Hu Zhiguang , A Patriot Chinese in the Netherlands 2000/1/15
Hu Zhiguang is almost known to all families in the overseas Chinese communities in the Netherlands and many other European countries. People have many good comments on him such as “Model of new generation of overseas Chinese”, “leader of overseas Chinese in the Netherlands ”, “a man who cares more for others than for himself”, “a man with virtues”, etc.
Hu Zhiguang is honorable president of Algemene Chinese Vereniging Nederland and De Stichting Landelijke Federatie Van Chinese Organisaties in Nederland (Stichting LFCON), president of Dutch China Chamber of Commerce (DCCC), permanent member of the standing committee of the Union of Overseas Chinese Communities In Europe, member of the Zhe Jiang Provincial
People’s Congress, a member of the China 0verseas Friendship
Association. For decades, he has been engaged in working for overseas Chinese communities and has won a good reputation among overseas Chinese in the Netherlands and Europe. Top Chinese leaders such as Li Peng, Li Ruihuan, Hu Jingtao, Qian Qichen had high comments on him during their visits to the Netherlands.
Hu Zhiguang was Born in Nov. 1941 in a poor family in Dongzi Village, Yuhu Town, Wencheng County in the province of Zhejiang , China. In 1968, Hu Zhiguang settled in the Netherlands. From his father who had begun to run a restaurant, he quickly learned how to master the skills of cooking and running business. In 1972, he opened up Xiang Yang Restaurant in Utrecht, the 3rd largest city in the Netherlands.
Before he opened the restaurant, he had already joined the Dutch Chinese Association as an ordinary member. He was so keen on serving the interests of overseas Chinese that he was selected as a director of the Association and later promoted to be a permanent director .With a long history, the Dutch Chinese Association is the largest among all the Chinese communities in the country. It was the Association that published the first Chinese newspaper “Communications for Overseas Chinese”. After the 2nd issue of the newspaper , he was entrusted with the responsibility of supervising its operation. He had spent a lot of time and efforts on the paper. Under his management, the newspaper played an important role in promoting solidarity among local overseas Chinese communities.
In may, 1980, with overwhelming majority support, Hu Zhiguang was elected the 5th president of the Dutch Chinese Association. Ever since then , he has been reelected for several times. During his terms, he has contributed a lot to the development of the Association. From his own 3 children and the 2nd and 3rd generations of overseas Chinese, Hu Zhiguang found that those Chinese descendents who enjoy good education , have little knowledge of their motherland. If it kept going in this way, those Chinese descendents would be emotionally kept farther away from the land where their predecessor were born. In order to prevent this , from 1981, he joined other Chinese community leader in making efforts to set up a Chinese school in Utrecht in Sept. 1981. Later they set up Chinese schools in Hague and Haling. Under their support and encouragement, there appeared a enthusiasm of learning Chinese among young Chinese youth in the Netherlands. By 1998, there were 37 Chinese schools in the Netherlands including 17 set up by the Dutch Chinese Association with more than 2400 students .
Hu Zhiguang expects little profit from working for overseas Chinese
communities. Instead , he carries out the work in a practical way. For example, when the community is going to call for a meeting, he would phone every member in person. When the community needs to recruit funds, he would drive his own car to all the members’restaurants. When the Chinese schools open school, he would be busy preparing new textbooks. When the schools holds graduation ceremony, he would engage himself in getting awards and certificates. When there is a sports meeting, he would engage himself in preparing trifles such as sports clothing, and shoes……for all these years, no one can tell how much time, efforts and money Hu Zhiguang has spent on his working for overseas Chinese communities. And no one can tell how many overseas Chinese who has received his help when they were in trouble. Even when there is disputes among Overseas Chinese communities, they would first ask him to reconcile …… He treats him alike, whether they are rich or poor , they are senior officials or ordinary people. He is amiable and
trusted by fellow Chinese compatriots.
Since 1980s, overseas Chinese to the Netherlands from mainland China, Hongkong, Taiwan, Indonesia, Singapore, Viet Nam, and Malaysia have reached tens of thousands. With more and more overseas Chinese arriving at the country, there appeared more and more Chinese communities based on locality, profession and religious believes. As chairman of the Algemene Chinese Vereniging Nederland (ACVN) the most influential Chinese community in the Netherlands, Hu Zhiguang keeps on helping other minor Chinese communities. And the ACVN journal , Communications for Overseas Chinese, has been providing free service for various overseas Chinese communities. In his daily work, he attaches great importance to communications among ACVN and other Chinese communities and among their leaders. With his selfless devotions and efforts, the friendship and cooperation among overseas Chinese communities in the Netherlands were greatly promoted. Even those overseas Chinese who differ with him in politics agree that, apart from their differences in political opinions or religious believes, they think Hu Zhiguang is a Chinese community leader with great appetency, they respect him and would like to make friends with people like him.
In early 1980s, in order to add colors to the life of overseas Chinese in their spare time, ACVN held its first sports meeting. It was followed by sports meetings sponsored by various other overseas Chinese communities, which cost much money and efforts and increased friction among various groups. In light of this, Hu Zhiguang began to think :“Why not unite all the Dutch Chinese via commonly-attended sports meetings, since there is no difference in politics, religions and locality. In this way , we can improve the friendship and communications among various overseas Chinese communities.”So he began to consult with other Chinese community leaders and put forward the initiative of jointly holding an overseas Chinese sports meeting. His efforts was not in vain. The year of 1984 saw the first sports meeting for all Dutch Chinese, in which Chinese offspring speaking different accents such as Guangdong dialect, Wenzhou dialect, mandarin Chinese, Dutch , Indonesian, and Malay , had the opportunity to gather on the sports field for the first time. And under his initiative , the Dutch Chinese Sports Union (DCSU) was established in 1986. In 1994, the First World Sports Meeting for Overseas Chinese was held in Amsterdam , with more than 1000 participants. In honor of his contribution , DCSU awarded him “ Permanent Chairman”, its highest honorable title.
In order to unite all the Dutch Chinese and let them speak in one voice to the outside so as to better protect their rights, after he was reelected the 7th president of the Dutch Chinese Association in 1988, Hu Zhiguang , with joint efforts of other overseas Chinese community leaders , established the “De Stichting Landelijke Federatie Van Chinese Organisaties in Nederland” (Stichting LFCON) in order to unite all the overseas Chinese communities in the Netherlands, Until now , he is still the honorable chairman of Stichting LFCON.
Following that, Hu Zhiguang’s visions went beyond the Netherlands to the whole of Europe. He began to think about how to unite all European Chinese and better protect their rights. He has traveled around Europe to meet Chinese community leaders in other countries or talk to them through hundreds of international calls to discuss about the matter. Under his unremitting efforts, his idea was accepted by the majority of overseas Chinese. The Federation of Overseas Chinese in Europe, the largest organization for overseas Chinese in Europe came into being in Amsterdam in the spring of 1991. Because of his great contributions, people originally recommended Hu Zhiguang as president of the Federation. But he refused the post and offered to work as its permanent member only. When asked why, he answered：“I am already satisfied to see the establishment of Federation of Overseas Chinese in Europe. Its chairman should be good at foreign languages and public relations. I think it would be better if I do a more practical job.” Yet in Dec. 1996, he was elected unanimously by Chinese community leaders in Europe as the 5th chairman of the Federation.
Hu Zhiguang has been away from China for more than 30 years, but he still holds a Chinese passport . this is rare for an overseas Chinese community leader. Even the passport brought him some inconvenience during his travel across Europe, but Hu Zhiguang never has any regret on that , he is always very proud of being a Chinese.
In 1971, Hu Zhiguang returned to his motherland for the first time from the Netherlands. He was not very rich then, but , on sight of those fellow townees in remote villiages who were using candles at night, he at once offered to set up an electricity line for the villiagers. In 1973, he and overseas Chinese in the Netherlands and Italy donated to set up the first cinema in Yu Hu County, his hometown. In 1975, when he learned that people in his hometown were suffering difficulties in finding a job, he set up a moulding plant, and employed more that 40 villagers. Later Hu Zhiguang has kept making contributions to the development of his hometown. It is his strong desire that the hometown would take on a new look and local people could live a happy life.
As a patriotic overseas Chinese community leader, Hu Zhiguang has been caring about his motherland’s development. For years, he has been making unremitting efforts to promote economic , scientific & technical as well as cultural exchanges between China and the Netherlands.
In 1985, he established “Yuhu International Trade Import & Export Co. ltd. ” and set up an office in China. The company was to help Chinese products enter the European market. In 1992, he joined other overseas Chinese businessmen in investing on a new company, Dutch Chinese Holdings ltd, which placed its main investement in China. Later , he invited Dutch agricultural experts to visit China. And in 1994, In order to introduce advanced agricultural technology and equipment into China, he established the Dutch China Agriculture Equipment and Technology Co,ltd.(HCU) in cooperation with 9 Dutch companies specialized in production of greenhouse , greenhouse automation system , vegetable seeds and corm seeds. HCU’s main aim is to introduce advanced Dutch greenhouse technology to China. As president of HCU, Hu Zhiguang has contributed a lot to the agricultural exchange between China and the Netherlands. Even though the business did not start smoothly, Hu Zhiguang mentioned, “so long as it could fasten the modernization process of China’s agriculture, and be helpful to China’s Food Basket Project, I would feel very happy that I did it, even though my company might not make much profits. ” later, he set up Dutch China Chamber of Commerce (DCCC), which contributed a lot to improving Sino-Dutch trade ties.
In 1993, as a special representative of overseas Chinese, Hu Zhiguang became a member of Zhe Jiang Provincial People’s Political Consultative Conference (PPPCC). The new post requires him to return to motherland to attend conferences and carry out his duty of political consultation, democratic monitoring of government affairs. Each year, he spends a lot of time collecting suggestions from overseas Chinese on motherland’s development, and writing proposals to be discussed at the conference. Some friends had tried to persuade him not to be too serious about the conference. They said that he had already done well enough by leaving his business and returning to China to attend the conference every year. But he answered :“That is not enough. Since Zhe Jiang Provincial People’s Political Consultative Conference has invited me to be one of its representatives, I must live up to its expectations and fulfil my duty. I would not regard the post as an honorable title. Maybe it’s true that the words of a person at low position do not matter and I might not be in a position to influence the domestic situation, but no one should forget his motherland. Even though I live abroad, but I still care much about what happens in China, because I am a Chinese. ”
At the 2nd session of the 7th conference of the Zhe Jiang PPPCC, one of Hu Zhiguang’s remarks reflected his earnest patriotism :“I am a Chinese from the bottom of my heart. No matter how the situation changes, and no matter how difficult it might be , my heart will always beat along with that of my motherland. ”
(news from website of China Unified Front Work Department :
http://www.zytzb.org.cn/zytzbwz/hkmatai/renwu/80200212230264.htm )
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