The Lost Army
Feb. 25th, 2007 02:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
khiemtranA remote corner of northern Thailand is home to Kuomintang soldiers and their descendants who proudly maintain their Chinese identity even after embracing Thai citizenship.
The porous boundaries have allowed countless crossings of refugees from Laos, Burma and China. There is an estimated 60,000 former Chinese nationals who have pledged their loyalty to their new country in various ways. One village is named Ban Rak Thai (Thai-Loving Village) where they quietly live amidst pine forests without the touristy development of Mae Salong.
An interesting article from The Star (a Malaysian newspaper). It's noteworthy from a writing point of view because of the way the fairly detached journalistic description still conveys a much deeper emotional story.
“The cherry blossoms are a living reminder of my homeland,” explains Lue. “They are so beautiful when they bloom once a year. They symbolise hope and new beginnings. I brought hundreds of saplings from Yunnan and planted them myself. But I don’t have the strength to tend to them anymore. "
If I were writing something similar to this as part of an sf setting, my first instinct would be to focus too much on the emotion and to try to make the reader understand everything right from the start. I probably also wouldn't be able to resist packing in a detailed military history of the events beforehand. This article is a good reminder that that sort of heavy-handed approach isn't needed. The same emotional impact can be conveyed with a much lighter touch and it benefits from the gentler treatment.
Lue adds he can never return to China. But by using his Thai name, he has been able to sneak back several times. He even risked a visit to Beijing once but he says he hated the noise, crowds and pollution there.
“I do not fear death. I have looked death in the face many times. I only fear that I will grow so old and weak that I can no longer move and would need people to assist me!
“This is not the land I was born in. But I love it and this is where I want to be buried. It is my corner of China.”
There is, of course, the difference that this is non-fiction and that it draws on other information that the reader may know about the area and events. But, I think the emotional effect would still be the same even if the reader was unaware of the history or the culture and geography of the area. Certainly, the character of the tough old soldier would still come across, as would the recognition of what the lives the men and families of the Lost Army have entailed.
The porous boundaries have allowed countless crossings of refugees from Laos, Burma and China. There is an estimated 60,000 former Chinese nationals who have pledged their loyalty to their new country in various ways. One village is named Ban Rak Thai (Thai-Loving Village) where they quietly live amidst pine forests without the touristy development of Mae Salong.
An interesting article from The Star (a Malaysian newspaper). It's noteworthy from a writing point of view because of the way the fairly detached journalistic description still conveys a much deeper emotional story.
“The cherry blossoms are a living reminder of my homeland,” explains Lue. “They are so beautiful when they bloom once a year. They symbolise hope and new beginnings. I brought hundreds of saplings from Yunnan and planted them myself. But I don’t have the strength to tend to them anymore. "
If I were writing something similar to this as part of an sf setting, my first instinct would be to focus too much on the emotion and to try to make the reader understand everything right from the start. I probably also wouldn't be able to resist packing in a detailed military history of the events beforehand. This article is a good reminder that that sort of heavy-handed approach isn't needed. The same emotional impact can be conveyed with a much lighter touch and it benefits from the gentler treatment.
Lue adds he can never return to China. But by using his Thai name, he has been able to sneak back several times. He even risked a visit to Beijing once but he says he hated the noise, crowds and pollution there.
“I do not fear death. I have looked death in the face many times. I only fear that I will grow so old and weak that I can no longer move and would need people to assist me!
“This is not the land I was born in. But I love it and this is where I want to be buried. It is my corner of China.”
There is, of course, the difference that this is non-fiction and that it draws on other information that the reader may know about the area and events. But, I think the emotional effect would still be the same even if the reader was unaware of the history or the culture and geography of the area. Certainly, the character of the tough old soldier would still come across, as would the recognition of what the lives the men and families of the Lost Army have entailed.
