History

Japan’s colonisation of Taiwan after the First Sino-Japanese War is a chapter of history that the Chinese would rather forget, along with the pain and suffering that the Japanese inflicted on the people of China and Taiwan. Historical photo collector Hsu Chung-mao gives us an idea of that period.

Speaking at a recent talk co-organised by Yale-NUS College and the Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre, Professor Wang Gungwu gave a lecture titled "What Does it Mean to be Ethnically Chinese in Singapore?", pondering what Singapore is, what “Chinese” means, and finally, what it means to be Chinese in Singapore. This is an edited transcript of his speech.

Historical photo collector Hsu Chung-mao recounts the details of the Doolittle Raid, named after US Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle, which saw US and Chinese soldiers fighting together against the Japanese in their first and biggest joint action in WWII.

For over a century, China and the US have been in a tug-of-war of sorts, involving economics, geopolitics, culture and values. Historical photo collector Hsu Chung-mao sums up 100 years of friendship and rivalry between arguably the two most powerful countries in the world at the moment.

Hua Language Centre director Chew Wee Kai thinks back to the first time he attended a university graduation — in a tent. However, the solemnity of the event still shone through, in a fitting tribute to the effort of the graduates, as well as the travails of that storied university called Nanyang University (Nantah), and all that it came to represent.

Over the past century, China’s relations with the Soviet Union — and later Russia — have had its ups and downs. From early communist links and Soviet occupation of China, to today’s economic dealings, China’s leaders have navigated the tricky waters of history and geopolitics. Historical photo collector Hsu Chung-mao gives us a window into the past.

If pictures tell a thousand words, these images tell the harrowing tale of wartime units set up by the Japanese in northeast China to conduct experiments, allegedly on humans, in its chemical warfare programme. Yet sending a chill down the spine, they also depict the banality of life that soldiers return to after war. Life goes on but for aggressors and victims alike, the wounded are never the same again.

Hua Language Centre director Chew Wee Kai reminisces about the wells that he used to know as a child, and the stories and memories evoked of Singapore in the 1960s, in the days of water rationing and floods, when water did not come from turning on a tap, but tapping into the ground.

Photo collector Hsu Chung-mao tells us how he first met current Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Politburo Standing Committee member Wang Huning over 30 years ago at an international university debate competition in Singapore, when Wang was a university professor in charge of a debate team. Wang subsequently became a prominent strategist for Hu Jintao and Jiang Zemin, as well as current President Xi Jinping. This article gives a glimpse into Wang’s approach to debating and politics.