"Chen Yaozuo was a #Teochew prime minister & grand tutor of the crown prince of the #SongDynasty (960–1279) in the 11th century. Coming from a family of officials, he was a rising star at the start of his career, until he bravely, or some might say foolishly, answered a call of Emperor Zhenzong for open criticisms by submitting a memorial that spelt out the ills of the times, including matters that no one else dared to speak about. As a result, Chen Yaozuo was banished & demoted to become an assistant prefect in the Teochew prefecture. This happened in 998, almost 180 years after Han Yu of the Tang dynasty suffered a similar fate."

"....Chen Yaozuo was more of a problem-solver than Han Yu, and he knew this. At the same time, he sensed the Teochew people’s deep admiration for his fellow Confucian. Cleverly capitalising on this, Chen Yaozuo erected a shrine in honour of Han Yu and he used it to commence his own programme to promote education among what was still a backward population. In pursuit of this goal, the Sichuan native also set up a Confucian temple and places of learning, while identifying and encouraging able families to send their children to schools.

Chen Yaozuo left Teochew after three years of devoted service to its people. He subsequently revealed in an inscription presented to a study room in Zhangpu (a county in Fujian adjacent to Teochew prefecture) that his time in Teo-yor was passed without major worries, despite it being enveloped in miasma."

"Chen Yaozuo’s heart remained with the place even many years after his departure. His poem below, “A note to Registrar Li Zi in Chaoyang” (送潮陽李孜主簿), illustrates this:

潮陽山水東南奇
The mountains and waters of Chaoyang are a wonder of the Southeast
魚鹽城郭民熙熙
Fishing boats, salt beds, and people going in and out of the city form a merry sight
當時為撰玄聖碑
Back then I had to write inscriptions for the sages
而今風俗鄒魯為。
Today its customs are like Zou and Lu [i.e. the home countries of Mencius and Confucius]

#Chinese #historians credit Han Yu for starting what we may call a #revolution through #literacy in Teochew. Yet the extent of Chen Yaozuo’s tireless contributions towards this cause can be seen by its fruits. Before his arrival, the Teochew prefecture produced only three men who attained the status of jinshi, the highest scholarly title awarded by the Chinese imperial court since the late 6th century. By the end of Song, the records show more than 170 jinshi from Teochew, of whom about a third came from Teo-yor.

Beyond scholarly titles, the creation of an educated class sparked a golden age in Teochew with accelerated advancements in agriculture and industry that ended its days as a backwater."

Ref: inf.news/en/history/08fbe53052…

Ref: theteochewstore.org/blogs/late…

#AsianMastodon #China #Gaginang #ChineseRevolutionaries #ChineseImperialEra #TeochewHistory #ChineseHistory #AsianHistory #SouthEastAsia #HistoryOfChina #LearnHistory #TootSEA #ChineseScholars #TeochewRoots

One of many earlier #British #ColonialCrimes in #SouthEastAsia. The #BriggsPlan in #Malaysia.

The Nazi regime during WWII forever gave the term #ConcentrationCamp a name symbolic of #atrocity, so when British #colonizers once again visited the idea of #ForcedRelocation of #IndigenousPeoples to isolate them they needed another name for the enclaves. They came up with #NewVillages. The New Villages were created under the Briggs Plan, which was developed to combat the communist insurgency in #Malaya during the 1950 #MalayanEmergency. The plan was prepared by Sir Harold Briggs, a British General who was the Director of Operations in Malaya.

#Britain lost the Malayan Peninsula and their fortress at Singapore to the Japanese during WWII and reoccupied their former dominion after the fall of Japan. Among the many difficulties the British encountered was the presence of roughly a half-million #Chinese in rural Malaya, most working as farmers working small plots of land for their own sustenance on land they did not own or lease. The British administration regarded these Chinese as squatters and found them a problem because they were physically distant from the machinery of British authority, which most of the Malayan population was not happy to see return to their country.

When the Malay #CommunistParty received support from armed #guerrillas from Malaya and #China, the British, intent on restoring #Imperial rule to the peninsula, looked with additional distrust upon these rural Chinese. While some of the Chinese were certainly sympathetic to the communists, most were indifferent. The British concern was that the communist #insurgents would receive support from the squatters in the form of food, neglecting the fact that the majority of the Chinese squatters were barely able to grow enough to support themselves. The Briggs plan required the forced relocation of the Chinese.

The New Villages isolated the Chinese, and they were guarded by Malayan police and British Military Police and some troops. The Chinese could not leave the villages except under escort and nobody was allowed in without the permission of the guards, making them effectively prisons. The villages were built with running water and electricity, amenities absent from most Malayan villages, and health care and some educational facilities were provided. This caused resentment towards the British from the Malay outside the villages, who didn’t receive the same amenities, and the Chinese, who resented the forced relocation settlement.

Although the New Villages, of which 450 were built, were an improvement over the forced detention camps of the Boer War, and death rates in the villages were roughly the same as for the rest of the country, there were racially motivated #CollectivePunishments directed towards the Chinese population in the villages. #Deportation without trial by the administration was a common punishment for the Chinese. Law within the villages was the decision of the British. Many of the villages are still standing and in recent years have been restored to serve as tourist destinations by the Malaysian government with support from China.

#AsianMastodon #SouthEastAsia #TootSEA #ColonialismInAsia #Decolonization #DecolonialLearning #ColonizerCrimes #ColonialViolence #Decolonize #AsianHistory #MalaysianHistory #LearnYourColonialHistory

Back at dentist & I'm full of anxieties.
Getting rest of molars out today.

youtube.com/shorts/jdAqP-syraw…

#AsianMastodon #dentist #anxiety #nervous

Dentist anxiety

^YouTube

I'd have died in #RefugeeCamp, if it wasn't for kind strangers funding #humanitarian aids! As a #WarSurvivor, I don't want other #WarRefugees to suffer more.

Please help them, however you can - please share this #donations plea, all over your socials.

Please help to save kids like me, my brothers &
cousins.

We survived & are alive now because kind people helped us!

donate.unrwa.org/-landing-page…

#AsianMastodon #HelpRefugees #HumanityNeeded #PleaseHelp #Refugees #WarChild #TootSEA #HelpGaza

#Teochew version of #AndyLau song.

youtu.be/TSD1zrCxt2k?si=dA0Yp4…

#AsianMastodon #Gaginang #MyPeoples #AsianDiaspora #MyCulturalRoots #MyPeoples

Teochew Song 10 ( 潮州歌曲 - 世界第一等)

福建歌曲'世界第一等' is the only hokkien song by Andy Lau (劉德華).This is the teochew version by 李小珍.

^YouTube