Reason My Grandparents Immigrate to Malaysia
Topic: The reasons my grandparents immigrated to Malaysia Nowadays, there are millions of Chinese living overseas. For me, I am the third generation of overseas Chinese in Malaysia. My grandparents came from a small village in Chaozhou Prefecture of Guangdong Province, China. They immigrated to Malaysia after World War II for several political, economic and societal reasons. In 1930’s, China was in a state of disorder due to the incessant fighting between warlords. People lived in deep distress. Unfortunately, the war of resistance against Japan broke out in 1937.
The Japanese Imperial Army suddenly occupied a large area of China. My grandparents’ hometown was not invaded by the Japanese Army since it was only a small village. However, it faced scarcity of food. Many residents died of starvation, including my great-grandmother. My grandparents followed other villagers and fled to Fujian province. After that, they had been working in a rich family to earn a living for the following 8 years. Finally, in 1945, Japan surrendered. For U. S. A, Britain, Russia and for Japan itself, it symbolized the arrival of peace.
Yet, for China, it just marked the resumption of the civil war between Nationalist Party and Chinese Communist Party. Both of the two parties wanted to control China. Nobody knew when another war would break out. The potential war would undoubtedly plunge Chinese people into misery and suffering again. Besides, people only saw a scene of devastation everywhere in China. The economic environment was worse than before. My grandparents found it harder to live in China after the war than before it.
Millions of Chinese from Fujian and Guangdong province fled to South-east Asia, the so-called “Nanyang”, to seek a better life. Many of them chose Malaya (the predecessor of Malaysia) to start their new life. In Malaya, the political environment was much stable then. Before the war, the peninsula was occupied by Britain. The British colonist spared no effort in maintaining the stability of Malaya as they didn’t want any instability to interrupt their plundering of wealth in the colony. My grandparents thought that they could get an easy life in Malaya.
They would at least not be destitute and homeless there. Since 19th century, thousands of Chinese flowed to Malaya because of the opportunities for employment in the mining, plantations and businesses. The peninsula has an abundance of natural resources. British colonists were rapidly developing the tin mining industry, rubber, and palm oil farming on the land. There was a high demand of manpower in the peninsula. Consequently, British colonist had been importing a large number of Chinese laborers into Malaya.
Apart from that, the success stories of Chinese businessmen like Tan Tock Seng, Tan Kah Kee and Lee Kong Chian kept inspiring my grandfather and other Chinese. Therefore, they didn’t mind travelling thousands of miles to Nanyang. They believed that it was a land where they could survive and become rich. According to the World Population Years’ report, there were about 1. 8 million Chinese living in Peninsular Malaya in 1947. Overseas Chinese had already formed a big community in Malaya. People who came from same the province and spoke the same dialect lived and worked together.
Therefore, it was not a problem for my grandparents to adapt themselves in this new community. All these factors caused my grandparents to make this tough decision. It’s really hard for them to leave their homeland and become a citizen of another country. However, they might have been killed in another war if they had stayed in China. The day-to-day struggle of survival overrode all other things such as the unwillingness to leave the place where they had grown up. They were forced to immigrate. (605 words) It’s my essay for English course in University. So embarrassing……
