The following is a word for word transcription of an article of the same name, originally published in Amerasia 9(1): 59-74, 1982. However only three of the footnotes have been included as relevant to my purpose. If you wish to view the remainder, you will have to source the original article yourself.
The opinions and attitudes expressed are those of the original authors, and, in my opinion, need to be carefully discounted as they significantly colour the treatment of the topic.
Much original source material unused by these authors is to be found in the Bureau of Archives of Taishan County. The article, The Sunning Railway by Peter Crush of the Hong Kong Railway Society treats the topic as a railway enthusiast and is generously illustrated with historical photographs. While the article, History of Xinning Railway authorised by the Taishan City Government takes a more prolatarian approach and includes lots of historical photographs, a system map and a potted biography of the founder of the railway, Chen YiXi.
From the late nineteenth century through the early years of the twentieth century, Western imperialist nations competed fiercely for railroad concessions in China. Around 1900, Western countries, including Germany, France, Britain, and the United States obtained fifty-nine rights to build or finance over 30,000 kilometres (12,422 miles) of railroads. In resistance, mass movements to regain railroad rights and to forestall further concessions occurred throughout China. In the provinces of Guangdong (Kwangtung), Hunan, and Hubei in 1905, the struggle resulted in the recovery of rights to build the Yuehan Railway, which had been lost to an American company; in Sichuan, the newly founded Chuanhan Railway Company charter stipulated against the selling of shares to foreigners or the acceptance of foreign loans. Nonetheless, by 1911, over ninety percent of Chinese railroad lines were built by Westerners or by foreign loans.
During this period of foreign competition for railroad rights, a movement to construct the Sunning (Xinning) railway in Guangdong Province took place. This railway was one of only three railroads built and operated by the Chinese national bourgeoisie before 1949.2 It was established mainly with the capital, technology, and management know-how of Chinese in America. Based in Toisan (Taishan) county, the area from which most Chinese in America emigrated, the railway was built in three stages from 1906 to 1920. It was dismantled by the Chinese government in 1939 when the Japanese army invaded Guangdong.
In scope, economic value, and strategic significance, the Sunning Railway did not play a major role in the history of Chinese transportation. However, its entire life reflects the interlocking but conflicting pressures of Western imperialism, bureaucratic capitalism and feudalism which characterized early twentieth century China. It illustrates the difficulty for non-bureaucrat Chinese to establish private capitalist enterprises in China.
Moreover, in the context of Chinese American history, the establishment of the Sunning Railway reflects the role of emigrant capital and nationalism on the development of enterprises in the emigrant motherland. The establishment of this railroad in Toisan, rather than other areas, is closely related to the emigration of Toisanese to the Americas and their economic returns to China in the form of family remittances, donations to philanthropic enterprises such as schools and hospitals; and capital investments in commercial, mining and industrial ventures. Toisan consequently evolved into an emigrant society, dependent economically on outside remittances and imports.
After China's defeat in the Opium War of 1839-1842, the Qing government signed a series of unequal treaties with Britain, France, Germany and the United States which transformed China into a semi-colonial country. China's traditional economy, based on the integration of small owner cultivation and household handicrafts, slowly disintegrated due to cash crop cultivation and unequal foreign trade. Cotton, silk, tobacco and tea became subject to the fluctuations of the international market.
As a result of this disintegration of the traditional rural economy and the incorporation of China into the world market, many peasants lost their land. This led to successive waves of emigration, especially from the coastal areas of Guangdong and Fujian. These emigrants were mainly displaced peasants, handicraft workers and peddlers. Also included were members of anti-Manchu secret societies whose rebellious activities made it unsafe to stay in China. These emigrants crossed the Pacific to Southeast Asia and America, and many were sold as "piggies." 4
Although Chinese emigration began before the Opium War, the massive overseas emigration to sell labor power started in the mid-nineteenth century. Besides the change in economic structure mentioned above, there were other important reasons. During the mid-nineteenth century, after the abolition of slavery and the termination of the black slave trade, the large plantations in Central and South America faced a critical labour shortage; in addition, the discovery of gold in California, the construction of transcontinental railways in the U.S. and Canada, and the development of mines and plantations in Southeast Asia all required cheap labor. Thus, the Western bourgeoisie turned to Asia, and to China specifically, attempting to replace black slaves with Chinese coolies, in the meantime, under the military and diplomatic intimidation of the Western powers, the Qing government changed its traditional isolationist policy and legalized foreign labor recruitment activities in China. The surrendering of Hong Kong to the British and the opening of five ports to foreign trade facilitated this recruitment. Agents of Western capitalists established labor recruitment stations in Canton (Guangzhou), Swatow (Shantou), Amoy (Xiamen), and other coastal cities. Hong Kong and Macau became centers for the coolie trade.
A large number of those who went overseas to sell their labor and those who were indentured came from the county of Toisan. It is estimated that Toisanese accounted for approximately 80 percent of all emigrants who went to the continental United States in the nineteenth century. A hilly area located southwest of the Pearl River delta, Toisan was not economically prosperous. In addition to geographical reasons, massive social unrest and persistent natural diasters in Toisan and nearby counties such as Enping, Hoiping (Kaiping) and Sunwui (Xinhui) resulted in the devastation of farm land, famine and dire poverty. Three specific social factors were especially important in separating a large number of peasants from their land. The first was the Red Turban Rebellion of 1844-45, after which peasant participants fled to Southeast Asia and the Americas. The second factor was the Punti-Hakka War which began in 1856 and lasted for twelve years. Twenty to thirty thousand peasants died in battle. The number of peasants who died from epidemics and hunger was even higher. In March 1864 alone, more than twenty thousand Hakkas who were pinned down at Tailoongdong died of epidemics. Captives of these wars were sent to the Americas as indentured laborers via Hong Kong and Macau. Many displaced peasants also left the country. It is estimated that during the Punti-Hakka conflict, more than a hundred thousand peasants left the area. Among them were twenty to thirty thousand Hakkas who either were sold by the Puntis or had indentured themselves to South America. The third factor was natural disasters. According to incomplete records, between 1851 and 1908 there were fourteen serious floods, seven typhoons, four earthquakes, two severe droughts, four epidemics and five great famines. A large number of people perished during these disasters.
Thus, the combination of the disruption of the peasant economy due to foreign penetration, natural diasters, and domestic rebellion and strife contributed to the departure of Toisanese to the Americas and Southeast Asia. It was estimated that by 1876, the membership of the Ning Yeung Association (an association of Chinese in the U.S. from Toisan County) totalled 75,000, or almost half of the total Chinese population in America at that time. After the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, the number of Toisanese decreased. Nonetheless, by 1930 they comprised 120,000 of the Chinese residing in the U.S.
Most of the Toisanese abroad were laborers, farmers and peddlers. The limited income which they earned had to support not only themselves but their families at home. Between 1851 and 1874 many Toisanese sent money back to support their relatives, to build houses for their families and to establish benevolent enterprises in their homeland, such as schools, orphanages, hospitals, public toilets, and halfway houses. The more successful Toisanese emigrants invested their monies in commercial, mining and industrial enterprises. In Toising (Taicheng) and other towns throughout the county, establishments were started and operated by overseas Chinese investments to serve the dependents of emigrants. These included banks, gold and silver shops, grocery stores, dry goods stores, restaurants, and construction materials stores. While there were only fifty-three market towns in the early nineteenth century, by 1893 the number had increased to seventy-five. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, overseas Toisanese had started several hundred industrial and commercial enterprises in Hong Kong, Macau, Canton, and Kiangmoon (Jiangmen). Emigrant returnee Huang Bingchang collected over 400,000 yuan (US$200,000) to start an electricity company in Canton. It was estimated that during the early twentieth century, annual remittances from overseas Toisanese amounted to several million yuan. This shows that an economic basis for large scale investment in industrial enterprises in Toisan existed among overseas Toisanese.
With the continuous emigration and return of the Toisanese and the large number of people supported by earnings abroad, Toisan developed into an emigrant society, and its economic dependence on the outside increased. By the end of the nineteenth century, stapes, such as grain, produced in the county could only support the local population for half a year. The rest had to be imported from other areas. Economic dependence on the outside pointed to a need for better transportation. However, Toisan was a hilly area and its rivers were short and shallow. Thus, transportation relied exclusively on roads. Until the end of the nineteenth century, Toisan did not have a single highway: commodities were transported by hand trucks and people travelled in sedan chairs. At that time, nearby Yeungkiang (Yangjiang) county provided the necessary manpower for transportation, and several thousand young men were employed as sedan chair carriers.
Overseas, the Toisanese were exposed to advanced transportation such as railways, highways and steam navigation, and realized that modern transportation was necessary to further develop China. Those who had worked on the transcontinental railroads in the United States and Canada were especially affected to improve the situation at home. Between 1892 and 1893, Toisanese gentry proposed building a railway from Toising to Kwonghoi. The rails were to be built on slopes to avoid the necessity of buying farmland. However, the project was dropped because many felt it was too ambitious. In 1902 a road to Chunglou was built. Although it greatly facilitated travelling on foot, it did not improve the transportation of commodities.
During the period of great nationalist sentiment and struggle, Chin Yee Hee (Chen Yixi), a former laborers and foreman on the Central Pacific Railroad returned to Toisan in 1904. Chin had left China in the 1860s. Although he had no formal education in engineering, he possessed practical knowledge of railroad construction. Inspired by the nationalist movement, Chin gave up his idea of starting a textile factory in China and instead decided to construct a railroad. He vowed not to sell shares to foreigners, to borrow money from them, or to use their engineers. Chin and his associates hoped that wealthy Chinese merchants, gentry, and other Chinese investors in China, the U.S., and Hong Kong would supply the capital and technology in order not to divert rights and profits to foreigners. His proposal received overwhelming support from the local people and Toisanese emigrants abroad. It was intended to facilitate the transportation of "grain, rice, fish, salt, groceries and the masses," and to relieve the threat of hunger.
In September of 1904 Chin went to Hong Kong to seek support from the Toisanese. His promise not to rely on foreigners for money or technology impressed them. Many felt that the principle of self-reliance would not only cut costs, but "to build a railroad in China with Chinese capital is already a difficult task, and to build it with the Chinese people's knowledge is unique in Chinese history." Fifty merchants immediately pledged shares. Among those who pledged ten thousand yuan or more were Chin himself, Huang Fuji, Chen Tianzhong and Zeng Linshi. Their pledges comprised eight percent of the targeted amount. Because the commercial and kinship ties between Toisanese merchants in Hong Kong and the U.S. were extremely close, the former's support of the railroad was to influence greatly those merchants in America.
Chin went to the United States to seek pledges from Chinese emigrants in February 1905. With the support of the Ning Yeung Association, news stories and ads in the Chung Sai Yat Po in San Francisco and frequent public lectures, Chin promoted his plan. On February 16 he gave a speech to the Toisanese in San Francisco, stating clearly that the motives behind his efforts were "public interest" and "nationalist development." In a few days, he collected over a hundred thousand yuans in shares. Chin visited Chinese communities in New York and other cities and received equally enthusiastic support. By the time he left the United States in August, he had collected approximately 1.5 million yuan, roughly about 75,000 dollars. At the same time, the Ning Yeung Railway Company also collected shares in Toisan, Singapore, Hong Kong and other cities. By the end of 1905, the company had a total of 2,758,412 yuan, more than four times the original targeted amount.20
Early fundraising activities among Toisanese emigrant Chinese were successful for a number of reasons. The opportunity to invest their hard-earned money to develop China, and the prestige that Chin Yee Hee enjoyed among the emigrants were contributing factors. However, nationalism and refusal to accept foreign investment and domination any longer was a primary reason. This nationalistic sentiment was related to the movement against American imperialism which was sparked by the extension of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1894. The Chinese in America, angry at the U.S. government's action, staged a series of protests. Their plight aroused the sympathy and support of their countrymen in China. Throughout China a mass anti-imperialist movement directed against the United States centered on the boycott of all American products. Overseas Chinese, and especially the Chinese in America, felt strongly that the principle of self-reliance promulgated by the Sunning Railway Company was part of this patriotic movement and a concrete representation of their nationalist interest. They therefore responded with enthusiasm.
The Sunning Railroad was built mainly with monies from Chinese in the United States, including some from Chinese in Canada, Australia and Singapore. Of the 2.7 million yuan collected, 1.9 million was directly collected by the Chinese in the United States. The rest came from Chinese in other countries as well as those in Hong Kong and Toisan, the latter often investing remittances from their relatives abroad. Although the railroad was built in Toisan, there was no restriction on the origin of other Chinese investors. The medium and small investments also included non-Toisanese capital. A great majority of the investors were overseas Chinese laborers, peddlers and merchants, whose individual investments ranged from several to a thousand shares. One share was 5 yuan, or 2.5 dollars. Regional and kinship organizations also invested in the railroad, and their investments were generally higher. However, no single investment, either individual or organizational, exceeded 10,000 yuan. This situation reflects the financial capability of the Chinese in America at that time.
The Sunning Railway was constructed in three stages which commenced in May 1906 and ended in March 1920. The first stage established the main line from Kongyik (Gongyi) to Towsan (Dousan), the second stage extended the line from Kongyik to Pakkai (Beijie) and the third brought the line from Toising to Paksa (Baisha), a total of 137 kilometers.
Altogether, construction costs totalled about 9.7 million yuan or 4.8 million dollars. The train that comprised the Sunning line had six or seven cars, with a combination of passenger and freight cars. The passenger section was divided into first, second and third classes. During the heyday of the 1920s, the railway carried a total of three million passengers and approximately a hundred thousand tons of cargo annually. The ratio between passenger and freight income was about four to one. This dependence on passenger travel reflected the reality of emigrant society. Because Toisan's agriculture and industry were not highly developed, there was little to export. The remittances of the emigrants, however, created tremendous buying power which stimulated the importation of goods. The transportation of commodities was mainly one-way. In the 1920s, for example, the import/export ratio was about thirty to one. On the other hand, the large number of Toisanese passengers and their families who travelled back and forth between their home villages and the cities or ports sustained the railway.
The history of the Sunning Railway, from start to finish, illustrates the precarious position of national bourgeoisie enterprises in semi-feudal, semi-colonial China. Although after 1903 the Qing government officially encouraged local merchants to establish railroad companies in order to promote commerce and trade, the bureaucratic structure in effect discouraged them. In the case of the Sunning Railway, the magistrate tried to usurp credit for organising the company by substituting his proposal for the original one submitted to the Commerce Department by Chin's associates. Other attempts to gain the right to build the railway, to control its route, and to extort money were made by a number of gentry-officials throughout the process. Because of the advantageous position held by the bureaucrats, Chin eventually bought an official title to gain access to the bureaucracy and to rally support from the gentry. The Chinese in America also appealed on Chin's behalf to the Qing emissary Liang Cheng. Finally, after more than a year's struggle, the government issued the permit.
Government bureaucracy, however, was only one of several barriers to overcome. Feudalism was another. Powerful clans often feuded with one another over the route, or prevented the railway from passing through their territory because of superstitions. Wherever the rails went, fighting ensued. During the process of construction, over a hundred riots were staged by local landlord forces. The company was forced to change its planned route and add thirty-nine unnecessary turns, thus affecting the speed and safety of the trains, as well as increasing considerably the cost of construction.
Since the Sunning Railway did not reach any major commercial centers, Chin sought to extend it to Fousan via Sunwei. His proposal met with strong opposition from the Yuehan Railway Company, which claimed to have the sole right to build railways in Guangdong Province with few exceptions. Heavily invested with bureaucratic capital, the company succeeded in getting the Qing government to discourage Chin. He later proposed extending the railroad to Kiangmoon, a major port linking central Guangdong with Canton, Hong Kong and Macau. But this proposal, in addition to being opposed by the Yuehan Railway Company, was also opposed by the gentry in Sunwui and Hoiping who wanted to build their own railroads. After nearly two years of negotiations and struggle, Chin eventually received permission to build, but he was by then in deep financial trouble. The world economic situation had depressed the financial market, so that few had money to invest. The history of regional and clan conflicts deterred many potential investors. Failing to receive enough loans from the government, Chin was forced to raise money from foreign concerns abroad. When news of his intentions leaked out, he was severely admonished by magazines and newspapers in Toisan and in overseas communities in the United States. The Qing government, even though it had itself borrowed over 1.6 billion yuan from foreign governments, denied Chin's request for approval to borrow 600,000 yuan from the West. Its hypocrisy was also harshly criticized. Subsequently, Chin sought to borrow money from the Seattle Chamber of Commerce and the Rockefellers to expand the Sunning Railway and to build a new port, but he was unsuccessful.
After the railroad went into operation, it became the target of monetary exaction by the government. The company had once loaned the revolutionary government of Guangdong 120,000 yuan for military provisions. Sun Yatsen then ordered all other units of the government not to borrow money from the company. However, the warlords ignored his order and gradually stepped up their extortion activities. Between 1915 and 1917, military officers from various regions borrowed a total of 49,513 yuan. On 3 December 1923, the local government of Kiangmoon announced that military expenses had increased because of the bandit situation. It therefore ordered the Sunning Railway Company to add a surcharge of twenty percent to their fares to meet these expenses. In 1925 the commander of the Guangdong Army "borrowed" 10,000 yuan every month, and the First Army stationed at Kiangmoon collected a monthly provision of 5,000 to 7,500 yuan from the company. In addition to these outright assessments, it was common for government officials and military personnel to demand free rides.
Furthermore, the Sunning Railway was a favourite target for the bandits. The merchants, overseas Chinese and their local dependants who traveled [sic] on the trains were often robbed. In 1916, for example, bandits surrounded the Fansuigong Station. They robbed a train which had just pulled into the station and kidnapped over one hundred passengers for ransom.
To make matters worse, Western imperialist powers also took advantage of the Sunning Railway which was mainly dependent on the West for equipment, machinery and fuel. Locomotives and box cars were often imported from the United States and Germany, and coal was also supplied from abroad. This dependence on foreign supplies caused tremendous losses. Because of a coal shortage in October 1914, the trains were forced to omit the two outermost stations. Company fuel expenses increased threefold between 1916 and 1918 due to price inflation of imported coal.
Government exaction, banditry, clan feuds and dependence on foreign supplies all converged to affect the economic wellbeing of the Sunning Railway. In 1927, the government took over the management of the railroad over the protests of Chin and others. For two years, factions within the government fought with each other for control of the company. Finally, in 1929, the government decided that it was too burdensome to manage and returned it to civilian operation.
The railroad showed a surplus between 1929 and 1932, but afterwards was adversely affected by the world economic depression, decreased remittances from overseas Chinese, and declining commerce in Toisan. Furthermore, development of highways and automobile transportation reduced the business of the railroad. The company began to show a deficit from 1933, and this continued until its dismantling was ordered to deter the Japanese military forces. The Japanese army occupied Toisan several times, and except for the 23,782 rails that were shipped to Guangxi in 1942 to build the Qianguei Railway, the Sunning Railway assets, which were worth over three million yuan, were all carried off by the Japanese.
Although the Sunning Railway survived for only thirty-odd years, it greatly influenced the social and economic development of Toisan. Before the railway, the Toisanese who either left the country or returned from abroad had to pass through the port of Kiangmoon. Whether they walked or were carried by sedan chair, the trip took three to five days, and the risk of robbery and abduction was extremely high. By rail, the journey between Kiangmoon and Toisan was reduced to one day. According to a 1932 report, the railroad transported 250,000 passengers each month.
The emigrant monies which were remitted to Toisan monthly often reached several hundred thousand or even several million yuan. The buying power which these vast sums represented could not be satisfied by local products alone. Toisan therefore depended on other counties, provinces, and countries for staples, foodstuffs, textiles, sundries, and construction materials. By land or by sea, these commodities were shipped to Kiangmoon, Kongyik and other ports, and transported by the Sunning Railway to the various market towns of Toisan. In 1940, it was estimated that in the preceding thirty years, the railway had imported goods worth about one billion yuan but exported approximately three million yuan. This large import trade eventually incorporated Toisan into a broader economy and was the single most important factor which determined the growth or decline of its economy.
A number of towns prospered along the Sunning Railway, including Paksa, Suibou, Chonglou, Daigong, Seigau, Ngsap, Saamhap, Daitong and Satan. Their streets were lined with tea houses, restaurants, hotels, assorted stores, and gold and money shops. There were also numerous opium dens, gambling houses and brothels. During the late 1920s in the town of Satan near Lutchyun Station, there could be found seventeen sundry stores, four cake shops, ten pork shops, six candy and wine stores, eight dry goods stores, ten tea shops and hotels, nine drugstores, seven lumber and ceramic shops, eight medical clinics, eleven gold, silver and money shops, five fruit stores, three barber shops, six brothels and fourteen opium dens. Toising, the capital of Toisan County and the hub of the Sunning Railway developed even more rapidly. By the early 1920s, its population peaked at over twenty thousand. The old city walls were torn down, roads paved and new buildings were erected to house the stores and shops.
Two towns owed their establishment to the Sunning Railway. In 1905, before the railway was built, Kongyik was simply rice-fields with two peasant households. By 1908, it had become a town with a population of twenty-five thousand. The railway company invested 200,000 yuan to build an office building, machine tool factory, parking area, electricity shop, pier, workers' dormitory and railway police station. Kongyik became not only the supply base of the railway, but also a significant center of transportation between Toisan and other districts. After the dismantling of the railway, Kongyik quickly declined.
Towsan was another town which developed as a result of the railway. Formerly a remote village of about ten households, it quickly became a town after the railway was built. Within ten years, over fifty stores were established. Beginning in the 1920s, Towsan constructed more than 260 store buildings, and became the commercial and transportation center of southern Toisan.
The construction of the Sunning Railway also promoted the development of other modern industries, highways, and navigation. The Kongyik machine tool factory built by the company employed two to three hundred workers. With advanced equipment and technology, it maintained and repaired locomotives, passenger and truck automobiles. In 1926, it even managed to assemble two small locomotives. This type of factory was quite rare in Guangdong Province. The print shop established by the Sunning Railway also spurred printing and publishing in Toisan. By 1926, there were nine publishing houses in the county. Responding to the challenge presented by the Sunning Railway, Toisan established its highway bureau in 1920, and by 1937, over 400 kilometers of roads had been constructed. They formed a network of thirty-one roads with Toising as its center and connected the major county towns. Simultaneously, a number of river navigation lines were developed at the urging of the company. But while the Sunning Railway promoted the development of roads and navigation, these in turn became the major competitors of the railway.
The Sunning Railway also had a large role in promoting the construction business. After a life of hard work overseas, emigrants hoped to accomplish three goals on their return to Toisan: marriage; the building of a house; and the buying of a plot of land. Overseas Chinese by the late nineteenth century had been remitting funds to build residences for their families. But large scale construction of residences began in Toisan in the first three decades of the twentieth century, coinciding with the operation of the Sunning Railway. Remittances expanded during this period, and because of the railroad, materials such as cement, steel, and lumber that were used to build houses could be transported more quickly and cheaply from Hong Kong and other places. Our survey disclosed that the 266 multi-storied houses in Paksa were mostly built in this period. All of the houses in Meitong Village, home of Chin Yee Hee's family, were also built then. The five thousand gun towers of Toisan were built between the years 1912 and 1926. Toising, Dousan, Kongyik, and other towns expanded during these years.
The completion of the Sunning Railway directly influenced the class structure of Toisan society. The 1600 railroad, machine-tool factory and printing shop workers who belonged to the Sunning Railway Company were Toisan's first corps of modern industrial workers. They had a great deal of contact with the outside world, and were influenced by the progressive ideas of the time. The workers had a low economic status and lacked democratic rights, and they eventually evolved into the most radical revolutionary force in Toisan. In November 1919, students in Kongyik began an anti-Japanese boycott. They received strong support from the railway company workers who took the initiative in helping the students search for and burn Japanese products at the local railway station. In January 1921 during the Hong Kong seaman's strike, the railway workers immediately acted to raise funds to support the seamen. Contributions collected from the Kongyik locomotive shop alone totalled over 1,000 silver dollars. After the February 7 Massacre of 1923, over a thousand workers staged the largest strike in Toisan history to support the workers of the Jinghan Railway. Slogans denouncing the warlords and calling for worker unity were raised. From the outbreak of the Great Canton - Hong Kong Strike in 1925 until October 1926, the Sunning workers stationed themselves at key departure points in Toisan to cut off transportation to Hong Kong.
The existence of such a large corps of industrial workers led to union organizations, struggles between political parties for control of the unions and struggles between capital and labor.
The Sunning Railway demonstrates the significant and progressive influence of Chinese American investment on the social, economic, and industrial development of Toisan in the early twentieth century. Emigrant capital was a positive factor in promoting the forces of production, the formation of a national market economy, and the modernization of production. The railroad helped to provide a basis for an industrial or semi-industrial class of workers, led to the general modernization of transportation facilities, and incorporated Toisan into the large provincial, national, and world economy.
However, the inability of Toisan to produce enough raw materials and finished goods to sustain a railway contributed to its ultimate bankruptcy and demise. Toisan lacked the necessary large industrial or mining enterprises to utilize railways and did not have enough agriculture products to export. The railroad was not linked to other major lines within the province or country and therefore could only meet local consumption within the emigrant community. The passenger/freight transport ratio was four to one, and the import/export ratio was thirty to one.
Finally, the Sunning Railway like many other private enterprises in the early twentieth century, was caught between the pressures of Western imperialism, the Chinese bureaucracy, and feudalism. These forces undermined the greater progressive role that emigrant capital might have played in the development of Guangdong and China.
| 2. | The two other railways were the Zhangxia and Longxi railways in Fujian province. |
| 4. | "Piggies" or "zhuzai" referred to Chinese indentured laborers abroad. |
| 20. | During this period, the Sunning Railroad was briefly known as the Ning Young Railway Company Jiaotongbu. |
Taishan
Genealogy
Copyright: ©2003-5 Jon Kehrer,
Canberra