Dai Anlan

Dai was born in 1904 into a family of farmers in Wuwei County, Anhui, Qing China. His birth name was Dai Yangong (), and was later given the name Dai Bingyang () in school. An excellent student, he was accepted by the Anhui Public School run by Tao Xingzhi. In 1924, Dai went to Guangzhou (Canton) after learning about the establishment of the Whampoa Military Academy. He was accepted by the academy later that year, and changed his name to "Anlan", which means "calming the waves". After graduating from Whampoa in early 1926, Dai was appointed a platoon commander in the National Revolutionary Army. He participated in the Northern Expedition and fought against the Japanese army during the Jinan incident. == Second Sino-Japanese War and Burma Campaign ==

Following the Mukden Incident in 1931, the Empire of Japan occupied Northeast China and persistently encroached upon North China. In March 1933, Dai, by then a regiment commander, fought the Japanese army at the Gubeikou Great Wall, where his poorly trained peasant force suffered significant losses against the well equipped Japanese. The British requested assistance from China, and the Kuomintang government sent 100,000 troops to fight in the Burma Campaign. Retreat and death The 200th division retreated north across the Sittaung River and linked up with the 22nd Division. They blocked Japanese advance up the Sittaung However, as the Chinese and British forces both suffered heavy losses, the Kuomintang government ordered the Expeditionary Force to withdraw from Burma. While on their way home, the 200th Division was ambushed by the Japanese. They broke out of the siege, but Dai was wounded on 18 May in the battle, while two of his regiment commanders were killed. Eight days later, Dai Anlan died at Mogaung in northern Burma. == Memorials and honours ==

When the 200th Division returned to China, Dai's coffin was greeted by tens of thousands of mourners. In July 1942, he was given a state burial in Quanzhou, Guangxi, the home base of his division. and posthumously promoted his rank from major general to lieutenant general. In 1944, when the Japanese launched the Operation Ichi-Go and attacked Guangxi, Dai's coffin was temporarily moved to Guiyang for protection. After the end of World War II, a permanent tomb was built for him on the scenic in Wuhu, overlooking his hometown. When his coffin was reburied in 1947, the funeral procession was long. In 1945, US President Harry S. Truman and Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson signed a certificate for the award. The medal and certificate were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. In 2013, Dai's children, together with other descendants of the soldiers of the 200th Division, built a Buddhist pagoda in Mogaung to commemorate Dai Anlan and other soldiers who died in the Burma Campaign. '' is a poem in the Chinese classic poem collection Shi'' that speaks of a soldier departing his family to engage in warfare against barbarians. == Family ==

After Dai's death, his wife Wang Hexin () donated the entire death benefit of Fabi $200,000 she received from the Kuomintang government to build the Anlan Memorial School in Quanzhou, Guangxi. When the Kuomintang lost the Chinese Civil War in 1949, Wang and her children were offered the chance to retreat to Taiwan with the government. However, she chose to stay in mainland China to be near her husband's tomb. Dai and his wife had three sons and a daughter: Dai Fudong, Dai Fanli (), Dai Jingdong (), and Dai Chengdong (). Fudong became a distinguished architect who was elected an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering; Fanli, the only daughter, enlisted in the People's Volunteer Army during the Korean War; Jingdong was a professor of the Nanjing Institute of Technology, and Chengdong was a senior hydraulic engineer in Jiangsu province. == References ==