1936: The final paragraphs of an eventful year

1936 - age 35 continued

The main reason Secretary Wu invited me to Hanzhou was that in 1932 I had suggested a plan to improve the livelihood of the farmers. He thought it was a plan that was feasible. This idea came from my Business College professor who had a theory about co-op farming and I did research on British plans of co-ops. I also made a lot of references from Japanese agricultural improvements. This time when I came to Zhejiang province, my main focus was building warehouses to store agricultural product. What was involved in this plan was to choose a town or village where there are more farmers and a bigger area for growing crops. We would invite the leaders of these towns and villages, the ruling class knowledgeable, to a conference to explain what the government plan was for improving their livelihood. Also, after we conferenced with these leaders, we would choose a piece of land as a pilot. We chose a place that was not susceptible to flooding and had access by road for means of transportation. We asked the provincial government to collect money from the villages and towns and the provincial government would supplement any needed amounts of money. On our pilot property, we would build a big warehouse to store the agricultural products. There were a lot of architectural requirements for the warehouse: safe, secure from rain and flooding. This warehouse would be a showpiece to demonstrate to the farmers that their product would be stored safely. They would become members to use the warehouse and they would pay a membership fee. At peak production, the price would drop. With the warehouse, they wouldn't have to sell at harvest. They can control the price much better. And if some members had a special need, they could take a loan from the co-op. With this provincial government plan, the livelihood of the farmers could be improved and they wouldn't have to be poor year-round. For the management of the system, there were committees but the management would be chosen by the farmers. We launched this plan in Hanzhou and gradually spread to the rest of the province. Because it needed to be proved successful first before the rest of the province wanted to adopt it. The rest of the province had a lot of positive response. So much that the neighboring provides of Jiangxi wanted to do similar things. 

This year was very busy with Shu-dong's illness and the birth of Shu-Shih and also traveling back and forth between Hanzhou and Shanghai. Even though I was very busy, I still did a lot of research on my college major: currency and financing. My old friend, Mr. Lei, he's a very patriotic person. He established a new research group called Building New China and also a monthly magazine telling about what the group was doing. In this group and magazine, they published a lot of people's articles and plans. Mr. Liu, Mr. Ma, Mr. Xu, Mr. Lo, and also they asked me to be involved. Most of the articles I wrote were about currency and financing. Mr. Lei himself published a lot of books he compiled or edited. Inside one of his publications said that during the twenty-five years of China's recent history, since the Opium War, China is experiencing one difficulty after another. And Dongbei (east-north, Manchuria) was occupied by Japan. All the northern provinces were at war because the  Japanese were fighting to occupy the country. China had to experience all the turmoil of war, there was no time to do any building up or strengthen the country. In his publications, he always called the people to be zealous for patriotism, we can't let this beat us, we need to unite and fight. The traditional Chinese philosophy says that every single person is responsible for the life of the country. Every little person has some responsibility. Not just a small group. He wrote a lot of these kinds of articles, calling people to wake up and do their part. I wrote about financing during this unusual time of chaos and wart. I wrote a book mainly about inflation, currency, credit, and management. This little book I brought to Taiwan and I treasure it. 

[During Gonggong's time, most Chinese went through unsettling: fleeing from the enemy or no peace. Like my dad, they kept on moving from place to place. Hard for families to do research and things like that.]

This year, I traveled between Shanghai and Hanzhou many many times. Besides the room and board, and transportation in Zhejiang province was paid by the government, the rest of my traveling expenses were paid by myself. Because when I was sent to Hanzhou, it was a temporary basis, so I wasn't paid by the bank. For my work in Zhejiang, I wasn't paid. Until December of this year, Mr. Wu, my boss, asked the government payroll to give me some compensation for my expenses. The one who brought the money to me was Mr. Li. He said, "Mr. Qu, I saw you were a very disciplined, upright person. You would rather be mistreated for a year than to complain. But now Mr. Wu has done the right thing and not taken advantage of his employees. Now, you have the money to have a nice new year. 

This year, in December, there was a big event: Jian Jiesi was captured in Xi'an. [My dad was born during this time. This Xi'an Incident changed the whole military situation of China.] If you want to research this incident, there is a lot of writing on this so I won't go into detail. One thing we were very grateful for was that Jian Jiesi was in danger for quite a while. Every morning, he very calmly read his bible and prayed. On Christmas Day, Madame Jiang flew to Xi'an and brought him back to Nanjing safely. That morning, he was reading the bible Jeremiah 31:22 How long will you waver, O faithless daughter? For the LORD has created a new thing on the earth: a woman encircles a man.” I believe Acts 27:25 So take heart, men, for I have faith in God that it will be exactly as I have been told. The whole nation celebrated his return, this was a big turning point in our nation and a big turning point in my biography. 

[The communist version of Xi'an Incident is much different, obviously; history is written by winners.]