Book review on the Chinese volunteers in the Spanish Civil War
The Asian Review of Books just published a review article by Juan José Morales on the book Los Brigadistas Chinos en la Guerra Civil: La Llamada de España (1936-1939).
“Glimpses into the lives of some of these [Chinese] volunteers give us insights as to who they were. Chen Wenrao, from Taishan, Guangdong, known for his fine calligraphy, had worked as a waiter in New York’s Chinatown; he was killed in the Battle of Gandesa in 1938. Zhang Ji, from Changsha, Hunan, studied in Berkeley and finished his mining engineering degree in Minnesota, having performed odd jobs in-between; all traces of him were lost in Hong Kong under Japanese occupation in the 1940s. Bi Daowen (Tio Oen Bik), Indonesian-Chinese, studied medicine in Amsterdam; he went to China but eventually returned to Indonesia, where he died in obscurity. Xie Weijin, from Sichuan, who left Shanghai to France in 1919 and studied in several European cities; he was a cadre in the CCP, purged in the 1960s and 
rehabilitated years after his death. He is buried in the Babaoshan revolutionary cemetery. Zhang Ruishu and Liu Jingtian, both from Shandong, were workers in the Renault factory outside Paris and members of the French communist party; they were in their forties when they went to war in Spain.”
Read more here.
I have to read this book. Xie Weijin is my grand uncle.