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• 1 2020-04-30T18:05:27-04:00 Patriots / Colonizers 12 Who were the colonizers in Xing An? plain 2021-10-08T16:25:00-04:00 46.46918, 121.24832 Xing'an 10/1928 Shellen X. Wu Zhang Xueliang Zou Zuohua

  In 1928, officers affiliated with the Manchurian warlord Zhang Xueliang undertook the tunken 屯墾 (land reclamation) of the Xing An region. They also established a Xing An Tunken Bureau, which was headed by Zou Zuohua 鄒作華 (1893-1973). The officer Gao Renfu 高仁绂 (1897-1966) organized three units of men to participate in the settlement.

  For these men, the project was first and foremost an effort of national defense. According to the first year report:

  The first phase of this tunken project will consist of military reclamation, the second phase civilian reclamation. The two former banners and various Mongolians in the area have never undertaken border defense and have no public safety measures in place to speak of. This is why in addition to launching immigration, construction, transportation, promoting animal husbandry, forestry, and mining, the most important task is to undertake military reclamation and using the military to protect the country and ensure public safety. The true significance of the military reclamation lies in the ability of soldiers who could both join production and protect the country. When they put down their guns and pick up their goes, the soldiers could farm and work to economically develop the region. When they put down their hoes and pick up their guns, they could kill our enemies and reinforce border defense.

  After bombastic proclamations, three units of men left the nearest town, Tao'an, in late October of 1928, missing the entire growing season, which meant that they also had to immediately construct emergency housing and endure the harsh winter on the steppes. Camped out near Tao'an town in tents, the soldiers drew curious onlookers before their departure. Under strict military regimentation, the soldiers were told to rise at five in the morning for a jog. During the day they dug out ground dwellings. The real work of settlement began with the coming of the spring. At that time, approximately 4,800 refugees from Shandong and Henan joined the troops in the settlement zone.

• 1 2020-04-30T18:06:48-04:00 Zou Zuohua 1 Zou Zuohua (1893-1973) plain 2020-04-30T18:06:48-04:00 Shellen X. Wu

  Northeastern military commander Zou Zuohua 鄒作華 (1893-1973) gave a speech in November 1928. Zuo headed the Xing An Tunken Bureau, a military organization set up exclusively to head the tunken efforts. His own biography belies simple notions of national identity and territory. Like a number of warlords and leading military men of his generation, Zou was educated in Japan and graduated from the Imperial Japanese Military Academy in Kyoto (日本陆军士官学校). A native of Jilin in the Northeast, Zou would have been intensely aware of the complex and often conflicting military, political, and economic alliances in the region. In his speech, however, he provided a simple narrative: a tradition of tuntian that extended to the logistical difficulties of border defense during the Han dynasty, updated for the multi-ethnic Republic of Manchus, Mongolians, Hui, Tibetan, and Han. Zou’s speech provided in a nutshell the reigning logic of tunken efforts, what subsequent yearly reports issued by the Tunken Bureau expanded upon in some 300 pages of reports on the progress of the troops in reclaiming the area.

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  • The Making of a Contested Territory
  • Xing An: A Contested Borderland (Module Introduction)
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