志异 Draft by Drama box december 2013 (english) | Page 32

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g u es t c ol u mn
m e m o r y x s p ac e
d ra ft v ol 2 i ss ue 2

When I went to Hainan in 1949, I had a
passport issued by the Republic of China.
At the time, the People’s Republic of China
had already been established in Beijing,
but Hainan was still under the control of the
Kuomintang. I was still a son of the Republic
of China when I ?rst returned, but by April
1950, the People’s Liberation Army had
crossed the Qiongzhou Strait and defeated
the Kuomintang army on Hainan Island. A
new era had begun. The Five-Starred Red
Flag was raised in Hainan, and I became
a citizen of the People’s Republic of China.
I lived in Hainan for two and a half years, and
celebrated two Chinese national days there.
I even learned a few songs that celebrated
the Communist revolution, such as The East
Is Red and Without the Communist Party,
There Would Be No New China. I also listened
to songs like The March of the Chinese
People’s Liberation Army and Three Rules
of Discipline and Eight Rules of Attention.
To my recollection, the People’s Liberation
Army had very strict discipline, and loved and
protected the people. The soldiers stationed
in our village even helped us to transport
water, chop ?rewood and mend roads.

In 1951, when I was attending a class on
manual labour (i.e., chopping trees in the
forest), my left hand was accidentally
injured by a classmate. Two of my ?ngers
were broken and I lost a great deal of
blood, and almost my life. There was
no way to recuperate properly in the
countryside, so I followed a relative back
to Singapore. My father took me to see a
Western doctor to treat my injury. That was
how I recovered my identity as an overseas