115
HAINAN ISLAND:
A BRIEF HISTORICAL SKETCH
D . L . MlCHALK*
Introduction
Hainan Island forms the extreme southern limit of the People's
Republic of China, save for the Paracel Reefs. Sometimes referred
to as the Tail of the Dragon, Hainan lies between longitudes
108°30' and 111° east and latitudes 18° and 20°31' north. It is
separated from the mainland by the 25 km Qiongzhou Straits, and
is part of Guangdong, accounting for 15 percent of the Province's
area. Located in the South China Sea, Hainan is about 300 km east
of Vietnam across the Gulf of Tonkin, some 500 km southwest of
Hong Kong, and a similar distance from the provincial capital,
Guangzhou.
Hainan is oval-shaped with the longest NE to SW axis measuring 309 km and the shorter NW to SE axis, 221 km. With an area of
34,077 km2 (Anon., 1982b), Hainan is about half the size of Tasmania and ranks as the world's twenty-sixth largest island. Although it accounts for less than 1 per cent of China's land area, its
tropical climate, rich mineral and petroleum resources and strategic location make it an important, yet undeveloped region of
China.
Hainan has always been regarded as a backwater by successive
Chinese dynasties and a mystery to foreigners. Indeed, had it not
been for a handful of inquisitive academics and devoted missionaries who "found Hainan" around the turn of the century, our
knowledge of the island would have amounted to little more than
folklore. Using these western sources, the aim of this paper is to
provide a brief insight into the history of Hainan, particularly the
role played by foreigners in its development.
* Senior research agronomist, Agricultural Research and Veterinary Centre, New
South Wales Department of Agriculture.
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D.L. MICHALK
Annexation and subjugation of Hainan
Although some ancient sources refer vaguely to the existence of
Hainan, it was the act of annexation of the island in 111 BC during
the reign of Wu Ti, the Han Emperor, that marks the start of
Hainan's recorded history (Schafer, 1969). Of the condition of
Hainan when invaded by the Han armies, little is known, except
that the island was in the possession of unorganized aborigines
called Li, who today number 700,000 and rank as the largest minority group in the island's 5.6 million people. The Chinese invaders had no conception of the size of the island, and for more than
seven hundred years of occupation, Hainan was depicted on maps
as little more than a wavering coastal strip with occasional southward bulges.
The lack of thorough exploration was due first to a pre-occupation with exploitation of the island's northern pearl beds, rumours
of which initially lured the Chinese to this "treasure island"
(Schafer, 1969), and second to the strength of the Li people in the
hinterland which confined the Han invaders to the coastline. Two
administrative areas were established by the Han government to
subjugate the "savage Li" and thereby hopefully sap the untouched treasures from the island's interior: drugs, incenses, precious metals, pearls, tortoise shell, ivory and coloured, scented
cabinet timbers (Mayers, 1872), all luxury goods prized by the
Chinese Court.
The southern and larger half, including those wild and inaccessible areas which were the principal centres of the Li population,
was called the Prefecture of Tan-urh (literally Drooping Ear), a
name used to describe the Li whose ornament-weighted ear-lobes
hung down to their shoulders (Savina, 1929) as photographed by
Clark (1938). The northern and smaller division of the island was
known as Chu-yai, signifying the Shore of Pearls after the lustrous
gems produced in the musselbeds adjacent to the Straits of
Qiongzhou.
Pearl gathering became an important industry as the demand
for personal adornment increased at Court, and the Hainan pearls
were particularly prized for their lustre. Rapid colonization fol-
117
lowed the discovery of pearls with Chinese immigrants in Early
Han times numbering 23,000 taxable households {Wang Hsiangchih, 1849 edition). As time passed, however, delivery of large
quantities of top quality pearls to the Imperial Treasury became
routine "local tribute" (Schafer, 1952) which usurped the lucrative commercial trade. Nevertheless, Hainan, or the "Shore of
Pearls" as the island was then known, continued to yield supplies
of the precious gems until the end of the fifteenth century by which
time the pearl beds were exhausted (Mayers, 1867).
As the size and wealth of Hainan became more precisely
known, successive dynasties attempted to extend their control by
using military force to break Li resistance which obstructed Chinese exploitation of the island's rich interior. Costly in lives and
money, most campaigns achieved no lasting success, and for the
first thousand years of occupation, the Chinese clung precariously
to the northern coastal fringe, and at times their influence disappeared completely for periods of ninety years or more (Mayers,
1872).
Hainan's reputation as a "treasure island" changed to one of a
"dank, poisonous land unfit for normal men" (Schafer, 1969), and
soon became a place of ultimate exile for intellectuals and highranking bureaucrats who offended the monarch, as well as a sink
for pirates and desperadoes. Amongst the exiled scholars the
Three Lords (Li Te-yu, Lu To-sun and Ting Wei) and the poet
Su Shih are celebrated for their literary contributions (Mayers,
1872; Schafer, 1969). While the exiled scholars left a rich history of
contemporary Hainan in their prose and verse, the only legacy
remaining from the successive dynasties is a continuum of
changes to the names of towns and counties caused by the monotonous re-organization of the administrative bureaucracy.
Although the name Hainan (literally South of the Sea) was used
as a rather imprecise collective name for all southern lands which
lay beyond the familiar borders of the early dynasties, it was not
until the Mongol conquest in the thirteenth century that the name
was applied specifically to the island. Under the sovereignity of
Kublay Khan, the island was incorporated with the western portion of present-day Guangdong Province under the designation
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D.L. MICHALK
Hai-pei Hainan Tao, i.e., the "Circuit or Intendantship of North
of the Sea (straits) and South of the Sea" (Mayers, 1872). Since
Hai-pei was already used to describe coastal Guangdong, the practice arose of referring to the island south of the sea as Hainan
(Schafer, 1969), although it was not until 1921 that it became the
official name of the island (Liu, 1938).
This new administrative footing established by the Mongols
paved the way for the constitution of the island in 1370 as the
Prefecture of K'iungchou Fu, named after the major city of the
island (near present-day Haikou) which was first settled in 631
A.D. {K'iungchoufu chih, 1920 edition). The new prefecture was
placed under the jurisdiction of Guangdong Province, an arrangement which has continued to the present. This new status marked
the promotion of the island from remote dependency to an integral part of the imperial realm.
Rebellion, taxes, piracy and trade
Undoubtedly, this integration was stimulated by the emergence
of a flourishing commercial sector which had begun with limited
trade in the Tang-Sung period (618-1280) when Hainanese cotton
and incense aloeswood were exchanged by the Li for axes, salt, and
cattle for their ceremonial rites (Savina, 1929). Through the increase in communication necessary for trade, and intermarriage
between settlers and the Li aboriginals, an intermediate community emerged which accepted the supremacy of Chinese rule and
adopted their customs and life-style. Known as Shu Li (literally
tamed or civilizedLi), this group served Chinese masters by tending livestock and tilling fields (Swinhoe, 1872a) in the buffer zone
between the Chinese settlements on the coast and the unconquered mountain strongholds of the Sheng Li (literally wild or
savage Li) in the island's interior. As their numbers increased,
however, the Shu Li caused more anxiety to the Chinese Government by constant rebellion than the wild mountaineers, although
most uprisings were self-inflicted by the rapacity of Chinese merchants and injustices meted out by government officials. Only
when the Chinese garrisons were known to be weak did the Sheng
Li sally forth from their impenetrable mountains and reek devastation in the settled plains.
119
To suppress these frequent insurrections, enormous expenditure was required to maintain the garrisons of the walled cities and
to import, when necessary, troop reinforcements. The three major
uprisings in 1501, 1541 and 1550, for example, required more
than ten thousand troops apiece and hundreds of thousands of
taels to restore order (Henry, 1886). This significant drain on treasury coffers caused Hai Jui,1 the great native statesman of Hainan,
to present his "Crossroads proposal" to the Ming Government.
He suggested that by building two roads (one extending northsouth, the other east-west) to intersect in the centre of the Li
strongholds, the whole island could be brought under immediate
control and at the same time trade with the interior could be
enhanced. Unfortunately, in spite of Hai Jui's reputation as a
source of sound advice, the plan was not taken seriously, with the
result that the interior of Hainan remained a terra incognita until
the early part of this century. As late as 1882, when B.C. Henry, the
missionary-botanist, penetrated the interior of Hainan, the only
road of note was that between Nan Fung and Ka Lit, a distance of
about 100 km. Goods such as hides, rattan and fragrant wood,
bartered from the Li in the mountains were transported by ox-cart
over this rough track to Ka Lit and thence to Hai Kou by boat
along the Nan Du River. Travel along this road without a strong
escort was foolhardy as bandits constantly patrolled the road preying on unprotected travellers. It was not until after Liberation in
1952 that a road was built though the mountainous centre of the
island (Fairfax-Cholmeley, 1963).
While local rebellion undoubtedly disrupted trade, it was the
burden of taxes and piracy which choked commerce in Hainan.
The effect of taxes imposed by the powerful Chinese administrators is well illustrated in the salt-industry. Like most coastal towns
elsewhere in China, salt extraction from the sea became a thriving
industry in Hainan's coastal cities. However, it was not long before salt-makers were compelled to turn over most of their produce in taxes to corrupt local officials who hoarded it and then
forbade producers, under threat of heavy penalty, to sell it elsewhere. This monopolistic practice resulted in the collapse of the
industry, though doubtless it enriched the few officials who traded
their spoils with the Li for the prized incense timbers of the interior (Schafer, 1969).
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D.L. MICHALK
Taxes levied on imports were just as crippling since the rates
were fixed according to the size of the vessel that ferried the goods
to Hainan, regardless of the value of the wares it carried. This
meant that because the greatest profits were obtained from luxury
goods such as expensive furniture, fine silks, silver vases and golden hairpins for the privileged rich, these imports took precedence
over cargoes of livestock, cooking pots and bags of rice which
returned negligible profits (Schafer, 1969). The lack of necessities
of life led the poet Su Shih to lament in verse that a "grain of rice
was like a pearl".
Enticed by an abundance of rich cargoes, bands of pirates
formed and pillaged, almost unchecked, shipping along the entire
southern seaboard of China. The problem reached such epidemic
proportions in the seventeenth century as to preclude safe navigation on the open sea between the east coast of Hainan and the
mouth of the Pearl River (Mayers, 1872). The only secure trade
route between the mainland and Hainan was to cross the narrow
straits which separates the island from the Leichow Peninsula
with strong military escort and thence, trek overland to the provincial capital, at quickest a journey taking one month. As a consequence, commerce virtually ceased and Hainan was immersed
again in the poverty and deprivation for which it was noted in
medieval times (Schafer, 1969).
Denied their source of revenue, pirates turned their ravages
landward, and repeatedly sacked towns and villages in the north
and east of the island, in spite of the presence of Imperial garrisons
(Mayers, 1872). Although the destruction in 1684 of the pirate
kingdom in Taiwan restored safe navigation to the Guangdong
coast, Hainan still remained a haven for buccaneers, and pillage
continued almost unabated until the beginning of the nineteenth
century. It was the combination of a growth in foreign shipping
interests in China, the use of steam power in ships and the opening
of a treaty port in Hainan, which led to the demise of piracy as a
lucrative pastime in the South China Sea.
Although the Chinese had previously established rudimentary
navies such as the "Sea-Patrolling Water Army" (Hsun-hai shuichun) to control piracy {K'iungchow fu chih, 1920 ed.), it was the
121
British Navy stationed at Hong Kong which eradicated freebooting from the China coast. Equipped with the newest steam
gun-boats designed for navigation in shallow water, the British
commenced a blitz on piracy in 1863, and in a short period
rousted the privateers from their haunts in Hainan's shallow river
estuaries. To prevent a revival of piracy, the Guangdong provincial government was provided with similar gunboats officered by
Englishmen, to patrol the waters surrounding Hainan.
Restoration of trade
The quashing of piracy led to a rapid restoration of trade between Hainan and the mainland, which in turn, aroused for the
first time the interest of foreign merchants in this unknown island
which had previously been dismissed as merely a sanctuary for
pirates and bandittii. This interest resulted in the opening of
K'iungchow as a treaty port in 1876 and the development of a
thriving trade with Hong Kong. A steamer link with the British
colony was established and Hainan produce was ferried on the
regular service. Raw sugar, vegetable oils and livestock (cattle,
pigs, ducks, chickens and frogs) were the chief exports, while betel
nut, copra, rattan, sisal hemp, hides, tallow, medical herbs and
incense timber were shipped in small quantities (Henry, 1886;
Moninger, 1919). Unfortunately, Hainan did not escape the baneful effects of opium which became the island's principal import
(Henry, 1886), its use being justified in warding off the deadly
malaria endemic throughout the island (Swinhoe, 1872a).
With the flurry of business activity, companies formed with
foreign and Cantonese capital mushroomed everywhere in Hainan, each striving to secure as large a share as possible of the
agricultural and mineral resources of the island. Unfortunately,
Hainan did not surrender its untapped wealth easily, and the
harshness of the tropical climate sent most enterprises quickly
into bankruptcy. Those that did succeed were large, well financed
operations such as the K'iu Hing Kunz Sz, a large plantation near
Nada involved in the production of rubber, coffee and tobacco
(McClure, 1922). Even this company with over 20,000 rubber
trees and 300,000 mature coffee bushes experienced hardship
mainly caused by labour shortages, although these may have been
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D.L. MICHALK
averted had the Cantonese management consented to employ
non-Cantonese workers for tapping and harvesting. However, as
experiences with the new crops accumulated, a large number of
successful plantations were planted by local businessmen to diversify their interests.
Although some of the mineral resources of Hainan were known
to the medieval Chinese, the richest deposits were located in the
central mountains where mining was prevented by the contumacious Li tribesmen. However, as relationships with the Li people
improved and exploration exposed the precise locale of the precious minerals, mines were opened up in the once forbidden interior, but with varying success. At Shi Lu Shan (literally stone-green
mountain), for example, an extensive mining operation was commenced with the prospect of exporting the rich copper ore to Europe. Unfortunately, this plan was thwarted by the government
who granted sanction to the Chinese company to mine the ore, but
denied foreign steamers the use of port facilities for loading the
mineral (Swinhoe, 1872a). Misfortune struck again when due to
poor management, a cave-in claimed the lives of a hundred workers (Henry, 1886). This effectively closed the mine which also led
to the abandonment of searching for silver, lead and iron in the
same group of hills. Smaller mines extracting tin, gold and silver
were also plagued by cave-ins, particularly in the wet season, although it was the superstitions of the owners of the land or people
living nearby who forcibly stopped the diggings for fear that the
earth would take revenge for the removal of the precious deposits
(Henry, 1886).
Lumbering in the Five Finger mountains by the aborigines under the direction of Hakkas proved to be more rewarding than
plantations or mining, possibly because the exploitative harvest
continued as it had for ten centuries, but on a much larger scale to
meet the growing demand for the highly valued Hainan timbers in
the mainland. Since Hainan's forests also yielded rattan, incense
wood, wild teas and herbal medicines, Hakka traders nurtured a
subsidiary commerce with their Li workmen. Migrating to Hainan
in the 1750's (Fusson, 1929), the Hakkas had by patient industry
and thrift become fairly prosperous, and by befriending both the
Han Chinese and the Li, they provided the vital link between the
123
two.
Foreigners in the land
Although the opening of Hainan to foreign trade led to an influx
of westerners to open business houses and man the British, German and French consulates that were installed in Haikou soon
after the treaty port proclamation, they were not the first foreigners to penetrate Hainan. This honour belongs to gallant Roman
Catholic priests who took up residence on Hainan almost 300
years before, although undoubtedly even these priests were
preceeded by unknown sailors from foreign vessels marooned by
typhoons on the "Shore of Pearls".
The first Jesuit padre known definitely to enter to Hainan was
Father Gago who was shipwrecked in 1560 on the southern coast
(Madrolle, 1898), and spent five months at San Ya before he could
secure passage to Macau (Dehergne, 1940). However, it was not
until the arrival of the Portuguese Jesuits, Pierre Marquez in 1632
and Benoit de Mathos in 1635, that a church was established in
K'iungchow (Pfister, 1932). By 1637, there were four churches
with a total membership exceeding one thousand which included
some high officials such as Wang Hung-hui,2 a former emissary to
Peking, and his son, Paul (Pfister, 1932; Dunne, 1962).
Through persecution and plagues, a succession of priests from
Portugal, France, Italy and Germany, superintended the growing
mission for more than a half century until 1665 when Jesuits were
banished from China (Dehergne, 1940). After the priests were expelled, church property was seized and converted into Taoist temples, two of which were still standing in the late nineteenth century
(Swinhoe, 1872a). Little remains today of this influence, although
as late as 1919, the Roman Catholic cemetery in K'iungchow was
still intact, albeit neglected, and the epitaphs of at least three
priests buried in the 1680's could still be deciphered (Moninger,
1919). The number of tombs of respectable people is evidence of
the large following the Jesuits had established in Hainan (Henry,
1886).
Between 1673 and 1725, priests returned to Hainan to continue
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D.L. MICHALK
their work, but owing to intense persecution they either left peacefully or gave their lives in martyrdom (Dehergne, 1940). Towards
the end of the eighteenth century, Chinese priests were sent by the
Bishop of Macao to rekindle the Catholic influence and in 1849
these priests were replaced by French missionaries (Swinhoe,
1872a). The reception of the foreigners was not friendly, the first
who arrived was so badly beaten by the people that he died of his
wounds (Henry, 1886). The mission never regained its former
size, and in 1919, consisted of little more than an orphange near
Haikou run by several nuns and a few priests scattered throughout
the island (Moninger, 1919).
In spite of their long association with Hainan, Catholic priests
proved to be a poor source of intelligence concerning the island
and its inhabitants, and it was not until Hainan was opened to
foreign trade that thorough exploration was undertaken by Europeans. Although James Purefoy (1825), a British sea-captain, described parts of the east and north coasts through which he passed
when shipwrecked in 1804, it was the British Consuls, Robert
Swinhoe and Frederick Mayers, who unmasked much of the mystery of Hainan by their authoritative writings on its zoology, geography, history and enthnology based on their extensive excursions through the island in 1871 and 72.
These pioneering observations paved the way for more extensive reconnaissance of the unknown interior of Hainan by the
Protestant missionaries, B.C. Henry and Carl Jeremiassen in 1883
(Henry, 1886), which in turn, led to the birth of the American
Presbyterian Mission on the island in 1885 (LaTourette, 1929).
Like their Catholic contemporaries, however, the Protestant missionaries were viewed with suspicion by the local inhabitants who
frustrated all attempts by the Americans to purchase land or secure suitable lodgings.
It was the medical work of the mission which provided the
catalyst for acceptance, and by 1919 there were 32 American missionaries on Hainan, including five qualified doctors. In that year,
membership in the 29 churches exceeded 5,000, while 1,500 pupils
attended mission schools and 3,000 patients sought treatment at
the Presbyterian Hosptials in Haikou and Nada (Moninger, 1919).
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Between 1917 and 1923, membership doubled owing mainly to
acceptance of the Protestant faith among the Miao tribesmen (LaTourette, 1929).
In addition to attracting businessmen, diplomats and missionaries, the unknown interior also coaxed several academics to
make pilgrimages to the "Shore of Pearls". The most important of
these for the natural sciences was undertaken by F.A. McClure, an
American botanist teaching at Lingnan Agricultural College,3 who
was commissioned to explore the land resources of Hainan, and if
possible, conquer the summit of the rugged Five Finger Range: a
feat which had eluded earlier European attempts (McClure, 1922).
His first assault on the summit failed, but on April 20, 1922, his
second push brought him through the dense undergrowth to the
ceiling of the island (McClure, 1922). The important discoveries
he made on these and subsequent expeditions to Hainan (1927,
1928,1929,1932) form the basis of a great collection of rare plants
housed in Guangzhou (Fenzel, 1933), the New York Botantical
Gardens, and for some specimens, the Arnold Arboretum at Harvard University (Merrill and Medcalf, 1937).
A zoological expedition, led by Clifford Pope of the American
Museum of Natural History, went to Hainan in 1922 (Pope, 1924),
while in 1928 the French missionary and ethnographer, M.
Savina, studied in detail the language of the Li clans for the first
time (Savina, 1929). The German, Gottlieb Fenzel, who journeyed through the interior in 1929 made a significant contribution
to the geology and geography of Hainan (Fenzel, 1933), and his
fellow countryman, H. Stubel, provided further information on
the enthnology of Hainan's aboriginals from his visits in 1931 and
1932 (Stubel and Li, 1933; Stubel and Meriggi, 1937). These published reports by foreign academics provide the bulk of the information on Hainan readily accessible to the western bloc.
Civil War and Japanese occupation
In 1912, the Manchu dynasty came to an end with the abdication of the young Emperor, Hsuan-t'ung, and the New Republic
was declared the constitutional form of state. However, efforts
by the weak central government to create unity were sabotaged
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D.L. MICHALK
by governors and generals striving to grasp independent power,
and China was plunged into bloody civil war. Guangdong Province, the birth-place of the republician movement, immediately
proclaimed itself independent. Sun Yat-sen, the "Father of
the Republic", was elected generalissimo, and in 1924 the
Koumintang (the People's Party) was formed. Upon the death of
Dr. Sun in 1925, Chiang Kai-shek, backed by his modernized
army, emerged as the Koumintang (KMT) leader, and with assistance from Communist factions began campaigns against the
north which culminated in the fall of Shanghai in 1927.
Choosing not to expropriate the capitalist bankers in Shanghai
as demanded by the Communists, the KMT and Communists
became bitter rivals which re-ignited armed struggle in south
China. Fuelled by Communist propaganda, there came a genuine
uprising of the peasantry against the KMT for failure to deliver
promised tax and land reforms throughout the southern provinces. As part of this general uprising, the first group of "freedom
fighters" appeared on Hainan in 1927 and staged guerilla warfare
on the island until Liberation, twenty-three years later (FairfaxCholmeley, 1963).
Although armed conflicts between Peking and southern forces
had occurred previously on Hainan such as those which led to the
capitulation of General Lung's army in 1918 (Moninger, 1919),
fighting was confined to the soldiery. However, the Communist
tactics brought the conflict to the common citizens by inciting
peasants to take up arms against the oppressive gentry and greedy
merchants. The effects of lightning raids caused havoc in northern
Hainan: numerous villages were abandoned, others sacked and
reduced to ash-strewn rubble, and large tracts of farming land were
deserted (McClure, 1934b).
In fact, the revolutionary play, Red Detachment of Women, was
loosely based on incidents which occurred in Hainan in 1931. At a
bridge about one kilometre south of the present Xinglong Overseas Chinese State Farm, a guerilla band led by Hong Chang-qing
assasinated Nan Ba-tian, a cruel landlord. In reprisal, the
landlord's forces captured and executed the guerilla leader. However, a slave girl, Wu Qing-hua, took his place as commander and
127
continued the guerilla war from bases in the nearby Nanlin Hills
(Paul, 1982). As a revolutionary base was established, workers'
and peasants' democratic governments were formed at the county
level throughout Hainan, the first being set up in Lingshui County
amongst the Li community (Gao, 1981).
Threatened by the possible emergence of a unified China, Japan, which already had a firm foothold in northern China, landed
troops in Shanghai in 1928 in order to weaken Chiang Kai-shek's
power and prolong the onset of the inevitable Sino-Japanese war.
Taking advantage of the rift between the KMT and Communists,
Japan strengthened her influence, first by invading Manchuria in
1931, and finally, by means of a number of orchestrated landings
in 1937, secured the whole of the coast of China, effectively severing all major supply arteries to the country: China was no longer a
dangerous adversary (Eberhard, 1969). As part of this offensive,
Hainan was first attacked in August, 1937 (Clark, 1938), and Japanese forces quickly occupied the coastal fringe. By February, 1939,
Hainan, like the mainland, was subdued (Wigmore, 1957).
Remnants of the old Red Guard units, hardened by 12 years of
battle with the KMT, took up positions around the island immediately behind the Japanese and used their guerilla tactics to harass
the intruders, while the KMT held defensive positions in the central mountains (Fairtex-Cholmeley, 1963). It appears that a noninterference agreement was quickly ratified between the Japanese
and the KMT, leaving the Communist guerillas to pose the chief
threat to the invading Japanese (Paul, 1982). Although Mao Tsetung committed the Communist Party to collaborate with the
KMT, conflict continued between the two factions even in Hainan
where in 1943, the Li leaders, Wang Guo-xing4 and Wang Yu-jin,
led 20,000 tribesmen in an armed foray against KMT troops entrenched in the Five Finger Mountains (Gao, 1981). In spite of
these "domestic" conflicts, the combined Chinese forces tied up
two Japanese divisions in Hainan (MacCrae, personal communication).
Due to its strategic location, Hainan became a training and
staging area for the Japanese southward thrust, with components
of the XXV Japanese Army being exercised on the island during
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D.L. MICHALK
1940 and 1941. Troops trained on Hainan included part of the
18th Division which was later landed at Kota Bharu and which
pushed southward along the Malayan east coast, the 5th Division
which was landed at Singora and Patani in Thailand, the Guards
Division which was lent to the XV Japanese Army for the early
part of the invasion of Thailand and Burma, and then reverted to
the XXV Army to support the advance of the 5th Division
(Wigmore, 1957). In fact, the 5th Division was shipped in troops
transports from San Ya in December, 1941, to the Thai peninsula
(Wigmore, 1957).
Another attraction for the invaders was the rich mineral resources of the island. Industrialists quickly developed a large,
open-cut mine at Shi Lu Shan to provide the much needed iron
ore for the Japanese war effort. This necessitated construction of
ports at Ba Suo and Yu Lin, and a railway link to transport the
annual ore production of 2 million tonne to these ports. To
achieve the development targets demanded by Tokyo, Chinese
were indentured and mustered into work-camps. Later Australian
and Dutch soldiers captured in Indonesia were transported to a
camp at Ba Suo to help with the work (Wigmore, 1957).
A total of 267 Australian from the 2/21st Australian Infantry
Battalion (or Gull Force as it was known) and 233 Dutchmen
captured at Ambon were transported in the "Taiko Maru" to Hainan, arriving at Ba Suo in October, 1942. Conditions at the camp
were harsh, and only 110 Australians remained when liberated by
American forces on August 26, 1945. The opening of Hainan to
foreign tourists enabled ten former Australian prisoners to return
to Hainan in 1985 specifically to seek information on the fate of
ten Australians who escaped from the camp and joined Communist forces in guerilla campaigns against the Japanese army (Nelson, 1985).
Liberation and isolation
After the defeat of the Japanese, the KMT regained control of
the island, and when Chiang Kai-shek retreated from the mainland to Taiwan more than 100,000 of his loyal soldiers fled to
Hainan. This meant that although the "People's Republic" was
129
proclaimed in October, 1948, it was almost a year later that units
of the People's Liberation Army from the Leichow Peninsula
joined the 10,000 Communist guerillas already on Hainan in routing the KMT forces and liberating the "Shore of Pearls" (FairfaxCholmeley, 1963).
Due to twenty-seven years of civil unrest and Japanese occupation, the island was in a terrible mess: there was no industry to
speak of because post-war forays between the KMT and Communist guerillas destroyed many of the enterprises established by the
Japanese. Communication and transport networks were in tatters
with highways and ports in a state of dilapidation, while the railway link between Ba Suo and the southern port of Yulin was
completely destroyed.
The situation on Hainan improved somewhat after Liberation.
Like the mainland, mass land reclamation campaigns were the
hallmark of the post-1949 regime in Hainan. Teams of land reclamation specialists dispatched to Hainan developed 120 state
farms and 308 communes with the help of the local people and the
100,000 Chinese who returned from overseas to build the "New
China". Over a thirty year period, investment by the Central Government in agriculture and industry totalled 4.33 billion yuan
(US$ 2 billion) for which the island has returned an abundance of
iron ore, timber, salt, pepper, rubber and coffee (Wu and Zhi,
1981). Some 14,000 km of roads were built to link all but one
remote commune (Chin, 1962), and the surviving sections of the
Japanese railway grid were converted to standard gauge in the late
1950's (Anon., 1982a).
Of the agricultural activities commenced, rice growing was emphasised in the hope that self-sufficiency in grain production
could be quickly attained. By 1958, a total area of 190,000 ha was
under paddy (Iskoldsky, 1958) which increased to 157,000 ha of
early rice and 225,000 ha of late rice by 1965 (Kirk, 1965). The
remainder of Hainan's arable land was used for production of
sugar, rubber, coconut, sisal hemp, cotton, palm oil, jute and
tropical fruit. Rubber trees occupied the largest area of cultivated
land after rice with the estimated tree population of 4 million
present in 1965 doubling since 1954 (Kirk, 1965). The new gov-
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D.L. MICHALK
ernment looked to Hainan to rapidly expand production of rubber, coffee and tropical fruit as these were in short supply and
could only be grown in small quantities in parts of Yunnan Province. However, in spite of this encourgement and efforts by the
Hainanese, only 20 per cent of the Island's arable land was under
production in 1965 (Kirk, 1965).
Although significant achievement was made in the agricultural
sector, this was overshadowed by advances made in industry.
Only a few, poorly equipped machine repair shops were operative
at the time of Liberation, but by 1965 more than 20 farming and
other machinery plants were producing 73 kinds of new products,
38 of which were in serial production (Kirk, 1965). Among the
latter were peanut planters, water turbine pumps, threshers, husking mills, coconut processing machines and fluorescent lamps for
deepsea fishing. Processing factories including food canneries,
sugar refineries, textile mills and rubber footwear plants not only
increased in variety, but also in product quality and economic
efficiency (Kirk, 1965).
During this period, Hainan assumed greater military importance: first in response to the conflict involving French and American forces in Vietnam, and more recently to the Soviet-backed
military and political takeover of Laos and Cambodia by Vietnam. This importance was further enhanced by the 1979 SinoVietnamese war and the discovery of oil and natural gas by American and French joint-ventures in the Gulf of Tonkin and the South
China Sea. As a first line of defence, China maintains constant
surveillance from the air supported by a formidable naval force of
300,000 stationed in Hainan and the Leichow Peninsula plus strategically placed missile bases (Hollingworth, 1982). Initially, military personnel were engaged in road construction, installation of
communication networks and improvement of defence positions,
but in these more settled times, they have played a key role in the
agricultural and industrial development of Hainan {China Daily,
August 11, 1983).
In spite of these efforts, however, development of Hainan's
resources proceeded too slow to raise the living standard to keep
pace with the national average (Wu and Zhi, 1981). While the
131
people applied themselves enthusiastically to the task, insufficient
capital, the rigid application of ultra-Left policies such as the lopsided emphasis on developing grain production which did not best
utilize Hainan's tropical conditions, and poor technical support
are all blamed for the slow progress in Hainan. During the Cultural Revolution in particular, the establishment of new plantations
was discontinued, while large areas of mature coconut, rubber and
coffee trees were felled to release land for grain production. Forests did not escape indiscriminative clearing: when liberated,
there were 863,000 ha of tropical forest on Hainan, but by 1979
only 245,000 ha remained (Smil, 1983). Besides roads, one of the
few benefits remaining from the ten turbulent years are the reservoirs and canal networks constructed to provide water for irrigation and generation of electricity.
Some of these problems were caused by inadequate communication between the central government and the grass-roots level,
while others are a direct result of ignorance of the biological potential of the tropical environment. The latter was undoubtedly aggravated by debasement of intellectuals during the Cultural Revolution. Further, following the withdrawal of Soviet experts and
technical aid to China in 1960, the fostering by Mao of an isolationist policy from both Eastern and Western blocs meant that
technical and economic development had to rely exclusively on
Chinese talents and expertise. Given the dearth of experience with
tropical agriculture amongst the Hainanese, overseas Chinese
who had worked on plantations in Malaya, Indonesia and Thailand, but returned to Hainan in the 1950's and 60's, brought a
great number of skills with them and deserve credit for much of
the achievement made in planting tropical crops. Returning farmers brought with them seeds of crops never before grown in Hainan, and after some nursery testing, pepper, oil palm, new coconut
varieties and traditional medicines were sown commercially, initially on overseas Chinese state farms.
The "open door" policy
With the ousting of the "Gang of Four", a resolution on
Hainan's development was passed by the State Council in 1980
which placed primary stress on tropical agriculture and associated
132
D.L. MICHALK
light industry. Given the high profitability of tropical crops relative to grain production, this emphasis makes good economic
sense, especially when Hainan accounts for about 60 percent of
China's tropical land. For the implementation of this policy, however, it was obvious that restructuring of the agricultural base to
raise the development of Hainan to full potential would require
injection of large amounts of capital and new technology.
To assist modernization programmes, Mao's isolationist policy
has been discarded, and China has embarked on a promotion of
economic co-operation and technological exchanges with foreign
countries, with the proviso that such relationships do not compromise China's national independence (Zhao, 1982). As part of this
Open Door policy, Hainan Island was opened to investment from
foreign and overseas Chinese companies in 1981 (China Daily,
December 4, 1981), and to facilitate investment Hainan authorities have been granted decision-making powers similar to those
operative in Special Economic Zones (Anon., 1982a). These powers enable Hainan officials to approve joint-ventures with no investment limit, provided such projects do not impinge on the
State Plan and do not require finance, energy or any other resource
from the mainland. (Anon., 1982a).
Foreign investment in tourist-related facilities and industrial
projects is being actively encouraged by incentives such as tax
breaks and import duty waivers. China will grant a two-year income tax "holiday" on enterprises undertaken and will levy an
income tax of only 15 percent thereafter (Bulletin, May 10,1983).
Production equipment and machinery imported in the first five
years of a project may be brought in duty-free and imports relating
to accommodation for foreign business executives will receive
favourable tax breaks.
To create an infrastructure that will attract foreign investment
and tourism, the Central Government has placed emphasis on
development of Hainan's transport network and energy supply.
As part of a Five Year Plan, new ports will be built while the
capacity of existing harbours will be increased. The first step will
be the extension of ports at Ba Suo, Haikou and Qinglan, and later
a deep water port will be constructed at Yangpu. A regular passen-
133
ger ferry service direct to Hong Kong has already been established,
and airports at Haikou and Sanya are being up-graded to international standard for direct air links with Hong Kong. A 50-km
railway link will complete the link between Ba Suo, Lintau and
Yulin. For energy, an open-cut mine will be developed at Changpo
with capital investment of US$ 60 million (Bulletin, May 10,
1983) and the estimated output of 500,000 tonne of coal will be
used at power stations at Changpo and Haikou (China Daily, November 25, 1983).
The projects which the Hainan authorities would like to proceed as joint ventures with foreign capital are listed in Table 1
(Anon., 1982a). These projects were presented to the Australian
Department of Trade as being indicative of the range of the
island's ambitions rather than as specific projects to which they
TABLE 1: Hainan's development ambitions (Anon., 1982a)
Product
Location
size
Comments
Cement
Dong Fang
1 Mt/a
Export through Basuo.
Petroleum
refinery
West Coast 1 Mt/a
Silicon
carbide
Dong Fang
Plate glass Daxian
Paper
Aluminium
Daxian
Based on expectations of
offshore oil.
15000 tpa Based on planned hydro
expansion on Changhua
River.
High quality silica sand.
Rebuilding of facilities.
30000 tpa Long-term ambition.
Tourism
Five potential locations.
Tropical
agriculture
Sugar cane, pineapple,
cashews, coffee, cocoa
macadamia nuts, beef and
dairy cattle.
Fish, prawns
27 sites available for fish
farms.
134
D.L. MICHALK
are committed. However, any foreign proposal which is consistent
with these plans might be more favourably received than one
which is not included.
In the short time that Hainan has been opened to foreign investment, forty-four contracts representing a total investment of
US$ 87 million have been signed with foreign firms, thirty-four of
which were operative in 1983. To provide technical counterparts
for these projects, more than 4,000 intellectuals, cadres and workers have been transferred to Hainan, while many overseas Chinese
have also offered their services. Talks on a number of key projects
are under consideration including a petrochemical plant, an express highway, additional power stations (China Daily, 1983), and
a tunnel link with the mainland across the Qiongzhou Straits
(South China Morning Post, 1984), while the first joint-venture
for onshore oil exploration in China was recently arranged for
northern Hainan with an Australian consortium (Sydney Morning
Herald, May 27, 1985).
Although significant development has taken place over the past
five years, naive mishandling and in some instances outright
abuse of the autonomy delegated to Hainan officials has hobbled
the momentum. Recent reports of corruption and profiteering on
Hainan have exposed a sophisticated system where racketeers
have spent cherished foreign exchange on imported cars and home
appliances made cheaper by the preferential import duty cuts the
island enjoys, and resold these on the mainland at huge profits.
One source alleged that the racket involved the purchase of more
than 89,000 cars, 2.86 million televisions and 252,000 video recorders which cost more than US$ 1.5 billion in foreign exchange
(Thompson, 1985). Besides prosecuting officials, the Central Government has reacted by strictly limiting funds for joint-ventures
and technology imports, and increasing import duties by as much
as 80 percent to price foreign goods out of the local market.
Hainan's agriculture has also undergone development through
the adoption of new agricultural policies and the transfer of technology from western nations. In the last five years substantial
changes to commune structure and productive practices have occurred with the introduction of the "production responsibility
135
system". Originally introduced as a reform in the method of labour management, its evolution has led to fundamental innovations in the operation of production teams which have, in many
cases, resulted in the virtual, disappearance of all but the sketetal
features of the collective economy (O'Leary and Watson, 1982).
This has been accompanied by dramatic changes in the physical
appearance of the cropping landscape of Hainan as the collective
fields have been subdivided into parcels of various size for farming on a contract basis by work groups or individual households.
Under this system, some households are earning more than
US$5,000 per year. It is important to note, however, that while
households or individuals have the right to use the land, the ownership of the land remains with the State (China Daily, Nov. 4,
1981).
In general, peasant farmers have responded to the
"responsibility" policy with an enthusiasm that has doubled rural
living standards and produced bumper harvests. For some, however, the dramatic change from the egalitarian policy of "eating
from the one big pot" to quasi-capitalism is difficult to accept. In
1983, for example, it was reported that thousands of retired servicemen at military farms in Ya Xian, Hainan's most southern
county, staged sit-down strikes, attacked party commissars in
charge of the farms, smashed property, forced their way onto naval ships at Yulin Harbour, and virtually put the county government under siege (South China Morning Post, Mar. 11,1983). The
reason for the riot centred on the new party policy to make the
military farms self-supporting by adopting the responsibility
system. The disturbance so shocked the Beijing regime that Premier Zhao detoured to Hainan immediately upon his return from
his month-long visit to Africa before returning to Beijing.
While the responsibility system has been most effective in increase output of grain and household livestock (pigs and poultry),
new policies have been formulated to expand ruminant production on the nation's 300 million hectares of grasslands. This new
direction in agricultural policy was summed up by Premier Zhao
Ziyang at the Fifth National People's Congress in 1981:
"In the past, our vision in agricultural production was
136
D.L. MICHALK
often limited to existing cultivated lands and to grain
production which increasingly cramped our efforts.
"Our policy is to spare no effort in promoting grain
production and diversified undertakings, [but] . . .
we should strive to protect existing grasslands, use
them rationally, step up their development, rear as
much livestock as possible, and at the same time encourage the raising of domestic animals and poultry in
the vast countryside and so significally develop animal
husbandry."
As part of this planned expansion of beef output, officials in the
southern province of Guangdong identified the dry tropics of Hainan Island as a region suitable for beef production for two reasons:
first, unlike other parts of Guangdong, low rainfall and infertile
soil preclude production of economic crops, and, second, the region already has an abundance of native Yellow Ox cattle and a
large area of wasteland which could be used more intensively for
beef production (Michalk et al, 1985).
Present output from cattle grazing native rangeland in this region under traditional management (i.e. herded by day and
coralled at night) is extremely low: 30-60 kg LWG/ha/yr. Inadequate nutrition, especially during the seven month dry season, is
the major cause for low beef production in western Hainan. Experience in the dry tropics of northern Australia has shown range
improvement with Stylosanthes legumes to be a successful means
of increasing beef output in situations where "fixed area
management" is practised.
While the Guangdong Government perceived the value of this
type of technology for improving cattle production in Hainan,
they also recognized that a lack of indigneous expertise in range
science was a major constraint to the introduction, adaptation and
popularization of appropriate range improvement technology for
use on state farms where "fixed area management" is presently
practised. To expedite technology transfer, Guangdong sought assistance from New South Wales, its "sister state" in Australia, to
set up a "model farm" wherefieldresearch could be undertaken to
137
improve beef output by identifying pasture species and cattle husbandry practices suitable for Hainan (Nalson and Ayres. 1984).
In 1981, Gaopoling Model Cattle Farm was established in western Hainan with finance from Guangdong and technical input
from New South Wales. Two specialists (an agronomist and a
livestock manager) were seconded to Gaopoling Farm for a threeyear period to provide day-to-day technical input necessary for the
implementation of the model farm programme by working sideby-side with Chinese counterparts.
When the project commenced, Gaopoling Farm consisted of
little more than the land resource, a 60-member work force and
1,200 cattle. Pastures were poorly utilized with shepherds avoiding scrub areas (60 percent of farm) and concentrating cattle on
open grassland. Cattle were in poor condition, calves unthrifty,
and steers took 4 to 5 years to reach mature weight.
Using these basic resources, the model farm was developed
through a programme of adaptive research in the initial years to
identify correct practices and farm development in following
years based on research results. From experiments in species adaptation, fertilizer needs and sowing methods, recommendations
were made for each soil type. Using these, an extensive range
improvement programme was undertaken as a commercial enterprise, and by Year 3 about 843 ha were developed.
First-level husbandry practices were demonstrated initially
with a 50-cow nucleus herd, and a recording scheme was commenced to monitor comparative performance of "improved" versus "traditional" cattle management. As sown pasture became
available, cattle were moved from sheds to open range. The effects
of better nutrition and better husbandry practices are reflected in
animal performance with cow liveweight increasing by 20 percent,
calving rate by 50 percent, calf growth rate by 90 percent compared with traditional husbandry on native rangeland. In terms of
beef output, weaner steers grazing fertilized stylo pasture at 2
beasts per ha reached adult weight in two years, instead of the five
taken under the old management system.
138
D.L. MICHALK
Since the departure of resident specialists from Gaopoling
Farm in 1984, pasture development has been continued by Chinese technicians on at least four other farms in Guangdong with
the sowing of about 2,500 ha of improved pasture in 1984 and 85
and the production of 25 tonne of pasture seed. This brings the
total area of improved rangeland in Guangdong to approxiamtely
4,000 ha. More important than area developed was the fact that
different methods have been developed for each farm to suit the
environmental conditions and resource constraints. This is evidence that Gaopoling Farm has been truly effective in demonstrating the principles of range improvement and has not simply
promoted an Australian-style pasture development recipe.
Conclusion
In this paper, the history and gradual development of Hainan
Island have been traced in accordance with the information gatheredfromwestern sources and contemporary experience. Regarding the future of this tropical nook, Frederick Mayers wrote in
1872:
"It remains for coming years to lift the veil of uncertainty, and to decide whether so rich and productive,
but neglected an expanse of territory is to continue in
its present state or to become a valuable contributor to
the world's wealth by means of the admission of western enterprise and commercial relations".
It is this author's belief that this statement is still as relevant to the
development of the "Shore of Pearls" as it was when penned a
century ago.
139
NOTES
1
The son of a minor official of K'iungshan, Hai Jui left Hainan at an early age and
after passing the superior examination in Beijing, rose rapidly to high office. Although severed at an early age from immediate connection with his native Hainan,
Hai Jui continued to bear its interests actively at Court. He died in 1587 (Mayers,
1872).
2
Disappointed by his failure to receive promotion to the Board of Rites in Peking,
Wang Hung-hui resigned his office as emissary in 1599 and returned with his
family to Hainan. Before leaving, however, he gave the Jesuit, Father Mathos
Ricci, letters of introduction to his Peking colleagues (Dunn, 1962).
3
Known as Lingnan Agricultural College, the College of Agriculture at Canton
Christian College was an indigenous undertaking, and unlike contemporary colleges in Nanking and Peking, it was fostered and developed by the Cantonese and
was not directly under western control. Today, Lingnan Agricultural College survives as part of South China Agricultural University in Guangzhou.
* Wang Guo-xing became the first governor of the Li-Miao Autonomous region
which was formed in 1952 (Lee, 1964).
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