Yan, Qinghuang
Description
This study has three main purposes. One is to
describe and analyse the Chinese revolutionary activities
in Singapore and Malaya between 1900 and 1911 to show how
the movement grew and developed in these areas, and later
became one of the main streams of the movement overseas,
what difficulties it encountered, and what techniques
were adopted to solve the problems.
The second purpose is to analyse and explain how
overseas Chinese in Singapore and Malaya responded to the
revolution and...[Show more] what difference were the responses amongst
different classes of people.
The third is to estimate the importance of the
activities in Singapore and Malaya to the revolutionary
movement as a whole, and to assess the contribution in
manpower and finance from the region towards the 1911
revolution.
Studies on the Chinese revolution and monographs on
its personalities and organizations are not lacking.
However, overseas Chinese involvement and contributions
have been only barely touched and the present study is
but a modest attempt to delve into this neglected field.
Activities of Chinese revolutionaries in French Indo-China, Burma, Thailand, the Dutch East-Indies, Canada,
Japan and the United States and their contributions to the
revolution deserve more attention than has hitherto been
paid .
Overseas Chinese involvement in internal Chinese
politics was started by the revolutionaries. Later, the
Kuomintang's attempt to mobilize overseas Chinese against
the Yuan Shih-k'ai regime (1913-1916) showed the tendency
to use organizations and practices established during the
anti-Manchu phase. Thus, newspapers, public speeches,
mass rallies, reading clubs and drama troupes were used to
popularize anti-Yüan feeling, and these practices are
traceable to the period under study.
The choice of 1900 and 1911 as terminal dates is not
a matter of convenience. The year 1900 marked the
beginning of formal contact between the Chinese
revolutionary movement and Malaya. The year 1911 was a
turning point in the modern history of China and China's
relations with her overseas subjects. This period also
saw the growth of nationalistic and patriotic feelings in
the Chinese communities in Singapore and Malaya. It was
a period of transition from indifference to active
participation in China's politics, and from a divided and
disorganized society to a more united and more national
conscious one.The title, 'Chinese Revolutionary Movement in
Malaya, 1900-1911’ needs explanation, Malaya at the
time included the Malay Peninsula and Singapore, The
existence of Malaysia and Singapore to-day makes the
use of Malaya as a general term for the region under
study objectionable or even misleading to present day
readers if they do not bear in mind that Malaya from 1900
to 1911 did cover the region under study. The use of
'Chinese in Singapore and Malaya' instead of 'Malayan
Chinese' in the text might help to avoid misunderstandings.
The research is based mainly on Chinese newspapers
published in Singapore and Malaya during this period,
the KMT archives (published and unpublished), memoirs,
letters and pamphlets written by leaders actively engaged
in the revolution. In collecting sources, the author
came across many technical problems: the Chinese newspapers
used are not indexed, and information had to be
gathered laboriously page by page; microfilmed copies
of the newspapers were not available until 1966, one
year after this study had been started.
The newspaper used are party organs for revolutionaries
and reformists: the Chung Hsing Jih Pao, the Sun Pao and
Nan Ch'iao Jih Pao for the revolutionaries; the T’ien
Nan Hsin-Pao, Jih Hsin Pao, the Union Times and the Penang Hsin Pao for the reformists. In using these
newspapers, some mistakes made by published works and
archives have been corrected. They are pointed out in
the notes.
Additional difficulties were encountered in trying
to locate the archives of the Ch'ing Consulate and of the
Chinese Protectorate in Singapore. These two important
archives no longer exist, possibly lost during the
Japanese occupation. In interviewing descendants of
revolutionary leaders, the author also had difficulty in
obtaining information. Most of their private records were
lost during the Japanese occupation, and their memory of
their fathers or grandfathers was often vague and
inaccurate. Some of the living revolutionaries were
either too old to give accurate accounts or declined to
give any information. An old T’ung Meng Hui member in
Ipoh, Lee Ah Weng (age 88) declined to say anything
because he was afraid of revenge by Manchu descendants!
A former manager of the Kuang Hua Jih Pao in Penang
refused to be interviewed although the author had visited
his residence four times. This fear of involvement is a
common attitude among the overseas Chinese in Singapore
and Malaya. Romanizations in the text generally follow the Wade-
Giles system. However, when the persons and institutions
cited have their own transliterations in English, the
original transliterations are retained. A glossary is
provided for reference.
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