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Abstract
During World War II, thousands of Chinese soldiers were sent to India for training. Many of them deserted from the army and made a new life in India. Chen Ching Lin was one of these deserters. Following the course of his journey in India from 1943 to 1946, this article not only unearths the little-known experiences of the Chinese deserters in India, but also explores how the Chinese Nationalist Government’s aim to discipline the overseas Chinese communities conflicted with the agenda of British geopolitics. It further contends that modern Chinese and Indian history could be integrated into a single narrative framework from subaltern perspectives.
Acknowledgements
I extend my thanks to two anonymous reviewers of South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies for their insightful suggestions. Earlier versions of this study were presented at Peking University, Roskilde University and the University of British Columbia. I thank Tansen Sen, Prem Poddar, Lisa Zhang and Edgar Liao for their generous invitations and advice. Special thanks to the students in the undergraduate course, Global History: Approaches and Perspectives, in the spring of 2020 at Tsinghua University, who decided to study Indian and global history with me after I told them the story of Chen Ching Lin.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. From R.A. Dutch to secretary to Government of India, 19 Sept. 1945, Home Political, E_1944_NA_F-88, National Archives of India, New Delhi (henceforth, NAI).
2. From Restis, Bombay, to Home, New Delhi, 31 Oct. 1945, Home Political, E_1944_NA_F-88, NAI.
3. From F. Singh to V. Shankar, 20 Dec. 1945, Home Political, E_1944_NA_F-88, NAI.
4. Nicole Barnes, Intimate Communities: Wartime Healthcare and the Birth of Modern China, 1937–1945 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2018); Philip Thai, China’s War on Smuggling: Law, Economic Life, and the Making of the Modern State, 1842–1965 (New York: Columbia University Press, 2018); David Barret and Larry Shyu (eds), Chinese Collaboration with Japan, 1932–45: The Limits of Accommodation (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2001); and Poshek Fu, Resistance, Passivity, and Collaboration: Intellectual Choices in Occupied Shanghai, 1937–1945 (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1993).
5. There are a few exceptions: see, for instance, Rana Mitter, Forgotten Ally: China’s World War II, 1937–1945 (Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013).
6. Zhang Wenzhi, ‘Zhandijizhe bixiade zhongguoyuanzhengjun (The CEF Recorded by a Battlefield Journalist)’, in Yunnandangan, Vol. 1 (2016), pp. 29–33; Zhou Yu, ‘Zhongguo yuanzhengjun zhongwei yiguan Zhang Tongyou xunfanglu (An Interview of the CEF Sergeant Zhang Tongyou)’, in Guiyangwenshi, Vol. 1 (2015), pp. 51–4; and Bai Se, ‘Zhongguoyuanzhengjun zaiyindujixun (The Training of the CEF in India)’, in Wenxuexuankan, Vol. 11 (2013), pp. 53–6.
7. Yasmin Khan, The Raj at War: A People’s History of India’s Second World War (London: Vintage, 2016); and Srinath Raghavan, India’s War: World War II and the Making of Modern South Asia (New York: Basic Books, 2016).
8. Maria Framke, ‘“We Must Send a Gift Worthy of India and the Congress!” War and Political Humanitarianism in Late Colonial South Asia’, in Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 51, no. 6 (2017), pp. 1969–98; Yang Tianshi, ‘Chiang Kai-shek and Jawaharlal Nehru’, in Hans van de Ven et al. (eds), Negotiating China’s Destiny in World War II (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2015), pp. 127–40; B.R. Deepak, ‘India’s Political Leaders and Nationalist China: Quest for a Sino-Indian Alliance’, in China Report, Vol. 50, no. 3 (2014), pp. 218–20; and Guido Samarani, Shaping the Future of Asia: Chiang Kai-shek, Nehru and China–India Relations during the Second World War Period (Lund: Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, 2005).
9. For the state-building process in modern China, see Tong Lam, A Passion for Facts: Social Survey and the Construction of the Chinese Nation-State, 1900–1949 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011). For the case of modern India, see Nicholas Dirks, Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of Modern India (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001).
10. For the rise of the documentation regimes in the late nineteenth century, see John Torpey, The Invention of the Passport: Surveillance, Citizenship and the State (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000).
11. Andrew Macdonald, ‘Forging the Frontiers: Travelers and Documents on the South Africa–Mozambique Border, 1890s–1940s’, in Kronos, no. 40 (Nov. 2014), pp. 154–77; and Adam McKeown, ‘Ritualization of Regulation: The Enforcement of Chinese Exclusion in the United States and China’, in American Historical Review, Vol. 108, no. 2 (2003), pp. 377–403. I thank one of the reviewers of the article for suggesting Andrew Macdonald’s article and a broader concern with the use of fake identity documents in the world at the time.
12. Kay Anderson argues that the concept of ‘Chinatown’ is a product of cultural construction by the West. Through relating ‘Chinatown’ to social evils, crime and contagious diseases, Westerners reasserted their power to define other migrant communities in terms of their own imaginations and interests: see Kay Anderson, Vancouver’s Chinatown: Racial Discourse in Canada, 1875–1980 (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1995). I thank the reviewer of the article for the recommendation of Kay Anderson’s article and the suggestion of looking beyond illegal activities in India’s Chinatowns.
13. From Chinese Consul General, Calcutta, to Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 17 Oct. 1946, 020-011903-0016, Academia Historica, Taipei (henceforth, AH).
14. In a letter Sun Li-jen wrote to Chiang Kai-shek, he explained that his defiance of orders and retreat into India was because his withdrawal route was blocked by the Japanese: see From Sun Li-jen to Chiang Kai-shek, 22 May 1942, 002-020300-00020-054, AH.
15. Jiangzhongzhengyu shidiwei tanhua jilu, 15 June 1942, 002-020300-00024-011, AH.
16. From Chiang Kai-shek to T.V. Song, 6 May 1942, 002-020300-00024-006, AH.
17. ‘Memorandum by the Secretary of State for India’, 26 June 1943, IOR: L/ PS/ 12/2320, India Office Records, British Library, London (henceforth, BL).
18. From B.A.S. Washington to War Office, 8 June 1943, FO 371/35827, The National Archives, London (henceforth, TNA).
19. From Air Ministry to Armanda, 2 Aug. 1943, AIR 23/2222, TNA.
20. From Lt. Colonel, Allies Liaison Section, to W.G.S. Thompson, 13 Oct. 1942, IOR: L/ PS/ 12/2320, BL.
21. An ordinary Chinese soldier in India could get Rs15–30 per month: see Li Shoutong, ‘Zhongguo yuanzhengjun zhuyinshenghuojianwen (The Daily Life of the CEF in India)’, in Jianghuai Wenshi, Vol. 2 (1993), p. 75.
22. A part of the 5th Army retreated to India in June 1942 and was then integrated into the New 1st Army that was in Ramgarh under American training.
23. ‘Yunnan: Low Morale of the Chinese 5th Army’, 1 Dec. 1942, WO 106/3547, TNA.
24. Ibid.
25. From J.R. Chazal to Intelligence Bureau, Home Department, 19 June 1944, Home Political, E_1944_NA_F-88, NAI.
26. From M.A. Chungking to D.M.I., 14 June 1943, WO 106/4656, TNA.
27. From Chen Cheng to Chiang Kai-shek, 17 Sept. 1943, 002-080200-00620-007, AH.
28. From chief, British Staff Mission, Ramgarh, to chief of General Staff, New Delhi, 31 Mar. 1943, Home Political, E_1944_NA_F-42, NAI.
29. From D.D.N.L. to War Department, 8 Mar. 1944, Home Political, E_1944_NA_F-42, NAI.
30. From V. Shankar to E.A.D., 23 Mar. 1944, Home Political, E_1944_NA_F-42, NAI.
31. From M.A. Chungking to D.M.I., 14 June 1943, WO 106/4656, TNA.
32. From Shen Zuzheng, Calcutta, to Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 16 Oct. 1945, 020-011903-0015, AH.
33. From J.R. de Chazal to Mr. Shankar, Home Department, 19 June 1944, Home Political, E_1944_NA_F-88, NAI.
34. The Chinese emigrated to Bombay in the 1850s. On the eve of the Pacific War, there were around 3,000 Chinese living in the city, of whom more than half were from the Shandong Province in northern China and in the clothing business. There were also Cantonese who were either carpenters or shoemakers. As well, around a hundred Chinese from Hubei province worked in dental clinics in Bombay: see Huaqiaogaikuang: Mengmai, 12 Feb. 1941, 020-011908-0030, AH.
35. Banli mengmaidu’an baogaoshu, 9 June 1945, 020-011908-0019, AH.
36. From J.R. de Chazal to Mr. Shankar, Home Department, 19 June 1944, Home_Political_E_1944_NA_F-88, NAI.
37. From Consulate-General, Bombay, to Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 8 July 1943, 020-011908-0019, AH.
38. From Chiang Chia Tung to Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 30 Sept. 1942, 020-011908-0019, AH.
39. From Chiang Kai-shek to Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 14 Aug. 1944, 020-011908-0019, AH.
40. Banli mengmaidu’an baogaoshu, 9 June 1945, 020-011908-0019, AH.
41. From Ministry of Foreign Affairs to Special Envoy to India, 9 April 1943, 020-011908-0019, AH.
42. From Chiang Kai-shek to Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 14 Aug. 1944, 020-011908-0019, AH.
43. Mitter, Forgotten Ally; and Hans van de Ven, China at War: Triumph and Tragedy in the Emergence of the New China 1937–1952 (London: Profile Books, 2017).
44. ‘Notice from the Chinese Consul Bombay’, 25 Sept. 1942, 020-011908-0019, AH.
45. From Consul for China, Bombay, to H.E. Butler, 30 Sept. 1942, 020-011908-0019, AH.
46. From Special Envoy to India to Chiang Kai-shek, 7 April 1943, 020-011908-0019, AH.
47. From Chinese Consul, Bombay, to Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 12 Dec. 1943, 020-011908-0019, AH.
48. From Consul for China, Bombay, to H.E. Butler, 6 Dec. 1943, 020-011908-0019, AH.
49. From J.R. de Chazal to Mr. Shankar, Home Department, 19 June 1944, Home Political, E_1944_NA_F-88, NAI.
50. Ibid.
51. From Chinese Consul, Bombay, to Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 15 Jan. 1944, 020-011908-0019, AH.
52. From J.B. Brown to secretary to Government of India, 28 July 1944, Home Political, E_1944_NA_F-88, NAI.
53. From J.B. Brown to secretary to Government of India, 28 July 1944, Home Political, E_1944_NA_F-88, NAI.
54. From Deputy Commissioner of Police, Calcutta, to Joint Secretary to Government of Bengal, 24 July 1944, Home Political, E_1944_NA_F-88, NAI.
55. From J.R. de Chazal to Mr. Shankar, Home Department, 19 June 1944, Home Political, E_1944_NA_F-88, NAI.
56. Ibid.
57. From Viceroy to Secretary of State for India, 12 Oct. 1942, IOR: L/ PS/ 12/ 2320, BL.
58. From Under Secretary to Government of India to All Provincial Governments and Chief Commissioners, 4 July 1944, Home Political, E_1944_NA_F-88, NAI.
59. From J.B. Brown to Secretary to Government of India, 28 July 1944, Home Political, E_1944_NA_F-88, NAI.
60. There were two Chinatowns in Calcutta in the 1940s: one was in Bowbazar and residents there were mostly Cantonese, and the other one was in Tangra where the Hakka Chinese lived. For the Chinese community in Calcutta, see Ellen Oxfeld, Blood, Sweat, and Mahjong: Family and Enterprise in an Overseas Chinese Community (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1993); Jennifer Liang, ‘Migration Patterns and Occupational Specialisations of Kolkata Chinese: An Insider’s History’, in China Report, Vol. 43, no. 4 (2007), pp. 397–410; Tansen Sen, ‘Kolkata and China: Some Unexplored Links’, in China Report, Vol. 43, no. 4 (2007), pp. 393–6; Ellen Oxfeld, ‘Still Guest People: The Reproduction of Hakka Identity in Kolkata, India’, in China Report, Vol. 43, no. 4 (2007), pp. 411–35; Jayani J. Bonnerjee, ‘Neighbourhood, City, Diaspora: Identity and Belonging for Calcutta’s Anglo-Indian and Chinese Communities’, unpublished PhD dissertation, Queen Mary University of London, London, 2010; Zhang Xin, Preserving Cultural Identity through Education: The Schools of the Chinese Community in Calcutta, India (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2010); and Zhang Xin and Tansen Sen, ‘The Chinese in South Asia’, in Tan Chee-Beng (ed.), Routledge Handbook of the Chinese Diaspora (London: Routledge, 2013).
61. From J.R. de Chazal to Mr. Lovatt, 23 Mar. 1945, Home Political, E_1945_NA_F-16-49, NAI.
62. From Chinese Consul-General, Calcutta, to Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 13 Sept. 1945, 020-011903-0015, AH.
63. From Chinese Consul-General, Calcutta, to Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 26 April 1945, 020-011903-0015, AH.
64. From Chiang Kai-shek to Consul-General, Calcutta, 8 April 1945, 020-011903-0015, AH.
65. From Consul-General, Calcutta, to Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 17 April 1945, 020-011903-0015, AH.
66. From Consul-General, Calcutta, to Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 17 May 1945, 020-011903-0015, AH.
67. From Consul-General, Calcutta, to Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 10 May 1945, 020-011903-0015, AH.
68. From Consul-General, Calcutta, to Chiang Kai-shek, 26 June 1946, 020-011903-0016, AH.
69. From Deputy Commissioner of Police to Joint Secretary to Government of Bengal, 19 Oct. 1944, Home Political, E_1944_NA_F-88, NAI.
70. From Consul-General, Calcutta, to Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 21 June 1945, 020-011903-0015, AH.
71. Ibid.
72. From Consul-General, Calcutta, to Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 27 April 1945, 020-011903-0015, AH.
73. From Assistant Director, Home Department, to Intelligence Bureau, Home Department, 30 Jan. 1945, Home Political, E_1945_NA_F-16-49, NAI.
74. From Consul-General, Calcutta, to Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 26 April 1945, 020-011903-0015, AH.
75. Ibid.
76. From Consul-General, Calcutta, to Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 9 Aug. 1945, 020-011903-0015, AH.
77. From A.W. Lovatt to Chief Commissioner, Delhi, 2 Oct. 1945. Home Political, E_1945_NA_F-16-49, NAI.
78. From V. Shankar to D.S. (E), 21 Dec. 1945, Home Political, E_1944_NA_F-88, NAI.
79. I use ‘Chen Ching Lin’ in quotation marks to refer to the one who was arrested in Calcutta to avoid confusion hereafter.
80. From R.A. Dutch to Secretary to Government of India, 19 Sept. 1945, Home Political, E_1944_NA_F-88, NAI.
81. From K. Tolson to C.P. Chen, 31 Aug. 1945, Home Political, E_1944_NA_F-88, NAI.
82. From Second Additional Secretary to Government of Bengal to Secretary to Government of India, 8. Nov. 1945, Home Political, E_1944_NA_F-88, NAI.
83. From F. Singh to V. Shankar, 20 Dec. 1945, Home Political, E_1944_NA_F-88, NAI. The suspicious aspect of the judgement of the Calcutta police is that they did not explain why the ‘Chen Ching Lin’ in their custody did not report that his registration certificate had been taken away by others, but just stated that he lost it himself. Furthermore, the Calcutta police failed to elaborate how ‘Chen Ching Lin’, a cashier working in a Chinese restaurant, could end up on the staff of a government-affiliated bank.
84. From Superintendent, Presidency Jail, Calcutta, to Deputy Commissioner of Police, Security Control, Calcutta, 26 Nov. 1945, Home Political, E_1944_NA_F-88, NAI.
85. From H.E. Richardson to Secretary-in-Charge, Office of Commissioner of China to India, New Delhi, 7 Jan. 1946, Home Political, E_1944_NA_F-88, NAI.
86. From Consul-General, Calcutta, to Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 16 Mar. 1946, 020-011903-016, AH.
87. From Consul-General, Calcutta, to Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 27 Mar. 1946, 020-011903-016, AH.
88. From Headquarters of Military Police to Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 6 April 1936, 020-011903-016, AH.
89. From Consul-General, Calcutta, to Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 15 April 1946, 020-011903-016, AH.
90. From Consul-General, Calcutta, to Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 1 Nov. 1946, 020-011903-016, AH.
91. From Headquarters of Kunming Military Police to Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 22 April 1946, 020-011903-016, AH.
92. The enforced enlistment of deserters into the nationalist forces during the War of Resistance and the Chinese Civil War was not unusual: see Zhong Hua, ‘Lunkangzhanshiqi guomindang jundui de fubaiwenti (The Corruption of the Nationalist Forces during the War of Resistance)’, in Junshilishi yanjiu, Vol. 4 (2003), pp. 91–8; Xu Deli, ‘Kanzhangshiqi xinanminzudiqu taobibingyi weizaowenshu xianxiangyanjiu (Research on the Phenomenon of Forgery for Evading Military Service in the Southwest Minority Area during the Period of the Anti-Japanese War)’, in Guizhouminzu yanjiu, Vol. 1 (2014), pp. 154–6; and Luo Yuming and Li Ke, ‘Kangrizhanzhengshiqi guomindangjundui taobing renshukao (Textual Research about the Number of KMT Army Deserters in the Period of the War of Resistance against Japan)’, in Anhuishixue, Vol. 4 (2018), pp. 97–103.
93. C.F. Yong and R.B. McKenna, The Kuomintang Movement in British Malaya, 1912–1949 (Singapore: Singapore University Press, 1990).
94. According to Rana Mitter, the British diplomatic view regarding the capability of the Chinese Nationalist Government changed during the War from seeing it as corrupt and incapable to regarding it as a potential competitor in the post-War period: see Rana Mitter, ‘British Diplomacy and Changing Views of Chinese Governmental Capability across the Sino-Japanese War, 1937–1945’, in Hans van de Ven et al. (eds), Negotiating China’s Destiny in World War II (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2014), pp. 35–51.