Zhongzhen Village in Taoyuan’s Longgang area was built to house soldiers who had withdrawn from the Yunnan-Burma border, and their families. It has since transformed itself into a remarkable place, known for its Yunnan-style eateries and for its reinvention of buildings which are characteristic of many military depend­­­ents’ villages in Taiwan. Much credit goes to Wang Ken-shen, chairman of Enchanted Golden Triangle, an organization devoted to the development of the area. During the guerrilla war, the soldiers fought in the borderlands between Yunnan, Burma, and Thailand. Particularly suited to growing lucrative opium poppies, that region has been referred to as the “Golden Triangle.” “Because Zhongzhen Village is situated at the inter­section of three of Taoyuan City’s administrative districts—Zhongli, Pingzhen, and Bade—our veterans like to quip that here we have another golden triangle,” says Wang, a tall, vigorous 71-year-old gentleman with an erect military bearing and a sonorous voice.

Old objects help us relive history in a more visceral way than abstract words.

The meaning of Zhongzhen

The name of Zhongzhen Village—zhong means “loyal,” and zhen “faithful”—was chosen by the soldiers themselves. “The guerrilla forces were primarily made up of Han people from Yunnan, non-Han people from Yunnan’s borderlands, and people of Chinese descent from Burma and Thailand. But all of them remained ‘loyal’ and ‘faithful’ to Taiwan through thick and thin; hence the name of this military dependents’ village,” explains Wang, who was among the last of the soldiers to retreat to Taiwan, having luckily survived the latter stages of the Lost ­Army’s operations. As a former member of the Guangwu Corps in the Yunnan-Burma campaign, he regrets that he and his comrades have been consigned to oblivion: “Having survived the war and retreated to Taiwan, we found that very few people actually remembered us, and no one knew what the soldiers had achieved.”       

Wang was born to an affluent family of Chinese ori­gin in Myitkyina, Burma in 1950. “As a child, I always knew I was of Chinese descent. At that time there were new Chinese primary and secondary schools in Burma. The teachers were all former students of the Whampoa Military Academy; they had not been able to retreat to Taiwan with the government. So I grew up listening to stories about Sun Yat-sen’s revolution and admiring his Three Principles of the People.” Wang was determined to do something for the ROC government, which was then at war. When he took up arms he was just 15 years old, barely taller than his rifle.

Turbulent times

“In 1949 some forces were not able to withdraw from the Chinese mainland with the ROC government. They fled across Yunnan Province and arrived at the China-Burma border. Having lost touch with the ­government in Taiwan, they had to fend for themselves,” says Wang, recounting the early history of the Lost Army. He continues with emotion: “To reunite with their loved ones, they first had to survive in that war-torn world. The soldiers had no choice but to work as escorts for opium caravans in the Golden Triangle, ensuring their safe passage from Burma to Thailand. In this way they could earn enough money to get by, while endeavor­ing to recruit new members and send intelligence to Taiwan.”

Back then, the caravans were a major headache for the Burmese and Thai governments. When Thailand’s Sing Sian Yer Pao Daily News published a report on the caravans and their guards, the ROC government in Taiwan was alerted to the issue. “It was then that General Li Mi was made aware of these soldiers who were still fighting in the borderlands between Yunnan and Burma, and he was ordered to go and reorganize these forces. At the same time, the Korean War broke out.” That was in 1950, the year Wang was born. The guerrilla soldiers launched several offensives against Communist China, causing the enemy to divert some of its forces and so easing the pressure on the UN forces engaged in the Korean War.

After the Korean War, between 1953 and 1961, some 10,000 of the border soldiers and their dependents withdrew to Taiwan in two batches. The majority—more than 7000—settled in Zhongzhen Village. These were mostly people from Yunnan. Those soldiers who refused to withdraw stayed behind in the Golden Triangle (mostly in Burma), an area that was still engulfed in war. It was in this context that Wang joined the last generation of the Lost Army.

Bearing the brunt of war

When Wang was 15, an intelligence corps called Guangwu emerged from the border guerrillas who had opted to stay behind. “So I joined the Guangwu Corps.” In order to receive training, Wang spent a whole year walking from a military base at Myitkyina to a base on Thailand’s Doi Ang Khang mountain, near the Burmese border, where he reported for duty. “Trekking through the jungle on my way there, I came down with malaria. It was only thanks to my companions and instructors, who took turns carrying me on their backs, that I arrived safely.”

Wang finished his training within a little more than a year. He had just turned 17. At that time, few of the remain­ing guerrilla soldiers spoke Chinese. As a result of his having attended Chinese schools in Burma, Wang, now a second lieutenant, was sent to the Yunnan-Burma border, where he began to serve as a guerrilla fighter, a ­career which would last six years. “We fought in un­familiar jungles and valleys and were besieged by Burmese and Thai forces and the People’s Liberation Army. We were in dire straits, and communications were next to impossible. We were indeed the Lost Army.”

They bore the full brunt of war’s cruelties. Of the 68 people who had trained with him, fewer than 15 survived. “At one time I was sent to prison by the Burmese government. It was my wife who risked her life to get me out of it.” Wang’s wife, Lee Shih-mei, belongs to Yunnan’s Lisu people. She was pregnant with her second child when she bravely rescued her husband from the prison. 

Arriving in Taiwan

In 1975 the Guangwu Corps withdrew to Taiwan. Accom­panied by his wife and daughters, Wang finally set foot on this island. “The veterans and their relatives who lived in the military dependents’ village were like some sort of new immigrants. Looking at Yunnan alone, you would come across people from ten different minor­ity ethnic groups. There were also Dai and Jingpo people,” says Hsu Hong-chin, deputy executive manager at Tao­yuan’s Golden Triangle Cultural Foundation.

A sense of unity prevailed over ethnic differences in Zhongzhen, and the richly diverse culture of the village was reflected in its special culinary life. Financial needs, coupled with nostalgia, motivated many residents—including Wang’s wife and mother-in-law—to open shops and eateries, introducing authentic food from their hometowns in Yunnan and Thailand into Taiwan’s “Golden Triangle.” For Wang, this tradition holds new potentials for the development of the place.

Wang has established several foundations and associations with a view to developing and promoting different aspects of Zhongzhen’s cultural life, such as food, ethnic heritage, and traditional handicrafts. When some old buildings in the village were threatened with demolition, Wang bought several of them. While preserving their original charm, he has transformed them into Yunnanese and Burmese restaurants, eateries, and clothes shops, where photographs and other objects related to the Lost Army are displayed. Wang has even put together a dance troupe, which performs various traditional Yunnanese and Burmese dances on special days. Thanks to the multi­faceted work of Enchanted Golden Triangle, more and more people have come to appreciate this unique place.

With the reinvented Zhongzhen Village attracting many visitors now, Wang has another mission. Since coming to Taiwan, he has witnessed the passing of many old soldiers, and their history is being forgotten. Wang has therefore resolved to establish a cultural space to tell and preserve the story of the Lost Army.

The photographs on the wall bear witness to former Guangwu Corps member Wang Ken-shen’s life, from his early years in Burma, where he spent his childhood and attended Chinese schools, to his later life as a husband and a father.

A new story museum

As Zhongzhen’s population grew, there was a need for better infrastructure. So the residents established their own nursery school, church, market, and other public facilities. Some of these buildings have become timeworn, and when it was proposed that they should be knocked down, Wang purchased more than ten houses, as well as a privately owned church building. He commissioned his elder daughter Wang Lu-fei, who had studied design in the UK, to rejuvenate these buildings, giving them a contemporary touch even while preserving their original character. As chief operating officer for Zhongzhen Village, his younger daughter Wang En Ning has combined culture with cuisine, organizing festive events and setting up stalls outside the shops to sell snack foods. These developments have generated new commercial opportunities for the village, and the catchphrase “traditional Yunnan food, fresh Burmese and Thai flavors” has also laid the groundwork for the forthcoming story museum.

At Zhongzhen’s disused nursery school, the old trees have seen the village prosper and then decline over the last few decades. The remaining red brick walls here will enclose the new museum. “This area is where the Yunnan‡-Burma story museum will be. For this project, I have spent decades collecting all kinds of declassified documents, as well as old photos and artifacts. We have rented a big warehouse where the collections are stored and are being restored, and an excellent documentary has been made,” Wang says.    

“I feel that I am under an obligation to care for retired soldiers and promote the spirit of the Lost Army,” Wang tells us. “There were those who, for the people on this island, were willing to lay down their lives in a far-flung foreign place. They passed through roaring flames and survived deadly bombings. They were the Yunnan-Burma border soldiers.” These people’s names, brave deeds, and heroic souls will all be passed down to posterity through the future story museum.           

Wang has preserved the red brick walls of the former local nursery school, planning to transform the dilapidated place into a museum that will tell the story of the Yunnan–Burma border soldiers.

Eateries offering authentic Yunnanese and Burmese food and shops displaying Yunnan’s ethnic arts and crafts have generated new commercial opportunities for Zhongzhen Village, in addition to preserving its cultural heritage.

The church in Zhongzhen has been revamped into a restaurant called Poppy Church, which gives the old-world charm of the building a contemporary expression.

The old military dependents’ village has been given a new lease of life. Through vibrant colors and bold, playful designs, Zhongzhen villagers are using art to reinterpret the history of the Yunnan–Burma border soldiers for modern times.