The large-scale public welfare lecture "Return to the Yunnan-Burma Battlefield, Tell Yunnan's Stories Well" was held over the weekend at the Kunming Anti-Japanese War Victory Memorial Hall, where the history of the Nanyang overseas Chinese drivers and mechanics (Nanyang Ji Gong) returning to China to resist the Japanese 85 years ago was brought vividly to life once again through the narration of Lin Shaochuan, a professor at Huaqiao University.

　　After the full-scale outbreak of the War of Resistance in 1937, China's important ports and key external transport routes were basically lost. The Yunnan-Burma Road, newly built in 1938 from Kunming, China, to Lashio, Burma, became the **international channel connecting China with the outside world at that time. This wartime "lifeline," rushed into repair, was in urgent need of a large number of skilled drivers and mechanics. In February 1939, the patriotic overseas Chinese leader Tan Kah Kee issued the "Nanyang China Relief Fund Association Notice No. 6," calling on Nanyang overseas Chinese drivers and mechanics to return to China to serve. More than 3,200 Nanyang overseas Chinese from Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and other places responded, and within just a few months they formed the "Nanyang Overseas Chinese Drivers and Mechanics Return-to-Serve Corps," arriving in Kunming in 9 batches to support the war effort. This special overseas Chinese group was called the "Nanyang Ji Gong."

　　"They are the most organized, largest, and most heroic and tragic anti-Japanese hero group in the history of overseas Chinese," Lin Shaochuan said. "But the deeds of the Nanyang Ji Gong were once buried in dust and little known."

　　Years passed, and the heroic souls drove the pen. On August 15, 1985, Cai Hanliang, a 67-year-old Nanyang Ji Gong veteran, found Lin Shaochuan, who taught overseas Chinese history at Huaqiao University, and told him the history of that time—bidding farewell to Nanyang, returning to China to resist the Japanese, and risking life and death.

　　"If you don't listen, you don't know; once you listen, it's extraordinary!" Lin Shaochuan immediately decided, "I want to write them down and spread their story."

　　From then on, Lin Shaochuan devoted himself to "recovering" the history of the Nanyang Ji Gong's War of Resistance. Over forty years, he went alone deep into 8 provinces including Yunnan and Sichuan, covering 64 cities and counties in total, to conduct interviews and investigations, finding more than one hundred Nanyang Ji Gong and some of their surviving family members, and rescuing and organizing a large amount of first-hand material such as historical certificates and archival documents. Works such as "Tan Kah Kee and the Nanyang Ji Gong," "Patriotic Hearts in the Flames of War: The Nanyang Ji Gong on the Yunnan-Burma Road," and "Loyal Sons' Meritorious Deeds, the Nation's Loyal Souls" were published one after another, and the blurred figures of these returning patriotic sons began to gradually become clear and vivid.

　　Wang Wensong, a Singapore overseas Chinese and a highly renowned mechanical engineer, brought a full set of mechanical repair tools and led more than 10 companions back to China; the recruitment notice showed that the monthly salary for drivers and mechanics was less than one-twentieth of his former wage. Li Yuemei, a Malaysian overseas Chinese, disguised herself as a man and returned to China with her younger brother Li Jinrong to resist the Japanese, and was only discovered to be a woman after being injured in a vehicle rollover on the Yunnan-Burma Road. Liu Ruiqi, without telling his family, on his wedding night put down his wedding ring, watch and keys, and bade farewell to his sleeping newlywed wife as he rushed to the battlefield. Singapore overseas Chinese Xu Zhiguang sent his entire family back to his hometown in Fujian, settling his worries, and devoted himself wholeheartedly to the war......

　　"Within the half year from February to August 1939, drivers, repairmen, children of wealthy families, engineers, university students and others responded to the call one after another; in 9 batches, about 3,200 overseas Chinese returned to China to undertake the anti-Japanese military transport task on the Yunnan-Burma Road," Lin Shaochuan said. "They gave up peaceful lives overseas and willingly came to the Yunnan-Burma Road to face one life-and-death barrier after another."

　　On the Yunnan-Burma Road, every Nanyang Ji Gong had to pass four life-and-death barriers: the "dangerous road barrier," the "rainy season barrier," the "miasma and malaria barrier," and the "air raid barrier." During the intense military transport, the Nanyang Ji Gong had to cross the Hengduan Mountains and Gaoligong Mountains at altitudes of more than 3,000 meters, traverse the deep and turbulent Yangbi River, Lancang River and Nu River, and also pass through "miasma-ridden lands."

　　"Once a vehicle rolled over, destruction of the vehicle and death of the people was the ** outcome; once spotted by enemy aircraft, there would be no remains left," Lin Shaochuan said. "During the rainy season, driving was like an old ox dragging a plow; the Nanyang Ji Gong kept long wooden planks on the vehicle and used them as sleepers on relatively dangerous sections of road."

　　Barrier after barrier, they passed them all. When half the deck of the Gongguo Bridge was bombed into the Lancang River, the Nanyang Ji Gong used 144 gasoline drums to build a large raft to cross the river; with constant air raids and few trees along the Yunnan-Burma Road for cover, the Nanyang Ji Gong switched to driving at night with lights off, climbing the "Twenty-Four Turns" with slopes of about 60 degrees and requiring 180-degree turns......

　　According to records, between 1939 and 1942, more than 90 percent of all international aid supplies at that time, about 500,000 tons, were transported by the Nanyang Ji Gong; about one-third of the Nanyang Ji Gong sacrificed their lives for it.

　　"The Nanyang Ji Gong should not be forgotten and must not be forgotten." Lin Shaochuan spent half his life tracing their figures. "Every time I go to the Yunnan-Burma Road, I silently pay tribute to the drivers and mechanics. When I think that some of them are still lying at the bottom of the river, my tears flow."

　　On October 29, 2022, Jiang Yinsheng, the last Nanyang Ji Gong in the world, passed away. There are no more Nanyang Ji Gong in the world, but their patriotic hearts are remembered. The "Nanyang Overseas Chinese Drivers and Mechanics Anti-Japanese Monument" stands at the starting point of the Yunnan-Burma Road; the song "Ode to Nanyang" drifts through the air......

　　Passing away is not the end; history will return to everyone. Just as Tang Xiaomei, a descendant of the Nanyang Ji Gong, said: "As long as we remember them, they live forever; what we inherit is not meritorious deeds, but spirit."