Being completed on July 7th in the year of 1989, the Anti-Japanese War Monument of Machinists in Southeastern Asia is located in the upward side of the road about one kilometer far away from the south of Taihua Temple. Many foreign students who come to learn Mandarin in the city of Kunming have been there. They said the monument is as high as nine meters and the surface is covered with marble. There are fore characters inscribed on the base of the monument, reading Chi ZI Gong Xun, meaning outstandingly meritorious deed of loyal overseas Chinese.
The top of the monument is a pattern of the honor badge of the machinists at that time. If the overseas want to know the importance of the monument, they need to know the historical background about it. As we all know, the Anti-Japanese War broke out in 1937. In order to protect and repair the Yunnan-Burma Road which was essential to the victory of the war because many war materials need to be transported to Yunnan through it, more than 3200 overseas Chinese machinists in Singapore and Malaysia came back under the calling of Chen Jiageng.
In total, more than one thousand persons sacrificed their lives in the road repairing process, making outstanding contribution to the victory of the war. For the purpose of letting the later generations in remember this honorable history and the contribution made by those great machinists, Yunnan Provincial People’s Government decided to collect money to construct this monument.
It is built in the area of Kunming Western Mountain Forest Park and is made up of large and high white marble. In Yishan Cemetery in Kuala Lumpur of Malaysia, there is also a monument of machinists of the overseas Chinese machinists in Southeast Asia. Foreign students who learn in online Chinese Lessons need to know the two monuments constructed in the two different countries with long distance have the same purpose of commemorating the same important historical event.
When seeing this monument, many aged Yunnan people can still remember clearly the event that a group overseas Chinese of 3200 members went back to serve the motherland, going to the frontier of the war to repair trucks for transporting the war materials. It is a witness of the overseas Chinese dedicated themselves to the service of the motherland. Of course, it is the origin that Yunnan keeps good relationship with Singapore and Malaysia.