Honor for a Pioneer
At the glittering gathering attending the inauguration ceremony of President Joseph Yulo at Brazzaville on May 1, the Congolese Chief of State pinned a medal on the lapel of a fiftyish Chinese and praised him in lavish terms for his contributions to the Republic of the Congo and Sino-Congolese friendship.
The man who won the special honor is Liu Yung-shun, 57, the only Chinese resident in the newly independent African nation and the only Congolese official of Chinese nationality.
Mr. Liu did not win the honor easily. Back in 1929, he was one of the 800 Chinese labor gang which went to Brazzaville from their homes in Kwangtung province on a contract with the French government then ruling the Congo. Their mission was to build a railway linking Brazzaville with the Atlantic coast.
Working under extremely hard conditions, the Chinese laborers and their fellow workers completed the railroad in less than three years. What with the inadequate medical attention and safety installations of the 1920's, over 80 Chinese workers perished on the strange land, thousands of miles away from their homes.
After the completion of the railway the surviving Chinese either returned to China or started shifting for themselves somewhere else. Only Mr. Liu remained there. Later on he married a native woman and has had six children by her.
For many years Mr. Liu worked as a foreman on the railroad he helped build. After the Congo gained nationhood he was promoted to the post of an inspector at the Public Works of Brazzaville with handsome pay.
On the day of Mr. Liu's decoration, New Man, the leading newspaper at Brazzaville, published the picture of the cemetery of the Chinese workers together with the story of their pioneering work in Congo 32 years ago.
China is among the first to extend recognition to the Republic of the Congo, the paper recalled. More important is the fact that 800 Chinese citizens had contributed greatly to the development of the nation long before its independence, New Man said, adding that the Congolese people will never forget the deeds of the brave sons of China.
Canada
A Reminder
Great Britain championed the cause of international justice when Mussolini unleashed his hordes to invade Ethiopia in 1936. Two years later John Bull joined the other members of the now defunct League of Nations to invite Italy back to the world organization in the name of peace. The next year World War II broke out.
If press reports were true, the descendants of Great Britain's empire builder have evidently forgotten the bitter lesson of history in maneuvering the seating of the Peiping regime in the United Nations. It remained for the Chinese community at Toronto to refresh the memory of British Prime Minister Macmillan during his latest visit to Canada.
On the eve of Mr. Macmillan's visit, the Toronto Chinese ran a large advertisement in several local papers urging him not to fall into the rut of the old tragedy. If the statesmen of the free world act wisely, said the advertisement, "we still have time to save the United Nations from the grave crisis now facing it."
In addition, the advertisement listed the following reasons against the UN recognition of the Chinese Communist regime:
• The Red regime lacks the qualifications of a peace-loving nation set forth in the UN Charter.
• The UN General Assembly has condemned the regime as an aggressor for its part in the Korean conflict. Today Peiping is making fresh troubles in Laos.
• The Chinese Communists have been ruling the mainland by means of terror. They cannot represent the Chinese people.
• The Chinese people on the mainland still refuse to accept the domination by a regime whose domestic and foreign policies are diametrically opposed to the interest of the people.
• The Peiping regime is guilty of military subjugation of Tibet and has committed the crime of genocide there.
• The Reds have butchered at least 20,000,000 Chinese people and are converting the whole mainland into a vast concentration camp.
• The Communists are determined to uproot the ancient Chinese cultural heritages and wipe out the social and religious tradition dear to every Chinese heart.
• UN membership for the Chinese Communist regime would boost its international prestige and strengthen its hold on the enslaved people at home. This would deal a blow to the 800,000,000 Asians who are fighting for freedom.
• The admission of the Chinese Communists would mean the addition of a new trouble-maker in the UN, thus hasten the death of the world body itself.
Taipei
A Queen Is Born
A happy smile flashed across the pretty face of Miss Li Hsiu-ying as a jewelry-studded tiara was placed on her head amid thunderous cheers at Taipei's International House one day last month.
The 19-year-old Korea-born beauty was crowned together with two other girls as Misses China 1961. Miss Li will take part in the Miss World pageant in London. The other two beauty queens will attend the beauty contests at Long Island and Miami respectively.
This year's victory for Miss Li was especially sweet. Although unanimously acclaimed as the most beautiful girls among the pretty contestants of last year's Miss China show, she finished the contest the fifth due to a momentary lapse in one of her many public interviews.
But she was not discouraged. In one of her short speeches during the latest contest, she said prettily: "I know most of the successes come after many failures. I believe I can make it this year." Make it she did.
This is not all. Although she was as eager as the other contestants to win the coveted title, she displayed not the slightest trace of tension or nervousness so common among her fellow beauties. She won the trophy in a carefree manner, which characterizes a veteran and confident sportsman.
Miss Li is alone in Taipei. A student of the National Junior College of Arts, she said she plans to be a teacher in the future.
Southeast Asia
"Jews of the East"
The 14 millions of overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia are being treated as "Jews of the East." This conclusion was drawn by a Chinese lady scholar from Singapore after reviewing the troubles the Chinese communities have run into in the postwar years.
Miss Alice Tay Erh Soon, a lecturer in law, pointed out in a lengthy article on the fate of the overseas Chinese that local discrimination against the Chinese are not due to any wrong-doing of the Chinese themselves.
"In virtually every country where there is a Chinese minority, it is a nationalism as anti-Chinese in frank racial terms as Polish and Ukrainian nationalisms were anti-Semitic. Feelings of cultural inferiority, jealousy of Chinese wealth and education and resentment of Chinese social separatism have all played their part," said Miss Soon.
Citing the Indonesian clamping down on Chinese interests as a typical example, Miss Soon noted that for the native population independence has coincided with growing poverty, instead of growing prosperity. "To seize Chinese wealth has seemed as easy a solution to the Indonesians as seizing the Jews' wealth seemed to the medieval baron and the Ukrainian pogromshchik.
"The fact that Chinese wealth has been won largely by dint of hard work is glossed over; so is the existence of millions of poor Chinese laborers, peasants and itinerant hawkers."
No matter in whatever manner the Chinese have won their economic advantage in Southeast Asia, Miss Soon believed their economic position is as doomed as the economic position of the Jews was in Eastern .Europe. "The Chinese," she predicted, "will be increasingly harassed, discriminated against or expelled until the overt signs of Chinese prosperity are no longer there to offend the majority that holds political control. It is not merely that the Chinese must become a citizen, as Napoleon required the Jews of France to become citizens. In most areas the Chinese will either have to cease being recognizably Chinese or cease being a significant economic competitor to the local population."
Some people blame the racial consciousness of the overseas Chinese as the cause of their trouble. Miss Song disagrees. For an overseas Chinese, she pointed out, his life abroad is one thing; his political attachment to China another. The only conflict between them is a cultural conflict within his own soul. It has no political or economic significance.
Regarding the suspicion among some quarters that the emergence of a Communist regime on the Chinese mainland has changed the situation, Miss Soon also sees it ill founded. Though the puppet regime has sought to demand from the overseas Chinese far more than purely cultural or sentimental loyalty, "it is doubtful if it would have succeeded in gaining more if its emergence had not coincided with a serious threat to the social and economic position of the Chinese in Southeast Asia," she explained.
She illustrated her point by recalling the Communist rebellion in Malaya. Many Chinese joined the Red revolt in the hope it would liberate themselves from the racial discrimination they had suffered there. the complete defeat of the Communist uprising has served the overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia as an eye-opener.
In the words of Miss Soon, the Communist defeat in Malaya has shown clearly that "Communism could not be a path to first-class citizenship in the countries of their adoption. To proclaim oneself a Communist was to invite suppression or expulsion. It was to court disaster for the entire Chinese community."
The overseas Chinese have also learned that to return to the mainland is no escape from their sad fate because the condition is even worse in their homeland. As Miss Soon aptly put it, "In Southeast Asia they may lose their property and become laborers; in China they will." Therefore, she reported, very few Chinese have any desire to go to the Chinese mainland.
Miss Soon sees only one way out for the hard-pressed Chinese in Southeast Asia. "He can stay - if he is allowed - in the countries where he lives. He must bow his head, swallow his pride, accept with gratitude the concessions still permitted him and moderate any agitation for his rights to a level where it cannot possibly offend the national prejudices of the majority. If he has not done so already, he must learn the tongue of the country, seek its citizenship as a prize, and try to assimilate as quickly and thoroughly as he can."
Concluding her penetrating analysis of the overseas Chinese position in Southeast Asia, Miss Soon said, "Now the Southeast Asian Chinese is left to his own devices; the specter of communism has even robbed him of that world sympathy which he might otherwise have shared with the Jew. His future depends on his ability to accommodate himself to rulers and nations whose ideal society contains no Chinese."
Laos
A Royal Pledge
King Savang Vathana has promised to accord Chinese residing in his kingdom the same privileges enjoyed by his own subjects.
The pledge was given on the occasion of the late monarch of Laos, father of the present ruler. The Laotian King told Ambassador Hang Li-wu the overseas Chinese in Laos have always been treated like brothers by the Laotians.
"They (the Chinese) will continue to be our welcomed guests because they are always law-abiding," said the King. "Please convey my assurance to President Chinese Kai-shek."
The Chinese community constitutes about one third of the 20,000 residents at the royal capital of Luan Prabang. During the royal cremation, the Chinese provided the Laotian government with most of the sedans in receiving its state guests. Experienced Chinese cooks at Vientiane were also flown to Luan Prabang to prepare the banquets for the galaxy of special envoys attending the late King's funeral ceremony.
United States
All Brothers Are Valiant
In 1957 Dr. Tsung-dao Lee and fellow Chinese scientist Dr. Tseng-ning Yang gave China's scientists a shot in the arm by jointly winning the year's Nobel Prize for physics. Last month sharp-eyed Robert T. Lee, elder brother of Dr. Lee, raised academic eyebrows by announcing he has "seen" the virus of hog cholera.
In his article on the hog cholera virus, Mr. Lee described the virus as spherical, existing in the nucleus of infected cells. He would be the first person to have actually seen the virus if his findings are confirmed by others.
Mr. Lee, 38, is an animal industry specialist who went to the Cornell University in 1958. He is currently doing research work there.
Bi-partisan Bill
Two American senators recently co-sponsored a bill which would nearly double the annual immigration quota of China, Japan, Korea and the Philippines.
The sponsors are Senate minority leader Everett Dirksen (Republican-Illinois) and Senator Oren E. Long (Democrat-Hawaii). An identical measure has been introduced in the House by Representative Francis E.
Walter (Democrat-Pennsylvania), chairman of the House immigration subcommittee.
The bill seeks to establish a "quota reserve" to permit more than 50,000 close relatives of American citizens and resident aliens to enter the United States annually,