Yongqing Register - Commentary on Lan Fang
The Republic of Lan Fang (1776-1886)\The first bourgeois regime of the Chinese people, with political activity lasting 107 years. The founder of the Republic of Lan Fang, Rompuff, once referred to the Qing government, but was rejected by Emperor Qianlong of the Qing dynasty. Most of the residents of the Republic of Lan Fang were Chinese, with a minority being Malays. The Republic of Lan Fang practiced Daoist Mazu worship. The territory of the Republic of Lan Fang was about 110,000 square kilometers, with a water area rate of about 20%, and a GDP of about 8 billion (at that time, the Qing government's annual revenue was less than 80 million).\Historical Evaluation: The Republic of Lan Fang is regarded as the first truly democratically autonomous country in Chinese history. The Republic of Lan Fang's tenacious resistance against Dutch invaders helped establish the first overseas Chinese state.\Editor's Evaluation: The Republic of Lan Fang was the biggest blunder of the Qing dynasty. Most of the Republic of Lan Fang's population consisted of Chinese overseas immigrants, yet the Qing regarded them as "abandoned citizens of the Celestial Empire."\Historical Significance: The Republic of Lan Fang was the first state in Chinese history to use both abdication and elections concurrently. It was also the first overseas colony in Chinese history.\PS: Typed entirely by hand, collecting the information was very troublesome. I will gradually post about several major blunders of the Qing dynasty. The Republic of Lan Fang is both pitiful and lamentable. I wonder if anyone has seen the play "Red Creek"? If not, I hope everyone looks into the history related to Red Creek. When I watched the play in the theater, my hands were pinched until they bled. Modern Chinese history has too many tragedies that people have forgotten. People know about the grand scale of the Communist resistance against Japan, but does anyone know about the tragic bravery of the Kuomintang at the time? History has forgotten too many tragedies. They say history is written by the victors. They say only socialism can save China, but does anyone know about the development of regimes in China besides the two largest capitalist regimes {the late Qing constitutional monarchy (with a parliament entirely composed of Qing dynasty royals) and the Three Principles of the People regime of the Republic of China (after the Northern Expedition, the military power within the party was greater than the government, and the Communist Party rose at the opportunity)}? Or in other words, it wasn't like that. But these are matters for later. The strong survive and the weak perish—wasn't that how it was in Lan Fang at that time?
