Looking for the women of the Expedition

A writer who loves the exotic and never forgets to wear a flower in her hair even when she goes to a funeral, turned her attention to tracing the Chinese expeditionary Force in the depths of history because of an adventure in Myanmar a few years ago.

People are familiar with Xiaoshu because of a best-selling book published in 2004 called Women of the Golden Triangle. The book describes the life, death, sex, and love of two urban women who walk together into the Golden Triangle. The elements of aggression, drugs, blood, violence, killing under poppies, and the evil behind money have made the 300,000-word non-fiction book a compelling one.

In THE SPRING OF 2005, SHE SET FOOT ON THE GOLDEN TRIANGLE again TO SEEK inspiration FOR THE continuation OF THE Women of THE Golden Triangle. However, an adventure in northern Myanmar made her indissoluble to the expeditionary force, and her creation was transformed. The writer, who attracted attention with "The Woman of the Golden Triangle," dives into the pages of the past, focusing on the "last veterans" who have long been forgotten.

adventure

Born Li Xiaoshu in Kunming, Yunnan Province in the 1960s, Xiaoshu is a descendant of the revolutionary roots of Zheng and Miao Hong. In the early 1980s, Xiao Shu went to work in the Western pharmacy of Kunming Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Ten years later, he went to Hainan as a reporter for Economic Daily. Heavily influenced by my family upbringing, "idealism was hopelessly pervasive in my life". In 1993, to pursue love, she went to Russia alone and began more than two years of wandering writing life in Europe, Southeast Asia, and other countries. In the spring of 2001, Xiaoshu traveled five times across northern Myanmar as a freelance writer to complete the book Women in the Golden Triangle.

Her living room is decorated with Russian tapestries, Golden Triangle coffee, a Paris alarm clock, Italian accessories, etc., which are purchased by Xiaoshu during her trip. Xiaoshu is a person who likes exotic places. She used to tell friends that even at 60, she would still turn heads when she walked down the street. In the eyes of her friends, her clothes are not all brand names, but they must be unique. Even to attend the elder's funeral, she did not forget to put a white Myanmar gardenia on the head.

Friends Liu Xia for Xiaoshu addicted to paying attention to the war veterans had also felt curious, until later listened to the "adventure in northern Myanmar", only to understand her.

That adventure took place in the early spring of 2005 when Xiao Shu entered Myanmar from the border town of Gambaidi dressed as a border farmer. Through contacts, she hired a local Chinese to drive a pickup truck along the picturesque Irrawaddy River to Myitkyina, a key town on Myanmar's northern border.

The car drove into the mountainous area, the weather in the afternoon suddenly, a gust of wind and rain came, the rocks on the mountain also rolled down to the mountain road with the rain, the driver went to the villagers to help move the boulders on the road. On the trunk of a longan tree by the side of the road, Xiao Shu saw a tin sign in red lettering -- a row of bold Chinese words "Limbo Mechanical Repair" beneath the curvy Burmese text, arrows pointing to a shady path.

At the end of the path was a house with a rusted tin roof that stood against a hill. A middle-aged man covered in oil with a vise in his hand, looked up to see Xiao Shu, and said: "Looking for my father? He's in the back of the room. ' In THE BUSHES BEHIND THE HOUSE, XIAO Shu saw an old man with one arm, thin and bright. His face looked like dry old wood. "Girl baby, from China?" A thick, loud Sichuan accent.

The old man with the living right hand and Xiaoshu shake hands, strong, the scar on the back of the hand is very striking. Two mausoleums covered with moss and white wildflowers stood behind him. On the bluestone gravestone are engraved striking ocher-colored large characters in the official script -- "A strong man left his homeland, his liver, and gallbladder according to the mountains and rivers", "a sacrifice to his comrade in arms Jin Guanglei" and "a sacrifice to his comrade in arms Liu Yuxiang".

The old man introduced himself as Lin Guowei, 89 years old, Yibin, Sichuan Province, the Huangpu Military Academy 15 graduated, was a mechanized division mortar company of a soldier. In 1942, at the age of 26, he went to Burma with the expeditionary force and fought bloody battles with the Japanese army. After losing the war, he retreated from Sasquatelle Mountain and entered India to be incorporated into the expeditionary Force in India. In 1944, the army stationed in India counterattacked northern Myanmar. In combat with the Japanese army, Lin Guowei was injured and stayed in Myanmar. Later, he lived in the Golden Triangle for survival and served as a military instructor for a local army.

Later, he married a local woman and had a child. With the mechanical knowledge and skills he had acquired in the artillery battalion, he opened a small workshop for mechanical repair. More than 60 years ago, the veteran who went abroad to fight, with poor savings, and painstaking efforts, finally found the sacrifice in the north of Myanmar comrades Jin Guanglei, Liu Yuxiang remains, and in their own house for them to set up a tomb.

In the evening, amid the honking of car horns urging drivers to get on the road, Xiaoshu bid farewell to the old man. The OLD-man said farewell: "BABY, convenient to ask a question after returning home, when we were young to go abroad to fight for the country, now an old bone want to go home can?"

The old man's sparse white hair and eager eyes let Xiaoshu worry.

Looking for

"Fifteen hundred wounded soldiers, unable to go with the army on the long journey to Savage Mountain, stayed at the medical station near the Khandi Pagoda in Mo's village. To avoid the humiliation of being captured by the Japanese, they set themselves on fire... All the officers and soldiers on the scene buried their faces and wept, and could not kneel in the dark." After returning to China in a few months, Xiaoshu's eyes always constantly emerge expeditionary force to break through wildling mountain wounded soldiers' collective self-immolation that scene of the tragedy, the description of the old man Lin Guowei, she always dares not to believe.

After a hasty trip to Myitkyina, Xiaoshu fell into the vast World War II historical materials and the memoirs of expeditionary survivors. In May 1942, the Chinese expeditionary Force back to the road was cut off by the Japanese, commander Du Yuming ordered the destruction of all modern weapons and equipment and led the department into the local known as the "Jedi" wildling mountain.

At noon on April 4, 2006, Xiao Shu was standing in front of the exhibition board of the Myanmar-Yunnan Anti-Japanese War Museum in Heshun Township, Tengchong, when a thick black text struck her like lightning: 70 years ago, the Japanese Army fired the first shot at Lugou Bridge. Countless young students joined the expeditionary force, among them many female students. What is LITTLE known is that there were about 200 women, and soldiers, in the expeditionary forces retreating into Savage Mountain. Most of them were engaged in civilian work such as translation, telegraph service, and medical service. Only five women made it out of Wildling Mountain.

Before joining the army, these young women soldiers in the 1940s May have been girls, wives, and mothers, who should have enjoyed a peaceful life of family, school, friendship, love, and marriage, but unfortunately met with war. Xiao Shu decided to find out the story of these women soldiers.

In early 2006, Phoenix TV broadcast the story of Liu Guiying, a female soldier who survived Savage Mountain. Xiao Shu through Hefei TV "evening chronicle" column group to find Liu Guiying at Hefei address. That year's Mid-Autumn Festival, she finally went to Hefei to hug 88-year-old Liu Guiying and wept, a process recorded by CCTV's "Half the Sky".

As Liu Guiying's story was broadcast in the media, more veterans and their families began to get in touch with Xiaoshu. To trace the veteran's footsteps, she went to Penang Island in the South Ocean, Saipan Island in the Pacific Ocean, North Thailand, North Myanmar, Tengchong in West Yunnan, Longing, Songshan... More than 20 veterans of the expeditionary forces were found at home and abroad.

With memories of the Second World War more than 60 years ago, Xiao Shu decided to keep these veterans' images alive in the form of a documentary. In the winter of 2008, with the support of the organizing committee of the Sino-US Friendship World War II Park in Kunming, she began to write a plan for the filming of the Last Veteran and invited volunteers to participate.

The film crew, composed of writers, painters, amateur film directors, military experts, university teachers, and other caring volunteers, raised their funds and equipment. The documentary is expected to produce six episodes, which will be divided into "The Return of the Spirit", "The Return of the Soul", "Beautiful Soul", "The Soul of the Liver", "The Soul of a Foreign Land" and "The Soul of a Big Country".