- Gordon Dumoulin
Known in China, little known beyond (6) - Nguyen Son ๆดชๆฐด

๐๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ญ๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ต ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐บ๐ฆ๐ข๐ณโ๐ด ๐๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฏ๐ช๐ข๐ญ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ช๐ด๐ต ๐๐ข๐ณ๐ต๐บ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐ข, ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ช๐จ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ญ-๐ฌ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐ข ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ด๐ด๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ง๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ฑ๐ข๐ณ๐ต๐ช๐ค๐ช๐ฑ๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ๐ญ๐บ ๐ฃ๐ถ๐ช๐ญ๐ฅ-๐ถ๐ฑ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ข๐ณ๐ต๐บ (1921) ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ฆ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ฆโ๐ด ๐๐ฆ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ฃ๐ญ๐ช๐ค ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐ข (1949) ๐ธ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ ๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ต๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฅ๐ถ๐ค๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ด๐ฆ๐ณ๐ช๐ฆ๐ด ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฌ๐ญ๐บ ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ด๐ต๐ด โ๐๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐ข, ๐ญ๐ช๐ต๐ต๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ฌ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐บ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฅโ
The only foreigner who joined all the way from the founding of the Chinese Red Army in 1927 to the victory of China's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression in 1945, it is said that ๐ก๐ด๐๐๐ฒ๐ป ๐ฆ๐ผ๐ป or better known in China as ๆดชๆฐด Hong Shui, meaning โfloodโ, took this Chinese name to picture himself as a โtorrent of waterโ, scoffing at the negative connotation the Chinese nationalists attached to the word to label communists.
Nguyen Son was born in Hanoi in 1908 and at five years old he began to learn French at a Catholic school. When Son was fourteen years old he passed the Hanoi Teachers College. After the call by Nguyen Ai Quoc (better known as later President Ho Chi Minh from 1945-1969) for young people in Vietnam, better known as Ho Chi Minh, to study and join the long march in China, Son arrived in Guangzhou in 1925 to study at the Whampoa, China's first modern military academy and joined the Communist Party of China (CPC) the next year in 1926.



In the next almost two decades, he became known as a highly competent military leader in the battles and made significant contributions to the publicity of the Red Army and an inspiration for Red Army soldiers. Besides being a dynamic military leader, Son was editor-in-chief for 2 newspapers of the Red Army and organized gatherings to attract the people to the Communist Party. In 1938 he married Chen Jiange, a communist comrade and they got 2 children.



In 1945, upon the call of Ho Chi Minh, he returned to Vietnam to fight against the French colonialists. During these years he received news that his family in China died in the Civil War. Ho Chi Minh requested him to marry again in Vietnam with a daughter of famous Vietnamese scholar Le Du. Son returned to China in 1950 only to find out that his โChineseโ family was still alive. These were inconsolable years though he was conferred the rank of Major General in the Chinese Peopleโs Liberation Army by Chairman Mao Zedong in 1955, the same rank as he had received in the Vietnamese Peopleโs Army as well.



One year after his high position in the Chinese government, lung cancer was diagnosed and he returned to Hanoi. Nguyen Son died in October 1956. โThe general of two countriesโ is dearly remembered for his heroism both in China and Vietnam.
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Read other episodes of "Known in China, little known beyond" here :
Known in China, little known beyond (1) - Isabel Crook
Known in China, little known beyond (2) - Dwarkanath Kotnis
Known in China, little known beyond (3) - Edgar Snow
Known in China, little known beyond (4) - Anna Louise Strong
Known in China, little known beyond (5) - Rewi Alley
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