Monument complex in Tuyunguan

In the People’s Republic of China, World War II, which is also called the World Antifascist War (shijie fan faxisi zhanzheng), is considered to have started with the Japanese invasion of the provinces of northeastern China in September 1931 and the creation of the puppet state of Manchukuo.  On this logic, the Spanish Civil War forms part of this global conflict in which various nations fought against international fascism represented by Germany, Italy, and Japan, as well as by collaborators and domestic enemies.

In contrast to Spain, China has many monuments commemorating this conflict. On a small hill in a suburb of Tuyunguan, a city on the outskirts of Guiyang, capital of the province of Guizhou, there is a modest park that is home to a monument complex dedicated to the international members of the Medical Aid Corps of the Chinese Red Cross (Zhongguo hongshizi jiuhu zongdui). Founded by Robert Lim (Lin Kesheng), a Chinese doctor born in Singapore, the Corps was a fundamental part of the medical services during the war against Japan, and, from the outset, it welcomed international volunteers.

The monument contains the names of the foreign volunteers who served as doctors and nurses under harsh conditions in isolated regions and with limited equipment. Of the twenty-seven whose names appear, nineteen belong to the so-called “Spanish doctors” (xibanya yisheng). Natives of Central and Eastern Europe, these volunteer doctors and nurses served in the International Health Service of the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War, where they gained important experience, especially in wartime medicine.

They had to leave Spain in 1938-1939 and, along with thousands of Spanish Republicans, they were interned in concentration camps in the south of France. Unable to return to their homes in Poland, Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and other countries, they sought help from the organizations that sent medical aid to Spain. These managed to free around twenty from the camps and pay their fare to China, where there was a major shortage of doctors.

Due to their diverse origins, the fact that they spoke to each other in Spanish, and sang Spanish Republican songs, this international group of doctors and nurses was called the Spanish doctors, even though none of them actually was a Spaniard. Dr. Lim recognize that they played a crucial role in building the Medical Aid Corps, especially during the fighting in central China after 1939.

The government of the city of Guiyang erected this monument complex consisting of a number of commemorative statues and columns in 1985 to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of what in China is called the World Antifascist War. Thirty years later, the descendants of the “Spanish doctors” were invited to Guiyang, and this prompted renewed interest in this group of people who cared for the sick and wounded in the two wars.