African Entrepreneurship Record

Bangkok City, August 12, 1916.

Bangkok is the capital of the Kingdom of Siam, as well as its largest city, and one of the most prosperous cities in the South Sea Region.

Ever since the nineteenth century, faced with Western aggression and expansion, Siam, the most typical ancient country in the South Sea Region, also launched a series of reforms, including an end to its "closed‑door" policy.

Yes, Siam once implemented a closed‑door policy as well. After all, most backward countries threatened by Western power, in order to ensure stable rule and protect their own traditional markets, found that shutting themselves off from the world was the most effective short‑term measure.

But clearly, a closed‑door policy is no long‑term solution, especially for a backward country like Siam; Western ironclads and powerful cannon are no joke.

So after the nineteenth century, Siam ultimately could not withstand the pressure and adopted a series of measures to keep up with the times, of which opening up was an important one.

As the royal capital, Bangkok also ushered in great development in the mid to late nineteenth century: the introduction of steam engines, factories, modern roads, and so on, gave the city an unprecedented prosperity.

And on a street in the southeastern part of Bangkok, things were particularly lively today.

This was a Chinatown in Bangkok; the entire street clearly bore the strong cultural imprint of the Far East Empire.

"Crack‑crack‑crackle..." As a string of firecrackers went off, Lin Jiawen lifted the red cloth covering the signboard hanging from the roof of the building.

On the sign, six large characters had been written in iron strokes and silver hooks: "Jia Wen Chinese Language School."

He stepped forward to address the crowd that had gathered to watch the bustle: "Thank you all for coming to show your support. My humble self, Lin Jiawen, is a lover of the Chinese language, devoted to spreading Far East Empire culture to the world. For this reason I have founded a Chinese‑language school in your esteemed neighborhood, and I hope that all neighbors and friends, if you have anyone at home who loves the Chinese language, will send them here to study."

For the Chinese in the South Sea Region, education is an especially important matter, so Chinese schools in the South Sea Region are particularly numerous.

Of course, Bangkok’s Chinatown is also a gathering place for the Chinese, but the people on the street were clearly not very enthusiastic about what Lin Jiawen was doing.

An elderly man stepped forward and said, "Young fellow, what you’re pursuing is naturally a good thing, but how dare you make such a big show of it, openly running a Chinese school in this bustling place of Bangkok? The government’s cracking down hard now. Even those who want to set up this kind of ’illegal school’ mostly do it in secret."

Lin Jiawen replied politely to the old man, "Sir, you are mistaken. I’m opening a school for the sake of education; what does that have to do with the Siamese government?"

The old man said, "Young fellow, from your accent, which is mainly the northern vernacular of the Far East Empire, I take it this must be your first time in Siam, right?"

Lin Jiawen neither admitted nor denied it, but instead asked, "Oh? What difference does that make?"

The old man said, "Ai, most of the Chinese in the Kingdom of Siam are southerners, especially people from the Two Guangs. Take me, for example—I’m already third generation here. It’s rare in Siam to see immigrants from the north of the Far East Empire."

"And given that you’re now doing something like opening a Chinese‑language school, I’ve concluded you must have only recently arrived in Siam, know nothing of local policy, and have no connections. Otherwise you would never be doing something this illegal in a place like Bangkok."

"Nowadays, opening a Chinese‑language school or spreading the Chinese language in Siam is simply not permitted by the authorities. If it exists at all, it’s done in secret. Your open and brazen approach obviously won’t work."

"Take this street of ours, for instance—you’ve seen it for yourself. You could say most of the people here are originally from the Far East Empire. But have you seen any Chinese‑language signs on this street?"

Lin Jiawen shook his head and said, "No."

The old man said, "Exactly. The current King of Siam is extremely averse to Far East Empire culture, so he issued decrees forbidding the spread of any culture related to the Far East Empire—be it language, calligraphy, or other traditional arts."

"In such circumstances, if you openly set up a Chinese‑language school in the busy part of town, it won’t be long before the authorities come knocking. When that happens, forget teaching—the school itself will be shut down."

Lin Jiawen said to this well‑meaning elder, "Thank you for the warning, sir. But my ambition is to spread Far East Empire culture; how could I give up halfway over such a small matter?"

The old man said, hating iron for not becoming steel, "This is their turf, you know. Do you really think your arm can twist their thigh? Never mind the arm—you’re not even a match for one of their hairs. So, young fellow, you’d best stop now!"

"From what I can see, your school premises are quite sizable. Wouldn’t it be better to use it for some kind of business, instead of deliberately crossing the Siamese government?"

Lin Jiawen said to him, "I appreciate your kind intentions, sir, but I’m a stubborn man by nature. Do you really think the Siamese government would go out of its way to cause trouble for me over a single school?"

"And even if they do come after me, I won’t be afraid. After all, this is my ideal..."

Seeing how headstrong this young man was, the old man could only say, "Fine then, have it your way and bear the consequences yourself!"

The onlookers standing by also chimed in at Lin Jiawen, saying, "You really don’t know what’s good for you. There’s a saying: commoners don’t fight the officials, much less the officials of Siam. This school of yours is destined not to open."

Someone else said, "Anyway, I certainly won’t let my children attend this school. The situation is so tense right now; we can’t gamble with their future and their lives..."

And more than a few had already begun quietly slipping away from the street, preparing to report Lin Jiawen and earn themselves a reward from the Siamese government.

Lin Jiawen, however, took no notice. He went on in his own way, carrying out his enrollment drive. He said to the crowd, "Jia Wen Chinese Language School has more than twenty faculty members and offers courses in calligraphy, Chinese, the history of the Far East Empire and the world, world geography, and so on..."

On hearing this, the school sounded quite legitimate, but there were few who responded.

It was of course not that the Chinese in Siam did not value Chinese‑language education, but under the present circumstances, no one was willing to risk themselves alongside Lin Jiawen.

There were plenty of Chinese schools among the Chinese in Siam, naturally, but they all recruited students and taught in secret. As for openly run schools like Lin Jiawen’s, there wasn’t a single one.

Moreover, it was clear that Lin Jiawen’s school had not been filed with the Siamese government, so any sensible person would choose not to enroll at such a school.

While Lin Jiawen was publicly and vigorously recruiting students and opening his doors in Chinatown, the Bangkok City Police Department also received word.

Director Nesara said to an informant, "Is your information reliable? Someone actually dares to brazenly conduct illegal schooling activities within my jurisdiction, and a Chinese school at that?"

"Officer, the information is absolutely reliable. That man is still out on the street recruiting students right now! His school is at No. 231 Kunbu Street, it’s quite large, and the signboard openly uses Chinese characters—a Chinese‑language sign."

Director Nesara said, "Good. If this is confirmed, you won’t miss out on your reward."

The man asked, "Officer, shall we go over right now and shut the school down? Want me to lead the way?"

Nesara waved his hand and said, "No need. We mustn’t alert the snake now. We’ll wait until this Jia Wen Chinese Language School begins actual teaching activities, then move in and catch them with the evidence in hand. Only then will it be a major achievement. After all, it’s been a long time since we’ve run into such a troublemaker."

In Siam, the spread of Far East Empire culture is explicitly forbidden, and after multiple nationwide crackdowns by the Siamese government, there is not a single Chinese school left in the open anywhere in Siam.

The appearance of the Jia Wen Chinese Language School thus greatly piqued Director Nesara’s interest, especially when he learned that the school was fairly large. After all, to buy such a big property in the busy district of Bangkok and hire more than twenty people must require a lot of money.

If he could nail down this case, Nesara believed he would surely be able to skim off a substantial amount of profit. So he decided for now to hold his troops back. If word got out and that principal stopped running the school, that would be no good. What Nesara wanted was to catch them with people and evidence together.