5 - Capital Heroes and a Hokkien Nation

Summary

“Capital Heroes and a Hokkien Nation” highlights efforts by Chinese in the Philippines to reinvigorate and protect their hometowns in southern Fujian during an era of militarism and turmoil. The narrative follows the community leaders and China Banking Corporation founders Dee C. Chuan, Oei Tjoe, and Tan Guin Lai, as well as an outside ally, Cai Tingkai. It explores how their hometown investments and remittances transformed into political maneuvering as the leaders leaned on Hokkien affinity to effect change. Dee C. Chuan, Oei Tjoe, and Tan Guin Lai all devoted considerable sums to building hometown infrastructure, funding schools, constructing personal villas, and supporting family members. However, after encountering numerous obstacles, especially when it came to constructing a railway that would connect the resource-rich interior of the province with the seaports, the Founders began to turn toward political solutions. They founded the Southeast Asian Hokkien Overseas Save the Hometown Association to aid in their efforts, and they threw their support behind the famous general Cai Tingkai, who helped them achieve some of their objectives as head of the Fujian People’s Revolutionary Government. All these efforts eventually fell apart, but they point toward a vibrant if unfulfilled Hokkien nationalism.