The Rise of the Writers of the Republic of China

The impact of the "Ho-Mei Agreement" became more and more intense, and many progressives published articles fiercely criticizing the Nanjing government's traitorous behavior. Fortunately, everyone is paying attention to natural disasters these days, and the Ho-May Agreement has not been confirmed, otherwise the whole country would be in turmoil.

By the way, a movie called "Children of the Storm" is currently being released, and the theme song "March of the Volunteers" is widely sung.

Mr. Tian Han was invited to write the lyrics for the theme song, but he was arrested and imprisoned just after completing the composition. While in prison, he wrote the lyrics on the back of cigarette wrappers, which were forwarded to the film company by his comrades visiting the prison. Mr. Nie Er was also facing arrest by the spies and took the initiative to compose a theme song for a patriotic film. After escaping to Japan, he received the lyrics and sent the written score back to Shanghai.

These two gentlemen, one trapped in prison and the other fleeing to a foreign country, jointly completed the national anthem of China in the future.

Unfortunately, Nie Er died soon after. He accidentally drowned while swimming in Japan. He was only 23 years old.

Zhou Hexuan had corresponded with Nie Er some time ago. Nie Er said that he was planning to take the Siberian Railway to the Soviet Union. Zhou Hexuan wrote to persuade him to leave quickly, just to avoid this tragedy.

But for some reason, Nie Er has not boarded the ship to leave Japan.

There are many opinions about the cause of Nie Er's death. The more mainstream theory is that Nie Er suffered a heart attack while swimming; conspiracy theorists believe that Nie Er died of poisoning by the Japanese because "March of the Volunteers" was widely sung at that time, which aroused the jealousy of Japanese militarists.

In mid-September, the major floods in the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers have come to an end, but many places are still flooded.

At this time, Zhou Hexuan took his wife Zhang Leyi and secretary Yu Peichen and set sail for London.

The ship they were traveling on was still sailing on the ocean, and the British businessmen who were interested in China, represented by Sassoon, had already begun a high-profile propaganda campaign.

…

Limehouse, site of the future London Chinatown.

As early as the Daoguang period, some Chinese workers and sailors began to migrate to London and settled in the shipyard area. By the time of Guangxu, there were more and more Chinese here, and it had become a veritable Chinatown.

In later generations, London's Chinatown was famous for its restaurants and supermarkets. In the 1930s, it was London's most famous slums and a gathering place for legal opium dens.

Even native British people sometimes visit Chinatown because it is safe, convenient and affordable to smoke opium here.

Just last year (1934), this place was ordered to be demolished by the London City Government. After all, it was really unsightly, but there were still a large number of Chinese staying there. In just one year, various shacks, wooden houses, and iron houses were rebuilt, and some two-story buildings were even built.

No matter when and where, the survivability of the Chinese people is always so tenacious.

In a restaurant that reopened just two months ago, more than a dozen Chinese students are having a meeting, and the owner of the restaurant is responsible for meeting liaison, reception and logistics.

The restaurant owner is named Liu Xingzu, and his grandparents have already settled in London. He does not belong to any political party, has not even read many books, and is thin and insignificant. It is hard for you to believe that this kind of person would organize and sponsor meetings for international students.

This started with the "September 18th Incident". News of the fall of Northeast China spread overseas, shocking countless overseas Chinese and international students, who spontaneously carried out various anti-Japanese and national salvation activities.

The overseas anti-Japanese and national salvation activities in the 1930s were divided into three stages:

In the first stage, everyone took action individually. Everyone held their own opinions. Some advocated immediate resistance, some advocated accumulating strength, some advocated peaceful reunification, and some advocated reunification by force. There are all kinds of small groups and they are scattered. Although they are enthusiastic, they are not organized at all.

In the second stage, the Fuxing Society (Blue Clothes Society) was established, and Chiang Kai-shek's forces took advantage of the situation. The Fuxing Society held high the banner of national justice, while recruiting international students to join, and at the same time calling on overseas Chinese to donate. However, they have been advocating that "in order to fight against external forces, we must first pacify the domestic situation." They have spent countless funds on activities but have achieved no results at all. Some international students even raised objections, and Fuxing Society actually threatened to stop funding for studying abroad.

Now, the overseas anti-Japanese and national salvation movement is about to enter its third stage.

Those overseas Chinese and overseas students who were strongly dissatisfied with the Kuomintang Renaissance Society began to spontaneously unite. The overseas Chinese provided activity funds, and the overseas students organized anti-Japanese groups to jointly launch a real anti-Japanese and national salvation movement.

The international student who presided over the meeting today is named Yang Kai, who is the third batch of international students funded by Zhou Hexuan: "Yesterday, we established the group name, organizational framework, liaison system, activity program, etc. Today we will discuss in detail the actual anti-Japanese and national salvation strategies. Please speak freely, and classmate Ji Mingxing will be responsible for recording the meeting."

Someone immediately raised their hands and said: "I think our first job is to publicize, so that foreigners and overseas Chinese are aware of the development of the situation and the suffering that China has suffered. There are three main methods of publicity: first, social propaganda. Use social activities, Academic activities, etc., contact journalists and sympathizers from various countries, and strive to participate in international academic conferences; second, oral propaganda. Try to make as many foreign friends as possible, and try to gain their friendship and sympathy through daily communication; third Third, written propaganda, such as publishing English publications, printing English pamphlets and manifestos, etc. I have said it, and I hope all students will adopt it and support it."

"Bah bang bang!"

Yang Kai took the lead in applauding and praised: "Xu Liqin's speech is very high-level and very high-level. Especially the written propaganda, this must be done well. Everyone, continue!"

Someone else raised their hands and said: "We have too few people and our influence is almost zero. I think we should contact more anti-Japanese and national salvation groups to form a British anti-Japanese and national salvation alliance to increase the momentum. At the same time, reject the Fuxing Society's proposal If the Kuomintang lackeys join, they will only bring bad atmosphere to the organization!"

"Yes, we can't let people from the Fuxing Society come in," an international student yelled angrily. "I joined their anti-Japanese group last year and donated all the money I earned through hard work to fund activities. I can only eat two meals a day. As a result, What? I’m just trying to compete with him, I don’t do anything, other than holding meetings and talking nonsense, I just help Chiang Kai-shek to promote the civil war!”

Yang Kai quickly said: "It's a meeting, don't use bad words. As for the Fuxing Society, I don't want them to join. This has been added to the charter. Let's continue."

Everyone spoke freely and expressed their opinions. For example, contact and guide more overseas Chinese, such as establishing stable contact with the country, establishing transoceanic donation channels, forming anti-Japanese academic research groups, etc.

The atmosphere of the meeting was very warm, and the sincere feeling of working together to patriotism and save the nation infected everyone present, and the blood in their bodies seemed to be boiling.

The "September 18th Incident" was just like the defeat in the Sino-Japanese War of 1898. It brought great excitement to the Chinese people, and it also gave birth to countless great and unknown patriots.

Let’s take the science giant Mr. Qian Weichang as an example. He initially studied history, but he switched to physics after being stimulated by the September 18th Incident.

When he heard the news that the "September 18th Incident" broke out, Qian Weichang believed that studying history was useless. He should learn to build aircraft and cannons so that China would not be bullied by others. He hurried to the office of the dean of the Physics Department of Tsinghua University, only to find that there was already a long queue. One-fifth of Tsinghua students had come to apply for the physics department. At that time, there were only 10 places for enrollment in the physics department.

After queuing for a long time, Qian Weichang finally met Wu Youxun, the dean of the Department of Physics. He said excitedly: "What our motherland urgently needs now is science and technology, aircraft and cannons! So I want to study physics. Although my math, physics and chemistry scores are not good enough, Okay, but I am determined to catch up, sir, please rest assured!"

Director Wu Youxun was moved by his sincerity and was very pleased. Then he looked at Qian Weichang's results and rejected him very decisively.

Qian Weichang's Physics exam actually passed... 5 points (out of 100 points)!

In the end, Qian Weichang decided to study in the Department of Physics, because Wu Youxun was so pestered by him that he had no choice but to agree to let him try to study for a year first, and the future physics master was born.

The patriotism of this era is something people in the 21st century cannot imagine.

The meeting in the restaurant lasted until almost evening. The boss Liu Xingzu rushed in holding a just-released evening newspaper and shouted happily: "Dear students, there is good news! Mr. Zhou Hexuan Zhou was nominated as a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature and the Nobel Prize in Medicine at the same time. The newspaper said that he It’s the ‘Giant from the Far East’!”