On May 1, 1962, when Tang Ning took Bruce Lee's new film "Jingwumen" to Hong Kong to promote, to his and everyone's surprise, he witnessed a heart-wrenching incident!

Because 1959 to 1962 was in a period of great difficulties in China, and although Hong Kong was still under the colonial rule of the British government at this time, at least the living conditions were much better than those in China, so in the areas near Hong Kong, in recent years, there were many refugees who fled Hong Kong, that is, fled from famine, and came to Hong Kong, and in 1962, it reached a climax.

In view of the fact that the famine spread, Tao Zhu, then secretary of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee, ordered that the guards be lifted, the border should be opened, and the hungry people should be allowed to go to Hong Kong freely to survive, until May 25, when the central government ordered the closure of the border cards, more than 300,000 people went to Hong Kong.

Due to its location between the border and the urban area of Hong Kong, Huashan has become a stopover for those who have fled Hong Kong to enter the urban area. After a long and arduous journey, the exhausted and hungry refugees could take a breather in the mountains and wait for their relatives who had arrived from the city to pick them up and down the mountain.

The concentration of those who fled Hong Kong in Huashan had another purpose: a large number of people gathered together to take care of each other, that is, when the Hong Kong police came, hundreds of thousands of people hugged together, and they could not help them for a while.

Indeed, the Hong Kong police are very troubled by the staggering number of border crossers. First, to drive away thousands of refugees, the police are clearly inadequate. Second, for these unarmed refugees, coercive action is inhumane and even contrary to the law, and it is difficult to do so without coercive action. Moreover, most of these border crossers have relatives and friends in Hong Kong. A little mishandling can lead to endless legal lawsuits. The British government in Hong Kong found it difficult to do.

Should the fugitives on Huashan be arrested? Under what circumstances is an arrest? Will there be "excessive law enforcement" during the arrest, and should the arrest be repatriated? Opinions are also divided within the Hong Kong government. Some right-wing people even believe that all these "betrayers" who have no food and clothing should be accepted, because defecting to a free Hong Kong is itself a kind of "political refuge". They can treat "political asylum seekers" as if they were ordinary stowaways. "Will it be sent back to the slaughterhouse"?

According to the statistics of the media at that time, based on the calculation that one person touched 10 relatives, fellow villagers, classmates and friends in Hong Kong, 30,000 people in Huashan were equivalent to touching the hearts of 300,000 Hong Kong citizens. In other words, about one in every 10 Hong Kong people who would have slept peacefully in high-rise buildings has to worry about the situation of their relatives, fellow villagers, and friends who suddenly appeared on the top of Huashan Mountain.

There are some smart people among those who fled Hong Kong, and they passed through journalists. Constantly brought the news down the mountain.

On May 16, Sing Tao Daily published an article entitled "100 Refugees Send Messages to Relatives and Friends in Hong Kong", listing the names of more than 100 relatives and friends of refugees in Hong Kong, calling on them to hurry up the mountain to rescue them. The news soon spread throughout the city, and public opinion in Hong Kong became even more boiling, and everyone was shouting: "Hurry up and rescue the relatives on Huashan"!

Newspapers, magazines, radio stations, and almost all the Hong Kong media were dispatched, and groups of reporters rushed to Huashan to grab the news, and what they saw was tear-jerking scenes.

May and June in southern Guangdong have entered the scorching summer season. The sun is scorching and the heat is unbearable. Tens of thousands of ragged border crossers gathered on the summit of Huashan. Fearing being caught, some children shivered like little beasts in the bushes, paths, and grass.

On the mountain road, the younger ones are holding the old father and mother, and the woman with messy hair is holding the skinny child. After a long journey, hungry and thirsty, some fainted and struggled on the ground, foaming at the mouth...... The border crossers, who were about to collapse, saw reporters with cameras on their backs. Thought the savior was coming, suddenly. The people on the entire mountain road knelt on the ground and kowtowed for help. The sound of crying shook the grass and trees......

According to the reporter at the time, Huashan at this moment, "tears are pouring down, and heaven and earth are crying!" "Because there are so many people crying, the ground of the mountain beams is wet!" ”

Under strong pressure from the citizens of Hong Kong. The Hong Kong authorities realized that arrest and repatriation were unpopular and not an option, and finally set about building resettlement areas for the people. Timber was provided, slab houses were built on the mountains and open spaces, and shelters were built, and "resettlement buildings" were built. It is equivalent to the current low-rent housing. In addition, the processing industry and the vigorous development of family handicraft workshops have gradually solved the employment problem of refugees, and at the same time promoted the economic development of Hong Kong.

But after all, Hong Kong is a small place, and it is difficult to accommodate hundreds of thousands of hungry people. At that time, the Taiwan government occupied a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council, and US President John F. Kennedy intervened to take care of the matter, believing that Taiwan had the responsibility to resettle the hungry, and called on countries around the world, such as Australia and Canada, to accept as many immigrants as possible. Like the Hong Kong compatriots, the people of Taiwan are very sympathetic to the hungry people, and they have long been prepared to provide relief and have set up a "General Association for the Relief of Disaster-stricken Compatriots" to raise funds, food, and clothing.

The Taiwan authorities donated 1,000 tons of rice. In accordance with the principle of voluntariness, those who have fled Hong Kong are free to choose where to go. In July 1962, the Taiwan government sent ships to Hong Kong on several occasions to accept the hungry people on the mainland, and each person was given a relief fund of 70 Hong Kong dollars and a set of clothing. Tens of thousands of immigrants to Taiwan have settled in the sparsely populated Pingtung County and set up farms. Mr. Wen Lin, the owner of the "Xingxue Farm" in the suburbs of Taipei, took in 1,000 people and solved their employment and children's education problems.

Ms. Chen Xiangmei, chairman of the American non-governmental "General Association for the Relief of Chinese Refugees", flew to Hong Kong with a huge amount of money to discuss resettlement measures with the Hong Kong government, and rushed to Huashan to have direct contact with the hungry people who fled Hong Kong to solicit their opinions. Most of the hungry people who fled Hong Kong stayed in Hong Kong, some went to Taiwan, and a small number emigrated to the United States, Canada, Australia, Brazil, Jamaica and other countries. After years of hard work, many of them have made a fortune. After the reform and opening up, many people returned to the mainland to invest and set up factories.

Tang Ning, who coincided with the meeting, naturally did not sit idly by, and he directly found Ms. Chen Xiangmei, the chairman of the "General Association for the Relief of Chinese Refugees", who was very familiar with Chen Xiangmei's husband, General Chennault, the commander of the "Flying Tigers", so he came directly to her office.

Obviously, Chen Xiangmei was very busy at this time, the documents in her hand and the phone on the table were always busy, but when she saw Tang Ning coming, she still got up enthusiastically and greeted: "Tony, why did you suddenly remember me here?" ”

Tang Ning smiled: "Didn't I hear that you became the president, so I came to support your work!" (To be continued......)