Technical Missions
Technical missions will be sent to the Philippines and Thailand by the end of June to help overseas Chinese coordinate their efforts for economic development of the host countries.
S. K. Chow, chairman of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission, told the Legislative Yuan the missions will be composed of chemists, mechanical engineers, and experts on industrial and commercial management, electricity, fisheries and agriculture.
He noted that 1,128 technicians from Southeast Asian nations had received technical training in Taiwan from 1954 to 1961. In addition, the government has held many technical seminars for overseas graduate students. These seminars, he said, helped them obtain employment when they returned to their country of residence.
Chow reported his commission is working on a new educational program for overseas Chinese. He said vocational schools should be set up in some communities to meet the needs of local economic development.
The commission is establishing vocational schools in Seoul, Taegu, Pusan and Inchon in cooperation with Korean industries, he said.
To meet the needs of overseas Chinese schools, Chow added, the government had compiled 81 textbooks, including Philippine, Vietnamese, Thai, Cambodian, Hongkong and American editions. The textbooks will be distributed free.
The commission is planning to expand its overseas Chinese correspondence school to enroll some 10,000 students next semester. Current enrollment is 8,000.
Educational Contributions
President Chiang Kai-shek has awarded a plaque to an overseas Chinese leader in Canada in recognition of his contributions to the promotion of education in Taiwan.
The recipient is Chan Li-wu, a Chinese community leader in Toronto. He will receive the plaque from the Chinese embassy in Ottawa.
Chan last year donated a building in downtown Taipei for educational purposes and established a Buddhism scholarship foundation.
The foundation has presented six scholarships to students at National Taiwan University, Taiwan Normal University and National Cheng-chi University. It also provided funds for Buddhist publications.
More recently, Chan gave US$5,000 to establish another scholarship foundation for Taiwan students.
Counteroffensive Fund
A fund-raising drive among overseas Chinese students in Taiwan has been launched in support of the government policy of retaking the mainland.
The movement was initiated by the 101 overseas students of the Provincial Hsinchu
Middle School after the government announced a special defense tax assessment.
The students raised US$500 among themselves and wrote an open letter urging fellow overseas Chinese students to follow suit.
The students said they have confidence in the government's decision and ability to fight back to the mainland. But, they pointed out, military undertakings require large sums of money.
Mainland
Trouble with Returnees
The Chinese Communist regime is having trouble with some of the 100,000 overseas Chinese who returned to the mainland from Indonesia less than two years ago. The returnees, many of whom had been middle-class merchants, were herded onto special farms after arrival.
Things have not worked out so well according to a lengthy editorial in a Communist overseas Chinese affairs bulletin. It lamented "the growth of some undesirable practices" on the farms, which have not become self-supporting.
"They were willing to remain dependent on the state, did not love state property, did not treasure the material possessions of the masses, spent money wastefully and extravagantly and considered themselves as objects of preferential treatment by the state," the bulletin said. "As a result, these farms seriously alienated themselves from the support of the masses."
The report was published after completion of a February-March conference on the work of the overseas Chinese farms.
It complained that many of the overseas Chinese were irresponsible, lazy, physically unable to perform work, resisted ideological indoctrination, had little concern for state property, retained capitalistic ideas and practices and did not follow plans laid down by the state.
"New order must be established in the farms," the report said. "New habits must be cultivated ... regulations and systems for all matters must be instituted and perfected ....
"The farms must gradually realize self-sufficiency in grain, oil, meat, vegetables and running expenses. They must try to make profits .... "
The report complained that the overseas Chinese farms squandered huge sums of money and were marked by "confusion in financial administration."
"The central problem at the moment consists, above all, in the firm relegation of the power of control over production to the production teams and the institution and reinforcement of management and accounting systems at the production team level," the bulletin said.
"An end must be put to expenses and investments not covered by plans."
Mentioned repeatedly was the slow progress being made in the ideological training of the overseas Chinese. "Regular political work is a key measure for safeguarding the party's mass line," the bulletin said. "Political work should be regarded as an important indication of party leadership in the farms and it must be made the foundation of all production and undertakings there."
It added that ideological work among the farm members consists mainly of socialist education and education in patriotism, which includes education in the idea that the farm is one's home and labor is glorious. "The farm members must firmly set up the idea of love for the country, for labor, for the group, and for socialism ... ," the bulletin declared.
Hongkong
Beggar with a Purpose
Old Wu Long is not much better off materially than he was four years ago when he lost his job as a laborer in crowded Hongkong. But he is happy—happy with a big family.
Wu's family consists of 50-odd cats of all descriptions. They have one thing in common. They were all unwanted before they were rounded up from Hongkong streets by the 61-year-old Wu.
Wu's strange "orphanage" for the feline population is situated in one of Hongkong's slums. It was built of cardboard and canvas, "waterproofed" with torn sacks and discarded clothing.
In this tiny shelter, Wu sleeps on a board raised off the ground by four stools. All round him, piled on top of one another, are wooden boxes where his "children" catch catnaps. This has been his home and that of more than 1,000 unwanted cats for four years.
Wu turned to begging after he lost his job. A friend told him of a charitable organization that gave food to the poor. Wu went there and received five catties of rice.
On his way home he saw a sick, starving cat in the gutter. He forgot his own misery in sympathy for the animal. Clutching the cat under his ragged coat, he carried it home with him and exchanged part of his rice for a can of milk for the cat.
He tenderly nursed the animal to health. From that day forward, Wu has become the friend and benefactor of the cat population of Hongkong. Collecting sick, hungry, discarded animals from back streets and dark alleys, he takes them home and feeds them and himself with what he is able to beg in the streets.
Wu's luck has changed. Neighbors, their interest aroused by the curious chorus of "miaows" issuing from behind the canvas shelter, soon learned what was happening and brought him scraps from their dinner tables. Each time a new litter was born, someone would come by to purchase the cutest kittens as pets.
Then a Hongkong newspaper published Wu's story. A London woman saw the article and sent HK$16 in care of the newspaper; another donation was received from a cat-fancier in Los Angeles, and two more donors gave HK$21 as a New Year's present.
The character of Wu shines through in the expression of gratitude he asked the newspaper to print after he had received the New Year's gift: "I wish to thank the two donors, whoever they may be, with all my heart for their kindness. I wish to say, for myself and for my cats, that we thank them and others before them with all our hearts, and that we will try to make ourselves worthy of their consideration. With the $21, the cats can pass a happy New Year with more food and perhaps a few clean sheets for their beds."
United States
Rocketeer's Honor
The U.S. National Academy of Sciences recently made a cash award of US$50,000 to a young Chinese rocket expert in recognition of his contributions to applied science.
Honored was 32-year-old Dr. Li Shao-lin, now on the teaching faculty of the University of North Carolina.
A graduate of the National Taiwan University, Dr. Li went to the United States in 1953. Of five scholarships offered by. American universities, he chose that at North Carolina. After earning his master's degree, he went to Harvard on three honor scholarships and received his doctorate in 1960.
The native of Yunnan became a campus sensation when he was at North Carolina. He was described as "the most outstanding student in 20 years."
Dr. Li is the eldest son of Lt. Gen. Li Wen-ping (retired). A younger brother Shao-chung earned his doctorate in the United States last year. The youngest brother is still a high school student in Taipei.
Dr. Li is married to the former Miss Tang Fu-hua, daughter of Secretary General Tang Tsung of Kuomintang Headquarters. The Lis have two children.
English Supplement
San Francisco's Chinese language newspaper Young China, founded in 1910 by Dr. Sun Yat-sun, will add a weekly tabloid English language supplement in mid-June, W. Fong Yue, chairman of the paper's board of directors, announced last month.
He said the board decided to add the section "to serve further the Chinese-Americans, as well as having an organ of facts and opinions which now other Americans will be able to read to observe the problems and aspirations of the Chinese segment of the citizenship."
The Chinese World, another San Francisco Chinese paper of late 19th century vintage, has a new editor in the person of C. H. Kwock. Born in the United States, Kwock was educated at the universities of Hongkong and Harvard. He is author of three books on Chinese literature.
The Chinese World is the only bilingual Chinese-American newspaper in the United States. It became bilingual in 1948.
In a statement accepting the editorship, Kwock said: "The World has always sought to transmit to the younger generation the aspirations, philosophies and humanistic ideals of their ancient sage Confucius. In addition, our paper has always been pro-democracy and anti-Communist. I reaffirm these policies."
The Philippines
Plea to High Court
Macario King, with the support of the Chinese community in Manila, has urged the Supreme Court to reconsider its recent decision banning the employment of aliens in Filipino- owned establishments.
King, a Filipino citizen, lost a legal fight with the Department of Commerce and Industry and was ordered to dismiss three Chinese employees in the Manila retail store.
The Supreme Court ruled that no aliens should be employed by Filipino retailers in accordance with the retail trade nationalization law and the anti-dummy law. The local Chinese community is seriously affected.
In his motion, King urged the high tribunal to reconsider its ruling on the following grounds:
1. The decision discriminates against Filipino retailers in favor of alien retailers, contrary to the spirit and intent of the retail trade nationalization law.
2. It would completely invalidate the anti-dummy law by rendering it unconstitutional on the ground that it would cover two subjects instead of the one expressed in the title.
3. The decision gives to the anti-dummy law a scope that it does not have.
4. The decision destroys certain rights of Filipino retailers.