Hong Kong was such an inspiration to China. With British good governance, the Chinese had achieved so much beyond what any Chinese government achieved. Yet the nearby French leased territory showed living under an European colonial administration was no panacea. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering by The Philatelist.
Kwangchowan was an area of Guandong province in China leased for 99 years to France beginning in 1898. The area was quite prosperous by 1997, but France was not inclined to put forth the effort to be a part of it. This can be seen by the stamp, which is just an overprint of a standard French Indo China issue. In fact the French administration in Kwangchowan was subservient to the French Resident Superior in Hanoi, Vietnam. Well who shouldn’t be subservient to him?
Todays stamp is issue A20, a 2/5s Cent stamp issued by Kwangchowan when it was leased to France in 1937. It was part of a 33 stamp issue in various denominations. If you see one without the RF in the bottom left corner, it was issued later under the Vichy France administration. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 40 cents whether mint or used.
The area was leased to France by the Imperial Chinese government. There was much resentment in China over deals like this, but that does not mean the government didn’t have an ever greater need for money. The French thought of the area has a military base and established Fort Bayard as the capital. The port was also quite useful to port large warships as the river is wide and deep for miles inland. The stated purpose of the troops was the protection of Christian missionaries in China. I didn’t even know France was much into that, but it got the camels nose under the tent.
The French administration saw Chinese flood into the area. Things illegal like smuggling were easier to carry out. In Kwangchowan this was opium into China and the export of Chinese laborers out. One smuggling activity unique to the area was American airplanes. America had regulations making aircraft shipments to China difficult. They could be acquired in the Philippines and shipped to Kwangchowan to be passed on to China. These activities did not benefit the French much but were the bread and butter of Chinese Tong Societies that was so entwined with Chinese expatriates.
During World War II, French Asian colonies went with Vichy France and by extension became allies of the Japanese in their war in China. In 1945, after the end of Vichy France the new French government signed over early Kwangchowan to the Chinese Nationalist government, their allies. What a mistake! The Nationalist government was on borrowed time and the Red Chinese somewhat surprisingly respected the leases for places like Hong Kong and Macao. A colony that might have worked? Well maybe, but they would have had to stop running it out of Hanoi.
After China took over, Fort Bayard became Zhanjiang. It is an important railway and port shipping center with a population over 7 million. The city still contains a French school and Catholic church founded by the French.
Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Sun Yat-sen. He inspired many Chinese by talking up how much better off China could be if they could learn from the West, without being dominated by it. That goal eluded Sun during his Chinese Presidency, see https://the-philatelist.com/2019/04/26/china-1961-remembering-sun-tat-sen-for-trying-to-bring-peace-order-and-good-government-over-from-hong-kong/, but people need inspiration. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.