Zeng Moushui discusses his family’s encounters with hostile Kuomintang forces circa 1949.
Born into a fishing family at Xiamen Port, Zeng Moushui shares how he was once captured by Kuomintang (KMT) forces while guarding his family’s fishing boat alone. At the time, KMT vessels barricaded the waters around Xiamen Port to ensure safe passage for themselves as they fled to Taiwan; and would force some civilian vessels to follow them. To avoid this fate, Zeng’s family went into hiding, and later like many of their peers, destroyed and sank their own fishing boat in an act of resistance. He explains that this was not an easy decision, as destroying the boat also destroyed their source of income. However, boat-dwelling communities were rehabilitated under the new government after the Chinese Civil War
Name of interviewee：曾谋水
Interview by：陈秀芹、周伊萍
Proofreader：陈永明、陈乙燊
Summary (English)：At the end of the Liberation War, the defeated KMT prepared to flee to Taiwan. As a result, the KMT blocked the waters near Xiamen Harbor, preventing fishermen from going fishing in the sea, and forcing them to carry the KMT soldiers to Taiwan. The respondent was taken away by the KMT army at that time. Most of fishermen did not want to go to Taiwan. Some fishermen fled. Others had to destroy their fishing boats on which they depended for survival and sunk the boats into the sea. After the founding of Socialist China, the life of the fishermen gradually improved due to the increasing needs of the CPC in the Cold War and the Communist Collectivization Period.
解放战争末期，溃败的国民党准备逃亡台湾。为此，国民党将厦门港附近的水面封锁，不让渔民出海捕鱼，而强迫渔民载着他们到台湾，受访者就曾被国民党军队抓走。许多渔民不想去台湾，有的人就逃走，还有的人只好将渔民赖以生存的渔船破坏掉再沉入海底。新中国成立后，渔民的生活才逐渐改善。
Keywords：国民党；解放战争；台湾；渔民；新中国；疍民
Biographical info：曾某水，男，1930年出生，出生后不就就卖给厦门港疍民曾连水为儿。十岁左右在日本人开办的“万全小学”读了三年书，后随父亲出海捕鱼。抗战胜利后，跟随父亲在往来于厦门-台湾的商船干杂活。新中国成立以后，在厦门港捕鱼。后从厦门二轻局退休。
Geographical info：大学轮配料馆曾丽英家、厦门港南大埕曾宝珠家
Time period：2014年1月、2月
Source：厦门市社会科学界联合会：《口述史：厦门港记忆》，厦门：鹭江出版社，2014年。
如何避免去台湾
我有一次被国民党兵抓去，那是发生在解放战争时期，国民党要逃到台湾去，就把厦门港周围的水面封锁起来，不让船出海捕鱼，而且命令渔民载他们渡海到台湾。我们不想跟他们去，不让他们利用我们的船逃走。那时候家人留我看船，不让国民党把船拉走。家人都躲起来了，就我一个人守着船，所以我就被抓走了。
后来家人把我们家那艘渔船沉到海里去了。很多渔家都这样，不愿意去台湾，就把船打破一个洞，沉入海里。等到捞上来的时候，船都生锈了、破了、坏了，最后只能拆零部件卖，渔民损失很大啊！当然也有一些船被强迫去了台湾。那时候很多惠安人都逃走了，但我们是船主，船就是家产，如果跟了国民党去，船就没了，没了谋生的工具；不跟国民党去，把船沉到海里，也是坏了，也是没有了。但是许多渔家还是狠狠心，选择把自己一家赖以生存的船沉到海里！一个家当就这样没了，作为渔家疍民，我们是很没保障的，很无奈的！好在新中国成立后，政府给了渔家疍民新的生活。
Interviewer: Chen Yongming
Interviewee: Zeng Moushui
Transcript Notes
Biographical info: Zeng Moushui, male, born in 1930, was sold to the boat-dweller Zeng Lianshui in Xiamen Port as a child not long after his birth. At the age of ten, he studied at the "Wanquan Primary School" run by the Japanese for three years, and then went fishing at sea with his father. After the victory of the war, he followed his father to do odd jobs in the merchant ships that traveled between Xiamen and Taiwan. After the founding of New China, he fished in Xiamen port. After that, he retired from the Xiamen Second Light Bureau. @Syahrul paste into metadata
What does the boat-dwelling communities’ willingness to destroy their boats to avoid following the Kuomintang to Taiwan suggest about the nature of the Cold War in the region?