microcomputer-related technical work in the factory, and then studied abroad, returned to China to start a business, whether it was learning technology or starting a business, my father taught us "brave, frugal, helpful, down-to-earth" from an early age, all reminding and urging me at all times. Since 1995, the company I run has set up the Xinli Suqing Scholarship Fund to support students in China who are studying but have financial difficulties and excellent academic qualities to successfully complete their studies, and have donated more than 500 people so far. My father's teachings are not only passed on within the family, but also influence more and more aspiring young people through our efforts.
In 1997, his father died of a heart attack. In the process of sorting out my father's belongings, our brothers and sisters increasingly came up with the idea of donating my father's "collection". In 2014, after careful consideration, we decided to donate all the valuable relics left by our father to the newly established Museum of Overseas Chinese History. We hope to let more people understand that in the process of China's anti-Japanese salvation and revolutionary construction, the vast number of overseas Chinese and ethnic Chinese have contributed a lot of strength. China's rise and development is the result of the joint efforts of the CPC leading all the sons and daughters of China.