Chapter 1: Fujian Rén & Lin Ze Xu: The Fuzhou Hero Who Destroyed Opium

Under Communist rule, the most famous Fujian Rén was Chen Bo Da, who became the "ghost writer" for Mao Ze Dong. He was a native of Hui'an, a district 24 kilometers southeast of Quanzhou. The city's southern end faces the sea and is important for its military strategic position.

Chen was born in Hui'an in a poor family. He studied at Jinmen School and graduated from the Shanghai Labor University. During his school days, Bo Da studied Leninism and was deeply engrossed with Marxist thoughts. He joined the CCP in 1924. From 1927-1930, he went to Moscow and studied at Sun Yat Sen University and returned to China in 1931 to become a teacher in a Chinese university. After the Liberation, Chen became Vice Chairman of the propaganda department of the CCP. Chen accompanied Mao to the Soviet Union in 1949 when China signed a friendship treaty with Russia. In 1957, he accompanied Deng Xiao Ping and General Peng De Huai to Moscow to attend the 40th anniversary of the Russian October Revolution.

Mao had been disappointed with his past secretaries. He found Chen trustworthy and therefore became close to him. Chen was a proli.c writer and understood Mao's mind. After the Communists’ victory, Chen became a most trusted lieutenant and often wrote essays in Mao's name. When Mao purged his Communist comrades, Chen helped him to write the necessary documents to justify his actions.

When the Cultural Revolution started, Chen became a loyal supporter of Mao and Jiang Qing, Mao's wife. Later, Jiang Qing introduced him to Lin Biao and he became a ghostwriter for Lin. When the purge was on, Jiang Qing began to persecute the top generals and Zhou En Lai tried to stop this persecution without avail. It was only after Chen stepped in that the matter was shelved. When the ambitious Lin Biao wanted to replace Mao, Chen helped him to draft his adoration of Mao as God. When Lin Biao was in power, he was promoted as a member of the Politburo. When Deng Xiao Ping moved in to clear the Gang of Four, Chen was also arrested along with the four and sentenced to death.

My Hui'an friends still remember Chen as a good man. They feel that Chen was a victim of circumstances. His mistake was in having become too close to Mao and Jiang Qing and was thereby dragged into the internal struggle for power. He was buried in his hometown of Hui'an.

Since the Ming dynasty, Hui'an has been an important military base for China and was therefore the center for training Chinese soldiers. Hui'an is expanding fast industrially but it lacks water supply. I had travelled here to discuss getting investors to deal with water supply with the relevant authorities.

The nickname of Hui'an is "The Stone City", as it is known for its stone carvings throughout China. The old castle walls of Chongwu surround the city and have been well maintained till today. These walls were built during the Ming dynasty and had contributed tremendously in defending China's coastal line. According to the statistics of the Ming dynasty, about half of the population of Hui'an were soldiers, which explains why Hui'an Rén are more rugged and rough. One fourth of the population were masons and another fourth were salt dealers. Most of the skilled masons from Quanzhou landed in Hui'an and made it the center of masonry. The masons began by carving various types of Chinese lions, which were sold all over China and then in markets overseas.

By the Guang Xu period of the Qing dynasty, Hui'an had reached its golden era throughout China. There was great demand for Hui'an stone craftsmanship and Hui'an stone factories mushroomed all over Fujian and China. Beijing's major stone carvings have been done by Hui'an masons, including Mao Ze Dong's tomb and Tan Kah Kee's mausoleum in Jinmei, the stone statue commemorating the 72 martyrs in Guangdong, and Zheng Cheng Gong's statue in Gulangyu.

The most famous family of masons is the Jiang family. The pioneering mason of the family Jiang Xie Xin emerged during the Dao Guang period of the Qing dynasty. For three generations, the Jiang family has produced stone carvings under the name of "Jiang Yuan Zeng". In the past, the art of stone carving was passed on only to male descendants. Ladies were prohibited from learning how to carve. The 1970s saw a change in this custom and a Jiang family female descendant named Jiang Qing Ru started to learn this art at the age of 24. She was talented and learned fast. Today, she has created her own style of stone carving and her masterpiece is the "Four Dragons Playing With Pearls". There are also other lady sculptors such as Liu Li Shia, who has also made a name for her skills. Her works have been exhibited in Japan and Southeast Asian countries. At age 23, she has become the owner of a factory, famous for carving the 12 animals of the Chinese horoscope.

When I visited Hui'an, we went to the exhibition ground of Hui'an carvings near the beach. We saw stone carvings depicting a series of classical Chinese stories such as Romance Of The Three Kingdoms, Shuihu Zhuan (Water Margin, or All Men Are Brothers), Xi You Ji (Journey To The West ). There is also a huge stone statue of Zheng Cheng Gong facing the sea, which is the tallest modern stone carving I have seen in China.

We were brought to a stone image carving shop nearby and saw how they carved picture images into stone. There were carvings of Mao Ze Dong, Zhou En Lai, Deng Xiao Ping and even American leaders like Nixon, the former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, a German Chancellor, Taiwanese leaders Chiang Ching Guo and Lee Teng Hui, the former President of the Philippines Cori Aquino, and Singapore's former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew. The carver is a Hui'an lady named Liu Bi Lan, who has made a name for herself carving famous leaders worldwide. Liu has had 20 years of carving experience and specializes in portraits. The manager asked for a picture of my wife and I so that our portraits could be carved.

Anping Bridge & Nan'an: The Birthplace of Zheng Cheng Gong

Nan'an is next to Tong'an and is also administered by Quanzhou. This district has developed into a robust light industrial city. The city is so hilly and the soil so poor that it is not suitable for agriculture. The city has gained a bad reputation for its imitation goods and fake cigarettes; there is nothing that Nan'an Rén cannot imitate.

On our way there, we had to walk across an old, stone bridge built in 1138 during the Song dynasty. It was about .ve li (Chinese miles) or about 2,223 meters long, with 300 pillars. Being so ancient, it could not accommodate motor vehicles so we had to walk across it. It is called Anping Bridge and should be the world's oldest stone bridge, having been built over 800 years ago. Nearing the end of the Ming dynasty, Zheng Cheng Gong had trained his solders near the bridge. So had Qi Ji Guang, who had fought the Japanese.

Nan'an is the birthplace of Zheng Cheng Gong, the Chinese hero who had fought the Manchus and retreated to Taiwan. He chased away the Dutch who were then occupying Taiwan. We came across an old village called Chaiqi Village which still retains 16 old houses. A multi-millionaire from the Philippines who was born in Quanzhou had taken a liking to the fengshui of the village, bought over the land, built his Chai family houses, and added some Western architecture into it. The new construction bears many stone carvings of qilin and feng (phoenixes), and his collection of Chinese paintings. It has become an attraction for tourists.

Lai Chang Xing, China's Biggest Smuggler

Fujian also produced China's greatest smuggler who became the richest man in the country. He came from Jinjiang, essentially an industrialized city with few historical monuments, administered by Quanzhou. Some years ago, Jinjiang included Shishi — Stone Lion City, or Cheosai in the Minnan dialect. The two cities together now produce about 70 percent of the world's consumption of sports shoes. Jinjiang is also known as one of the biggest suppliers of fashion wear. But the town of Jinjiang became famous throughout the world mainly because of China's biggest smuggler Lai Chang Xing, who was born in Jinjiang.

From an illiterate farmer's son, Lai became the richest man in China and is now a fugitive. He was involved in China's grandest smuggling racket in Fujian that reached the total sum of 83 billion RMB under the name of his company Yuanhua. More than 50 top officals including governors, mayors, customs of.cers, security chiefs, and high-ranking generals were involved. Many of them had already been shot to death after the courts sentenced them for having assisted Lai. Today, China is still trying to extradite Lai from Canada where he was free to move around until July 2002 when he was placed under house arrest. Lai is currently awaiting an extradition act from Canadian courts; it is still debatable whether the Canadian authorities will hand Lai over to China.

Beginnings

Lai Chang Xing was born in 1960 in the home of a poor farmer's house in Jinjiang. At the time of his birth, China was undergoing the Cultural Revolution and he suffered from hunger and deprivation. He was thin and dark. As his parents were poor, he did not attend school.

When he was a boy, Chang Xing visited Shishi and saw children of his age, well dressed, eating well and attending school. He really envied them. After the Cultural Revolution, at 18, he started a factory to produce screwdrivers. Although he could not even write his name properly in Chinese, Chang Xing had a miraculous memory for figures. He could count faster than a calculator. He worked hard travelling 170 kilometers to Xiamen to sell his screwdrivers. He made a little fortune and became rich. The time coincided with Deng Xiao Ping's call to get rich. Deng had commented that there was nothing wrong to be rich.

In the early 1980s, Lai moved to Shishi and started a factory producing umbrellas and also engaged in printing. He made useful contacts with Jinjiang Fujian Rén who had migrated to Hong Kong and Southeast Asian countries. After a successful venture in manufacturing, he branched off into the property business. He later moved to Xiamen and made a breakthrough engaging in sales of motor vehicles and motor spare parts. It struck him that he could make money quicker if he could smuggle vehicles into the Chinese ports.

Being a Jinjiang Fujian Rén, known for their generosity, Lai is an extraordinary person; he made money but lavished it back to the people who had helped him. He got in touch with the governor, the mayor, the security chief, the custom of.cers as well as some top generals who had helped him in smuggling. He is a genius in human relations and knows the mentality of his own people; he knew the weakness of every human being — money and pleasure. As a good schemer, he planned all his strategies and got the necessary officals to help him fulfil his objectives.

Lai: A smuggler-philanthropist in Hong Kong

In 1991 when he moved to Hong Kong, Lai was already planning an escape just in case he had to run away. He bought several passports after Hong Kong was returned to China.

In 1996, he declared an open-house at his 38-storey Yuanhua International Building in Hong Kong. He invited about 2,000 guests, among them leaders from the central, provincial and city governments. He gave an extraordinary banquet of sharks’ .n, birds’ nest and other highest quality dishes. He also offered a gift packet for every guest of 3,000 RMB in value, including a red packet of 1,000 RMB, a bottle of XO brandy, two cartons of 555 cigarettes, and a beautiful umbrella.

By 1997, businesses all over Asia were hit by the world recession and Yuanhua too was affected. Lai devised with the idea of smuggling to survive. His generosity was so reputed that whoever did not know him was not a good businessman. He also formed a football team under the name of his company and it became the strongest team in China. He also started a school and named it Yuanhua Middle School. He donated money for the construction of bridges and infrastructure and became a well-known philanthropist.

Lai's business in his hometown

Lai was particularly generous in his hometown. He gave 500 RMB to every elderly man and woman in Jinjiang who was over 60 years old; it was meant as a subsidy from him. In Xiamen, he bought a special mansion known as “The Red House” to entertain his guests, who included top military generals, governors and mayors. He provided them with pleasures, organizing extravagant dinners and hiring pimps to provide the prettiest girls from all over China.

The deputy secretary of Xiamen became Lai's sworn brother. His smuggling racket involved many top-notch officals, especially the Security Chief and top custom of.cers. He smuggled cars, petroleum, wine, cigarettes, and anything under the sun that could make money. This was an easy matter with the help of top officals. Nobody dared touch the goods “imported” by Lai. Money flowed in like water.

Lai's greatest fortune came from smuggling petroleum. Before he did this, there was usually a long queue of motorists waiting to fill their tanks. A liter of petroleum cost more than 2,000 RMB. After he had succeeded in smuggling petroleum, to the volume of 600,000 tonnes a month, Lai sold petroleum on his own. The cost was only 500 RMB less than the market price. There were no more queues at the petrol kiosk from then onwards. Lai made at least 60 million RMB a month.

Investigation, arrest and escape

Whatever Lai brought into China through smuggling, no custom of.cial dared to search his goods. He had full protection but the government lost revenue. Then in 1998, owing to internal feuds between various political leaders, the central government sent a 68-year-old iron lady from Shandong to probe into this smuggling racket. Her nickname was Yan Luo Wang (God of Hell) and her unit was referred to as 420. Anyone who heard of an investigation from Unit 420 shivered because she was so ruthless, aggressive and tough that they were all afraid of her. Unit 420 shook the whole of Xiamen. Finally, Lai's smuggling racket was exposed and he was arrested.

Lai escaped and ran for his life to Canada with the help of his cronies. It was easy for him to leave the country for he had several passports and had good connections with the immigration authorities. Before his departure, Prime Minister Zhu Rong Ji came to inspect "The Red House" and I was told Zhu had offered to let Lai off if he could pay all the taxes that he had evaded. By his smuggling, Lai had cost the country to lose billions of dollars. Lai told Zhu that he could not afford to repay the tax because most of the pro.ts had been given away to top officals. Lai's smuggling racket resulted in .ve top officals facing the .ring squad, several in life imprisonment, and many others arrested.

When Lai was arrested, the old folks in Jinjiang started grumbling. They could not understand why the government had to arrest such a "nice person". He had provided them with their "pension fund" of 500 RMB. His arrest and disappearance caused most of the civil servants to slow down in their work. The whole city now suffered from non-action. Nobody dared to make decisions for fear of punishment. It was dif.cult to get anything done in Xiamen because nobody dared to put his signature or approve anything. No one would take any responsibility.

The case of Lai shows clearly that the Jinjiang Rén are generally generous. They are daring, but when they make money, they are generous and are prepared to share their wealth with whoever had helped them

Fuzhou: The Dialect and the People of East Fujian

Fuzhou Huà is one of the most dif.cult dialects I have ever come across. I tried to learn the dialect when I was a kid but failed because it was too dif.cult. I learnt a few words, one of which is kaliu (taking a stroll). Knowing Minnan Huà alone would not be an advantage even for Fujian Rén who have moved to Fuzhou; very few Fuzhou Rén speak the Minnan dialect and very few Minnan Fujian Rén speak Fuzhou Huà The only way they can communicate among themselves is through Mandarin. Anyone not knowing the two dialects is lost in Fuzhou.

Generally, Fuzhou Rén have a more gentle nature and always guard their manners and behavior. They are among the elite in Fujian society. They are law-abiding, respect manners, and like to be properly dressed. They like things traditional but are easily provoked to violence when they lose their temper. They like to fight. They go more for social status than material gains. The character of Fuzhou Rén living in the hills differs slightly from those living on the coast; those who live in the hills are more reserved while those along the coast are more adventurous.

There have been many good scholars from Fuzhou in Chinese history as there is a Fuzhou tradition of providing every member of the family with a good education. Almost every male Fuzhou family member has aimed at taking the imperial examination and took pride if he passed the examination. During the early part of the Tang dynasty, there were 20 jinshi from Fuzhou, comprising one-third of the jinshi from Fujian. By the middle of the Tang dynasty, there were already 40 jinshi from Fuzhou, comprising half of all successful candidates in Fujian. Among those who had attained the position of jinshi were Lin Ze Xu, Lin Sen, Shen Bao Zhen, and Lin Jue Min -- one of those who had sacri.ced his life during the anti-Manchu struggle in Guangdong and one of the 72 martyrs in the uprising sparked off by Dr. Sun Yat Sen's revolution.

I have visited the home of Shen Bao Zhen, the son-in-law of Lin Ze Xu, a top imperial of.cial during the Qing dynasty. I have also visited the home of Lin Jue Min in Fuzhou.

Lin Sen: China's First President

Lin Sen was another leading personality of Fuzhou, a strong supporter of Dr. Sun Yat Sen, and China's first President in 1932 after Chiang Kai Shek was forced to step down; he was one of those who had bene.ted by their clash of personalities. He was a Fuzhou Rén well respected by all Chinese.

Lin (1868-1943) was born in Fuzhou but went to Taipei for studies, majored in science, and worked at the Telegraph Department in Tainan. During the Sino-Japanese War, he joined student activists against China ceding Taiwan to Japan. When Japan occupied Taiwan, Lin joined the underground guerrilla activities against the Japanese started by Liu Yong Fu, also known as the "Black General" who had returned from Vietnam. Through the help of a friend, Lin returned quietly to China to assist the Black General. Later, he worked for the Customs Department in Shanghai and came under the influence of Dr. Sun Yat Sen. In 1905, he joined the Tongmenghui started by Dr. Sun and participated in the Wuzhang revolt initiated by Dr. Sun to overthrow the Qing dynasty.

In 1912 when the Nanjing Government was formed, Lin was elected Speaker of Parliament. When Yuan Shi Kai took over power, Lin returned to Fuzhou. In 1913, he participated in the general elections and was elected again as Speaker of Parliament but Yuan Shi Kai then dissolved the Parliament. He escaped to Japan and supported Dr. Sun in his political activities.

When Yuan Shi Kai died after becoming China's new emperor for 83 days, Lin returned to China and was again elected as Speaker of Parliament. In 1922, Lin was appointed Governor of Fujian after the aborted coup of warlord Chen Jiong Ming. When Dr. Sun died in 1925, he was in charge of supervising the construction of Dr. Sun's tomb.

In 1931 when Chiang Kai Shek was forced to resign after the September 18 incident, Lin became the acting President and in 1932, he was con.rmed as President. He served from 1932 to 1943.

In 1937 after the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War, Lin was involved in the anti-Japanese war. Then in 1943, he met with an accident and died the same year. He was buried in Fuzhou, his hometown.

Bing Xin: A Famous Female Author

Fuzhou has produced many good writers and painters. Among them was the most distinguished lady writer Bing Xin (1900–1999), a proli.c writer who specialized in novels. She lived till 99 years of age.

She was the daughter of Xie Bao Zhang, who had once taken part in the war against the Japanese. Her original name was Xie Wan Ying. Her father later became the principal of a Chinese school in Yantai and held various appointments in the navy. At the age of seven, she had read The Romance of the Three Kingdoms and All Men are Brothers, as well as novels of Charles Dickens.

During Dr. Sun Yat Sen's revolutionary days,Wan Ying followed her father back to Fuzhou and joined the Fuzhou Teachers' Training College, becoming the first girl to attend a college. In the old days, only males attended school. In 1913, she accompanied her father to Beijing and joined the Beijing Xiehe University. She was involved in the 1919 May Fourth Movement in Beijing and started writing articles using the pen name of Bing Xin.

In 1923, Xie received a scholarship to further her studies in America. On board a liner, she met President Jackson and became friends. In 1926, she graduated with a master's degree and returned to Beijing to teach at the Yanjing University. In 1929, she was married to Wu Wen Zao at Yanjing University.

In 1931, Bing Xin started writing novels such as Fen (Divide), Lady in Winter and Returning To The South. I had read some of her novels whilst studying at Chung Ling High School.

In 1936, Bing Xin travelled extensively to Japan, America, France, Britain, Italy, Germany, and Russia to give lectures. In 1940, she moved to Chongqing and was appointed as Senator. In 1951, she returned to Beijing and engaged in various international activities. She again travelled extensively, this time to Burma, Switzerland, Egypt, and again to Italy, Britain, and Russia. She again wrote various novels and articles about the livelihood of the various peoples of the countries she had visited.

In 1970 during the Cultural Revolution, Bing Xin was sent to Hubei for "training". She did odd jobs there until 1977 when she was released. She never gave up writing as she grew older. In 1992, China's renowned writer Ba Jin established a special literary society to study her works.

Bing Xin died on February 28, 1999 at the Beijing General Hospital. When I was visiting Zhangzhou, a city near Nanjing, sometime in 1996, my host presented me with a work of calligraphy written by Bing Xin.