By Lee Keun-yeop
In January 2006, I traveled by train from Hanoi to Guangzhou, Kunming, and back to Hanoi. After two nights' ride I arrived in Guangzhou. The first smell of southern China was exiting.
Spacious plazas and broad streets, high-rise buildings and the traffic of so many people and their clean attire did not put me off.
Some black-and-white pictures showing pre-WWII China reminded me of the miserable Chinese people in dirt-stained cotton clothes, poor workers, so many leased territories and foreign concessions, and the helpless Chinese armies before the invading Japanese armies. China today is full of vitality.
At the former Whampoa Military Academy near the outlet of the Pearl River, I imagined some scenes from the painful history lingering over the faraway horizon, including the Opium War.
In the display room of the academy I found such names as Chiang Kai-shek, principal; Zhou Enlai, vice principal; and Wang Bailin, head of faculty.
The young Wang with burning eyes was Kim Hong-il who later became principal of the Korean Military Academy. Independence fighter Kim Won-bong was a 1927 graduate.
The next day, I managed to locate the former site of the Sun Yat-sen University on top of a hill. Sadly it was demolished long ago.
In the mid-1920s many participants in the Asian Oppressed Peoples Conference held there were later persecuted during the so-called Chiang Kai-shek coup and dozens of Korean participants lost their lives.
My eyes became wet when I thought of those young patriots who sacrificed their lives on this remote foreign soil in the hope of restoring national sovereignty. I failed to obtain the list of the fallen patriots.
I found the old building of the Vietnam Youth Revolutionary League. From 1926 to 1928, a young Nguyen Ai Auoc (alias Ho Chi Minh) taught the history of the national liberation movement of Korea, China, India, and Vietnam.
Then came a train trip of some 30 hours from Guangzhou to Kunming in a clean two decked compartment. The train passed through not merely dozens, but hundreds of tunnels and bridges spanning ravines and rivers.
I saw many modern-day Chinese ``Farmer Fool Removes Mountain'' episodes. I found satellite dishes on every roof of dozens of mud huts along the railroad-side hamlets.
Twelve hours from Kunming to the Vietnamese border town of Laokai was a nightmare. The Chinese driver drove a Korean-made Daewoo bus like a drunken man, hustling down the narrow passes to the Vietnamese Red River valley. No use for regrets. I just left my fate to the heavenly Father.
To my great honor and happiness, in Hanoi I paid a visit to Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap at his residence to see him enjoying good health at the age of 95.
Slaves of nominalism as we were, we lost our sovereignty in the 20th century. We still do not wake up from the daydream of nominalism after 63 years of national division. Here is a pathetic song the Jews sang in their captivity in Babylon.
``By the rivers of Babylon (presumably the Tigris and the Euphrates), there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.''
I sing like this, ``By the rivers of southern China and North Vietnam (the Pearl River and the Red River), there I sat down, yea, I wept, when I remembered both Koreas.''
Isn't the current ideological confrontation of the two Koreas too luxurious?
In 1968 before his assassination, Sen. Robert Kennedy, on his presidential campaign trail, said, ``We must reconcile with the great Chinese people.'' On October 1, 1949, Chairman Mao Zedong at the Tiananmen (Gate of Heavenly Peace) Square stirred inspiration among Chinese people by saying, ``The Chinese people who make up a quarter of the world's population have now stood up."
Beijing is scheduled to host the 2008 Summer Olympics in August. In 2009 we will see the completion and full operation of the Three Gorges Dam on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.
And in 2010 Shanghai hosts the World Expo and we may be able to see the grandeur of the first China-built aircraft carrier anchored somewhere around Shanghai.
On May 12, an 8.0-magnitude earthquake hit Sichuan Province, killing as many as 90,000 people. Hundreds of thousand houses and school buildings collapsed.
It is impressive that the Chinese people and their leaders have stood up for rescue and restoration efforts. The People's Liberation Army soldiers and civilians were quickly sent to the devastated areas, while people rushed to donate blood. Most impressive was the Chinese leadership. Premier Wen Jiabao has inspected rescue work on the scene amid the impending aftershocks and mudslides, which buried more than 200 soldiers.
I still remember the miserable scenes of the hurricane-hit New Orleans which was left helpless for almost one month. I want to ask the Western media a question: Where do you find human rights, in a genuine sense, in Katrina-hit New Orleans, or in quake-hit Sichuan?
Dr. Lee Keun-yeop is director of Korea Center of Social Studies and Humanities on Vietnam and a founding member of the Korean Association for East European and Balkan Studies. He is a regular contributor to The Korea Times. He can be reached at kylee30110@hanmail.net.