In Alias Chin Peng: My Side of History, there is a fellow communist called Ah Hai who appears to be not only a down-to-earth field commander of the guerrilla forces of the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) during the 'Emergency', but also an older and wiser counsellor who offered more mature opinions of strategies or tactics to his younger and more hot-headed comrades. Ah Hai is also known as Ah Chen.
The real name of Ah Hai or Ah Cheng is Shan Ruhong and his autobiograhy, originally written and published in Chinese a few years ago, is now made available in English as Gold in the South ... the Story of an Immigrant (Kuala Lumpur, Penerbitan Abad 21, 2007) by veteran Penang lawyer as well as one of the surviving leaders and intellectuals of the Malayan Democratic Union (MDU), Lim Kean Chye.
Shan Ruhong, 88, is still alive in a Peace Village in southern Thailand.
Shan's autobiography is rendered even more valuable as a first-hand account of the alternative history of Malaya (including Singapore) by its written memories and some biographical notes of five martyrs of the anti-colonial and anti-fascist struggles who were Shan's mentors or peers in the communist underground, namely Huang Bo Sui @ Lin Jiang Shi, Li Liang @ Bai Yi, Hu Tian Bao @ Chen Lu, Shen Yuan Xiu @ Ke Fu, Li Jing Ming @ Ah Xue and Zhong Ying Hong @ Zhong Ai Ke.#
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