Stories from Deli

In the 1960s and 1960s, tens of thousands of Indonesian overseas Chinese were affected by the anti-Chinese anti-Chinese anti-Chinese wave set off by the right-wing forces in Indonesia, and they embarked on the road to return. Among them, several batches of more than 2,000 Indonesian returned overseas Chinese were assigned to Settled at Xinglong Overseas Chinese Farm in Hainan.

Since then, they have started another new life, like a nail firmly nailed to a wooden board, and they have lived there for 46 years. Later generations want to know how they lived there for decades. It was an ordinary but memorable experience worthy of publicity. Future generations should remember that Xinglong still has a group of overseas Chinese returning from Indonesia who have experienced untold hardships. Xinglong Overseas Chinese Farm in 1960.

Like all parts of the country, it is in a period of shortage of food and materials. It was in this situation that the refugees from Indonesia came to Xinglong. Before contacting Xinglong, Xinglong gave a good impression to overseas Chinese in Indonesia. In the 1950s, some Chinese media promoted prosperity and made some exaggerated depictions. It is said that Xinglong is a new socialist farm with adequate food and clothing. It uses tractors for arable land and is well-educated. In addition to primary and secondary schools, there are also universities. Free education is provided, etc. However, after these refugees arrived there, the many realities they faced gradually replaced their perfect imaginations.

It was only 208 kilometers from Haikou to Xinglong, and they traveled by car for six full hours. When they were in the car, everyone was talking and laughing, but as soon as they arrived at the destination, they immediately fell silent. What caught their eyes was that Xinglong was the only decaying street left before liberation. There were only ten bricks and tiles on the street. Wooden structure, dilapidated and mostly closed shop-like houses, there are several thatched huts at the end of the street, one of which is a low-rise hut which is a “station”. It was dusk when the Indonesian returned overseas Chinese arrived at the Xinglong Overseas Chinese Farm.

They were soon assigned to the production teams in the various operating areas of the farm. The old Malayan overseas Chinese who had already stood by the road waiting for the arrival of the new Indonesian overseas Chinese immediately stepped forward to help. Take them to the public cafeteria of the production team for dinner. After a day of hard work, and the unappetizing food, most people cannot eat. Afterwards, they moved into a tiled house with names written on the doors that were arranged in advance. At that time, there were no electric lights in the whole farm. There were black lights everywhere, and there were only dim kerosene lamps in the house.

The next day, many people got up early, they were anxious to know the environment around the production team and various other things. They saw that many small rubber seedlings were planted around the production team, as well as some paddy fields and sweet potato fields. They also saw that there were still some thatched houses in the production team, where returning overseas Chinese and old workers from countries such as Malaya and Thailand lived.

Soon after, they learned that all the supplies here were allocated according to the labor force, adults or children, students, etc., by people. The monthly quota of rice for newly returned overseas Chinese labor is 25 jin, while that for old returned overseas workers is 18-20 jin. There are also more tickets issued to newly returned overseas Chinese than to old returned overseas Chinese. When one or two groups of returned Indonesians came to Xinglong in winter, the farm gave out quilts, cotton-padded clothes and sanitary clothes to those who had no winter supplies. For the care of the farm, the work area and the production team, and for the warm reception of the old returned overseas Chinese and old employees, the newly returned Indonesians are excited and thankful.

However, the reality is that life here is much harder than life in Indonesia, and there is a big gap. Moreover, the time to change from good to bad is only about one week. The sudden hard life has caught many newly returned Indonesians by surprise, and they have no mental preparation. Many people couldn’t figure it out, and regretted it for a long time. Forced by helplessness, they can only come and settle down. When the Indonesian returned overseas Chinese were overseas, most of their occupations were small merchants and hawkers, and few did physical work.

Most of the Indonesian overseas Chinese who returned to China in 1960 were resettled to overseas Chinese farms to participate in agricultural labor. The cash crops grown on Xinglong Overseas Chinese Farm include rubber, pepper and coffee. Food crops include rice and sweet potatoes. Returned Indonesians from Indonesia have never planted these crops in the past, and everything must be learned from scratch. Everyone knows that it is very hard to engage in agricultural production.

Every morning at 5:30 a.m., just before dawn, the production team will ring the wake-up clock and the work clock. At this time, the newly returned overseas Chinese and the old returned overseas Chinese and old employees in Indonesia would nervously go to the public canteen of the production team, swallow a few porridge and a few sweet potatoes, put on production tools such as hoe and chopper, and hurried to the production. Team’s basketball court collection. The leader of each production team called with a flashlight, and then the production team leader arranged the production tasks for the day.

Before dawn, the teams set off for their respective construction sites. Arriving at the construction site, according to the different types of work, everyone is scattered in various hills and various sections. Most of the members of the rubber cave digging team are newly returned Indonesian overseas Chinese in their 20s and 30s, other returned overseas Chinese, and employees. All of them are strong. When they came to the hilltop just after the wasteland was reclaimed, they didn’t say anything. One person occupies a hilltop. According to the position of the plant and row spacing, they immediately put into the work of digging glue holes. The specifications for planting rubber tree holes are 40 cm wide, 80 cm deep, and 80 cm wide. The quota for digging glue holes per person per day is based on the softness and hardness of the soil. Generally, the soil is soft. The quota for each worker is 100-200, and the hard soil is 10-90.

If you don’t race against time, you won’t be able to complete the task. Therefore, as soon as everyone hoeed, they all worked hard, and no longer heard the voice of talking and laughing. The hardest time to dig glue holes is when the sun is shining and there is no wind, everyone is sweating profusely. Since the burrowing team are all young men, when the heat gets too hot, many people simply take off their clothes and work in underpants. Before the end of work every afternoon, the team leader must accept the dug rubber tree holes one by one. Those that do not meet the specifications must be reworked before acceptance.

Today, the huge rubber trees and stretches of rubber plantations on the Xinglong Overseas Chinese Farm are the fruits of the labor left by the vast numbers of returned overseas Chinese and workers in that era. Thinking of them, how can people not respect them? Returned overseas Chinese from Indonesia and other returned overseas Chinese and employees have worked hard. How are wages calculated? Since the 1950s and 1960s, Xinglong has implemented a fixed-rate contracting (contracting) production management system of “work more, get paid for work”. A medium labor force, if it can complete a medium number of labor tasks in a day, is set as one job, and one wage is worth 1.36 yuan. For example, when digging rubber holes in soft soil, the labor task (quota) set by the middle labor is 100 holes. That is to say, a middle labor can complete 100 holes a day, which is called a job quota. If you can dig 100 holes a day, you get 1.36 yuan: if you can dig 200 holes a day, you can get two workers’ wages 2. 72 yuan.

The same applies to other types of work. If the area can be calculated according to the area of ​​cutting the bar (cutting trees), planting peanuts, and transplanting rice seedlings, the quota is set according to the number of mu. For digging sweet potato borders, set the quota according to the length (meters) of the borders. In general, newly returned Indonesians can get 40-50 yuan a month with a strong labor force, and less than 20 yuan for a weak one.

Frail returned overseas Chinese and employees must have low incomes. In order to guarantee their livelihood, the farm production teams must provide monthly living allowances to returned overseas Chinese and employees with low incomes and difficulties in living. Those in need of subsidies must first submit a written application to the production team, and then they will be presented to the staff meeting or group meeting of the team, and everyone will discuss openly and decide who should be subsidized. The amount of subsidy is generally only tens of yuan.

For those who apply for subsidies, the meeting to discuss subsidies must be attended. Otherwise, if the person concerned is absent, he may be rejected and fail to appraise the subsidy. As time went on, a few years later, the newly returned overseas Chinese in Indonesia also became the old returned overseas Chinese. The idea of ​​taking care of newly returned overseas Chinese has also disappeared. New and old returned overseas Chinese and other employees are treated equally. The rations of rice, cooking oil, and other daily necessities allocated by the farm have eliminated the distinction between old and new, and everyone is equal in ration.

After returning to China for a few years, the food, clothes and other things brought back by the returned Indonesian overseas Chinese were basically eaten and used up. In this way, the life of the Indonesian returned overseas Chinese becomes more difficult. Especially the problem of insufficient food was the most prominent problem at that time. Before 1962, there was a “consumer society” operated by a farm in Xinglong Field Department. There was only coffee (because there was no sugar) and no cakes. In addition, there is a non-staple food store that specializes in rationed supplies, a photo studio, a barber shop, a handmade shoe shop (using car tires to make shoes), and a shop that can only purchase goods with the “Overseas Remittance Certificate” Few overseas Chinese shops.

Many returnees from Indonesia will bring saccharin brought back from overseas to the “consumer club” to drink coffee on holidays. There is nowhere to go if you want to fill your stomach. At that time, there were many villages around the farm that were under the jurisdiction of the Wanning County Government. The farmers had some land, and the sweet potatoes they grew would be secretly sold to the farm’s production team. In order to buy sweet potatoes to satisfy their hunger, many returnees from Indonesia sold the things they kept at home and thought they were useless.

At that time, the bank of Xinglong Country purchased gold for only a few yuan per gram, and the Indonesian overseas Chinese were willing to sell gold rings, gold necklaces and other accessories in exchange for some money to buy sweet potatoes. The problem of insufficient food supply has been plagued by farms. It wasn’t until 1961 that the farm allowed the production team to distribute part of the corner land that was not planted with crops to each household as private land to grow sweet potatoes, cassava and other miscellaneous grains, which made up for the lack of food. This approach has been welcomed by the majority of returned overseas Chinese and employees.

In the early 1960s, the Indonesian returned overseas Chinese who lived in Xinglong really experienced the “rationing system” period. At that time, due to the extreme shortage of food and materials, they had to be rationed. Adults are allocated a monthly ration of 20-30 catties of rice, 30 catties of sweet potatoes, 2-3 taels each of peanut oil, sugar and kerosene (for lighting). Pork is distributed approximately once a month, 0.5 jin or 1 jin per person. When sending pork, everyone wants to buy fat, because fat can squeeze oil. If you get lean meat, you will be very upset. At that time, both adults and children were looking forward to the Chinese New Year. At the festival, everyone can get 1-3 catties of pork. In the few days of the holiday, everyone is very happy because they can eat a big meal and enjoy a few days of “happy” life.

For the parturients, the farm will give one-time care. You can buy 1-2 catties of pork, chicken, and duck eggs with your child’s birth certificate. Smokers can get a few cigarettes or a pack of cigarettes per month. When there are no cigarettes, those “smokers” really think of ways to pick dried papaya leaves and smoke them as shredded tobacco. Later, with private plots, many people planted tobacco on their own, which solved the smoking problem. Upon returning to the country, the returned Indonesians first came into contact with many “votes” and “certificates.” They had not seen these “tickets” and “certificates” when they were in Indonesia. From the initial curiosity, they later learned to use various “tickets” and “certificates.”

Food stamps are the most common type of ticket. According to the scope of use, it can be divided into the national “national ticket”, the provincial “provincial ticket”, and the farm “field ticket”. If you have 20 kilograms of surplus grain, you don’t need to buy rice, and you are allowed to receive a ticket of 20 kilograms. Once the small shop of the production team sells biscuits and rice noodles, you can buy it with the surplus grain ticket in your hand. later,. When Xinglong Coffee Shop sells pastries, you also need food stamps to buy them. If you want to leave the farm to visit relatives in other places, you must get a certain number of “food saving tickets” or “national food tickets” based on the “pass” approved and applied for by the farm. No matter where you go, you cannot buy rice and food products if you have money without food stamps. If you forget to bring food stamps when you go out, you will be in trouble.

Returned overseas Chinese from Indonesia still remember that in 1961 every adult also sent 3. 6-foot cloth ticket. To make a pair of trousers, the cloth tickets of two people must be combined to buy cloth. 3. A 6-foot cloth ticket is troublesome for a bachelor. If you can’t make pants, you can only make shorts. In addition, each household has a “shopping book”. With this book, you can go to the small shop of the production team to buy quantitative supplies such as sugar and peanut oil. The “Remittance Certificate” is owned by only a few people. When someone from overseas sends money back, the bank will issue a certain amount of remittance certificate according to the amount of money. With the overseas remittance certificate, you can buy three kinds of things such as cigarettes, sugar, and malted milk in the “Overseas Chinese Store”. If the number of overseas remittance certificates is large, you can also buy high-end goods such as bicycles and sewing machines. At that time, cultural life was also quite poor.

There is a film team in the rural area, about half a month, will go to the production team to show a movie, and the field (the main field) will also show a movie every Saturday night. Once it’s the night when the production team shows the movie, and the sun hasn’t gone down, people will remove stools from their homes and place them on the movie court (basketball court) to take a good place. Except for movies, there are almost no other entertainment activities, so people watch movies with great enthusiasm. As soon as they hear that there are good movies, they can do “work and movies.” When I go to work in the morning, I bring lunch for lunch and eat at the construction site. I work until 3pm. After working for eight hours, he went home to take a shower, finished his meal, and walked two or three kilometers non-stop to watch a movie until midnight. Wake up and go to work the next day as usual, and they rarely hear them tired. It’s incredible to see people’s enthusiasm at that time with the eyes of people now. As for going to the nearby production team to watch a movie, that is more commonplace.

Generally, a person can watch movies three or four times a month. Most of the movies shown at that time were made in China, the Soviet Union and the socialist countries of Eastern Europe. The most popular movies were anti-special and war-themed movies, while life and romance movies were relatively rare. One time the North Korean wide-screen color feature film “The Flower Girl” was screened. Many people have never watched the widescreen film, which caused a sensation in the audience. That night, the grass in the open-air cinema was full of people before it got dark. It is estimated that there were thousands of people.

Another cultural activity of Xinglong is the singing and dancing performance of the cultural troupe organized by the farm. This cultural troupe is partly full-time, with more than ten people, and several of its actors are returned Indonesian overseas Chinese. They rehearsed many songs and dances reflecting the life of the returned overseas Chinese from the farm, and often went to the production team to perform. The returned overseas Chinese and the employees liked to watch their performances. Many returnees from Indonesia were good at singing and dancing, but at that time, it was rare to hear them singing Indonesian songs and dancing. The reason is that in the era of singing revolutionary songs and performing revolutionary dramas, and the political atmosphere was very strong, anyone who dared to sing and dance the soft Indonesian song and dance would be detained as “nostalgia for the bourgeois lifestyle overseas.” “The charge. Second, the “belly problem” cannot be solved, so whoever has the power to sing foreign songs.

Of course, there are still some returnees from Indonesia secretly singing “Bengawan Solo” and “Ayo Mama” and other songs at home. Since the free market opened in 1962, apart from rice, meat, cooking oil, and sugar, Xinglong still has to supply rations, but there are also more things on the market, such as sweet potatoes, cassava, vegetables, and eggs and duck eggs. After 1964, all kinds of non-staple foods were more abundant. After the reform and opening up, Xinglong, like all parts of the country, completely abolished the rationing system. Since then, the lives of Xinglong returned Indonesian overseas Chinese and other returned overseas Chinese and employees have been greatly improved, and the production and labor intensity has also been reduced.

Zhang Liukunhttps://koran.harianinhuaonline.com/2019/01/17/47829/