CHONGQING, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) — Jiang Yinsheng, the last wartime overseas Chinese mechanic known as the Nanyang Volunteer, died at the age of 96 in southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality on Saturday.
The Nanyang Volunteers refer to some 3,000 overseas Chinese drivers and mechanics living in Southeast Asian countries who were rallied by famous business pioneer and philanthropist Tan Kah Kee to “help the motherland in her hour of need” in 1939 during the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.
Jiang was born in Calcutta, India in 1927. During the war, he joined Nanyang Volunteers.
These volunteers returned to China to help transport war supplies and carry out emergency repairs of vehicles along the 1,146-km Yunnan-Myanmar Road, a critical lifeline that became a major target of Japanese airstrikes.
In 1949, Jiang joined the People’s Liberation Army. After he left the army, he lived in Chongqing and worked for a transportation company.
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