Nanyang 1931: From piglets to giants

Chapter 273: The Sewer of the SAARC Economy, Osaka’s Core Industry
In the middle of 1947, Japan was untied, three years earlier than in history. Within just half a month, the whole of Japan erupted in tremendous energy, and even the Southern Association for Regional Cooperation became extremely lively.

The population is there. If we don't count India, the population of the SAARC, not to mention its directly affiliated cities, and even its major affiliated forces combined, is not as large as that of Japan. If we take into account the quality of the population, the difference is even greater.

A larger population means a larger market and more industrial labor. Zheng Yi's previous large-scale relocation, after all, only moved the relatively essential parts of Japanese society, and it was impossible to move all of its industrial foundation.

At least the streets, infrastructure, some small and medium-sized power plants, water plants, etc. of several major cities remain locally. Penang and the Philippines both use coal to generate electricity, and these foundations alone, combined with their workers with extremely high basic qualities, actually surpass most parts of the world.

Objectively speaking, most European countries do not have the same high national quality and industrial base as Japan. After losing their colonies, Britain and France are not necessarily much stronger than Japan in terms of local industrial capabilities.

What's more, Japan has a huge advantage that most industrially developed countries do not have.

"Crack~"

"Ah~"

In a small room illuminated by colorful lights, a woman in scantily clad clothes was tied to a chair, allowing herself to be whipped, while sweating profusely and screaming miserably.

On the side, a sleazy photographer holding a camera was yelling at the woman and taking pictures passionately.

Suddenly, the door was opened from the outside, which greatly destroyed the ambiguous atmosphere in the room. The photographer couldn't help but get furious and turned around to curse, but after seeing who was coming, he immediately stopped and even showed a flattering look.

"Master Zhao? Why are you here? Please take a seat. I have... I'll get you a bottle of orange juice."

But Zhao Chunwang, who walked in, glared at him fiercely with a bad look on his face, and then, with an embarrassed look on his face, respectfully invited Zheng Yi behind him to come in.

"Mr. Zheng?"

The "photographer" couldn't help but be stunned and completely numb for a moment. Of course he had seen Zheng Yi's photos, but he never thought that he would have the chance to meet Mr. Zheng in this life.

Zheng Yi glanced at them indifferently without saying much. He just looked around at the layout and asked, "Is this a magazine shoot or a film shoot?"

"Magazine, shooting for a magazine, hehehe"

These people are naturally all practitioners in the film industry, which is also a characteristic industry that is currently developing very rapidly in Japan.

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) attached great importance to the entertainment industry, including movies, comics, and magazines. Because Kodak's branch was in Penang and there were a large number of journalists during the war, the talent pool in this industry was very sufficient.

Since Li Lili took over, Western opera, drama, traditional folk art, and vernacular have all developed very well, especially Cantonese opera, with theaters opening everywhere.

Movies are of course very important. Recently, Penang has produced quite a few good movies, which Zheng Yi still likes to watch. However, most of them are romantic movies that describe the "love between young people in troubled times", and some heroic movies similar to biographies, which do not have any big scenes.

And despite the booming development, most movies are still not profitable. It's still too early, and it's too immature both internally and externally.

To put it bluntly, the market is too small and the investment is a little bigger. This movie is just a promotional film and needs financial subsidies from the SAARC government.

Although the Southern Alliance is rich, it is actually quite tense. In order to save money, Qian Qiwen even dares to confront Zheng Yi. Sometimes when he spends too much, that woman will even get angry and scold him.

She was already unhappy with Li Lili, and it would be harder than climbing to the sky for Li Lili to deduct money from Qian Qiwen.

What kind of film requires little investment, has people watching it, and can recoup the cost?

Ok……

As the saying goes, human nature is universal.

Cinemas of this era were generally smaller in size, some similar to video halls.

As for magazines and books.

In this era, most Chinese people are still illiterate. Even among Japanese immigrants, not many are interested in knowledge-based reading materials. After all, everyone is overloaded with work, and busy people rarely have the time to read.

Zheng Yi has strict management over the cities in SAARC, at least the management over several cities with a majority Chinese population is very strict. Among Chinese women, there should only be secret prostitutes and no open prostitutes, and even secret prostitutes are very rare.

After all, the Japanese girls in Malaya are all very pretty, and there are also quite a few Thai, Kinh, and even European girls. Chinese girls are generally not too direct, at most they are green tea bitches or welfare girls.

Then naturally, a large number of SAARC "photographers" came to Japan to start businesses, making movies or photos, and the industry in Japan also involved Americans, and the magazine was published simultaneously in the United States.

Fun fact: Even in Europe, it wasn’t until the 60s that similar reading materials were allowed.

However, those countries that have not completed industrialization and modernization do not have the soil for this and do not even have a basic business environment.

Isn't that just Japan?

Similar things originally began to emerge in Western society, and the Japanese actually began to decline only after the 7s and 80s.

It's just that in the 4s and 50s, this country did have a special experience of nationwide prostitution. Don't laugh at me, there are very few men who have never been cuckolded.

This is why the speed of their development has become particularly fast when they accept this industry. However, because they are still influenced by traditional Confucianism in their thinking, and because everyone was selling Y at one time, there is a contradiction in their social culture and women's thinking that is both conservative and open.

This is the so-called "Asian style"

This is actually a unique social culture that no other Asian country can compare to Japan.

But in this era, the time is obviously much earlier.

"How's business? Are you making a lot of money?"

After Zheng Yi came in, he did not show any disgust or dissatisfaction towards their filming scene, and even glanced at the actress intentionally or unintentionally.

Very beautiful, good quality.

Seeing a magazine of their own on the table, Zheng Yi picked it up and looked at it for a while. He saw that in addition to Japanese women, there were also obvious foreign horses on the magazine. He hadn't seen such things for a long time, and he couldn't help but look at it for a few more minutes.

Although the colors are not particularly rich, fortunately it is not black and white after all. The technological collision between SANS and Kodak has made color cameras much more mature earlier than in history. I am almost forty years old and have not seen it for a long time, but I still feel excited.

In fact, Zheng Yi is also a pervert at heart, but his current status is too high. Compared with that little desire, he values ​​his face more and cannot afford to lose face.

What man wouldn't dream of a life of luxury, a harem of three thousand concubines, and a life reminiscent of a talent show? These aren't difficult for Zheng Yi right now, so how could he not have imagined them?
They just restrained themselves.

This kind of magazine has been sold in Penang for a long time, but he has always been reluctant to read it. Now he takes the opportunity to take a peek.

On the surface, he pretended to be calm and said, "There aren't enough foreign girls here. Actually, if we were to make a magazine, we could split it into two parts: the European and American version and the Asian version. We could definitely increase the advertisements."

"Oh, by the way, in Europe, I received news that the Marshall Aid will only be available within a month or two. While they're still suffering from the famine, those who can dig should do their best. If you go to Europe now, you can get good quality digs. In a few months, there will be nothing left."

Seeing this, the photographer couldn't help but ask boldly, "Do you... support us doing this... thing?"

Zheng Yi: "Yes, of course. Why not? But there's no need to be secretive about this industry. If we're going to do it, we should make it as big and strong as possible and create new glories. What's the point of doing it in a small way?"

The photographer looked confused and couldn't help but turn his head to glance at Zhao Chunshu.

Zhao Chunshu kicked him and said, "Why are you looking at me? Hurry up and thank Mr. Zheng."

"Thank you, Mr. Zheng, thank you, Mr. Zheng. Um...but how can we expand and strengthen...this business?"

Although this business is quite profitable, and to some extent, it can even be called extremely profitable.

But this is not something that can be put on the table. Besides, who is Mr. Zheng? The industries he is interested in are all worth tens of billions. Does this industry... have the potential to be worth tens of billions?
Zheng Yi said, "Osaka is about to become a Japanese special zone within our SAARC. I've been thinking about it for a while now. Besides OEM processing, what other businesses can we do here to differentiate it from other places in Japan?"

"I've already untied the entirety of Japan. Japan is different from other countries. Its population is of high quality. In places like Siam and Malaysia, it was actually the SAARC that led them in industrialization. To put it bluntly, it was the high leading the low."

"Japan is different. Once this place starts developing its industry, even the most elite members of society have been moved to Singapore. Its potential is too great, and the population is huge. If there is too much outsourcing, it will definitely harm the owner."

Zhao Chunshu: "Master Devourer? You're even rebelling against them! Whoever dares to devour the Master, I'll kill him." Zheng Yi smiled and said, "Actually, I'm not afraid of Master Devourer. It's normal for a long-term OEM to want product upgrades. Since I've accepted the OEM contract from the Japanese, I'm prepared for this and am not afraid of them upgrading their products."

"After all, how big is the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC)? How many Chinese are there in Southeast Asia? We can't possibly eat every industry. If there's meat to eat, there must be people to drink the soup. The Japanese can be assimilated. Moreover, given the average education level and cultural habits of the Malays, even if I feed this soup to them, they may not be able to drink it."

"We are not afraid of product upgrades, but the upgrades must be layered. In the future, Osaka will try to use Chinese as much as possible for teaching, and will also ask young people to communicate in Japanese as little as possible in their daily lives."

"This is also what General Long and I have discussed. It's a policy we'll implement in Osaka. I'm still confident in containing Japan. After all, the essence of their entire nation is now in Singapore, and we still have troops stationed in Japan. Marshal Mai and I have only lifted the ban on their international trade, not their defense industry."

As long as I am here, Japan will never have a military industry. It will never have a military industry. At most, I can let them develop a police force or something like that.

In this regard, because of the establishment of Singapore, SAARC's control over Japan must be far stricter than that of the United States in history.

"But I'm worried that since I've ceded Osaka for development, it must be differentiated from other parts of Japan. From what I know about the Japanese people, they're inherently resilient. After all, their civilization, fostered by Confucianism, is incomparable to those barbarians of Europe and America."

"No matter how respectful and submissive they appear to us, never underestimate their deep-seated desire for independence. They will do everything they can to develop Tokyo. Once Tokyo surpasses Osaka in development, or even approaches its prosperity, there will undoubtedly be voices in Japan demanding we get out."

I'm not afraid, but it will be very troublesome.

Zheng Yi has always believed that in the process of economic development, you can cheat, deceive, kidnap, defraud and fool the people, even the Japanese people, but you must never force them.

You can’t force a good economy.

No one wants to be the ruler of a garbage mountain.

"To put it bluntly, I hope that one day, young people in Osaka generally don't speak Japanese, or even can't speak Japanese at all. To achieve this, Osaka people must have a sense of superiority when interacting with Tokyo people."

"Osaka will certainly be given priority in SAARC's business, but as I said before, Tokyo's future development cannot be underestimated. I personally respect the Japanese as a people who have inherited the Confucian civilization for thousands of years. Love and hate aside, I never underestimate their abilities."

"So, Osaka must have policies that are somewhat different from Tokyo's. Whether it's oppression or exploitation, even if it means mocking poverty rather than prostitution, we must become rich. The Japanese in Osaka don't speak Japanese, they speak Chinese. In the eyes of many Japanese, this already makes them prostitutes. If they become prostitutes and still earn less than decent women, how can they feel comfortable with that?"

"So, in my opinion, Osaka's future core development should focus on three areas: first, transshipment and import and export; second, supporting and manufacturing for Singapore, which are areas with greater value than Tokyo; and third, Japan's entertainment industry."

"It can't even be called Japan's entertainment industry, but the entertainment industry of our entire SAARC. I plan to put the entertainment industry in Osaka, Japan."

Zhao Chunwang couldn't help but ask, "All about entertainment? But sir, shouldn't the entertainment department be a Penang industry?"

Zheng Yi smiled and said, "Both are necessary, but in different areas. I personally believe that it is difficult, if not impossible, for cultural and entertainment products to be both politically and commercially relevant."

"Penang's entertainment is about politics and elegance. It represents the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), no, it represents the image of all Nanyang Chinese. It is to be exported. What kind of image of Chinese people do we want to export to the world? Bloody, violent, erotic?
To put it bluntly, it's not about making money. I can even lose money in Penang's film production, newspaper publishing, and entertainment industry development. In short, Penang's entertainment industry must be upright. Singers and actors must be dignified, actors and actresses must be artists, and writers of novels and editorials must be profound and, at the very least, not vulgar.

"Leave the elegant things to Penang, and the vulgar things to Osaka. Osaka allows for a bit of wildness. Honestly, vulgar things are what have the vitality. I also know that Japanese women are relatively shameless, which is actually an advantage in the entertainment industry."

"Japan has a law prohibiting women from engaging in prostitution, though it's largely ineffective. It's to cooperate with the United States. It was the rampant prostitution of American soldiers in Japan that forced the families of American troops stationed in the United States to protest, forcing the Japanese government to repeal the law."

"This is actually our opportunity. Osaka is self-governing. The Japanese government has no control over Osaka, and the US government has even less control over Osaka."

"I have two suggestions for you."

"Mr. Zheng, please speak."

"First, we need to scale up the industry. Small-scale operations won't be enough. We can get dozens or even hundreds of film and television companies to work together. Xiao Zhao, you just need to manage it. Can we let them compete with each other?"

"Recently, in Penang, I've been collaborating with Kodak to develop something called a home videotape. The projector itself is quite simple. In the next year or two, this will definitely become a trend. As far as I know, the spread of television is very fast, and it will only get faster in the future."

"We need to expand the magazine's circulation, make it bolder, and include more advertising. As far as I know, Americans really like this kind of thing, and I'm sure Europeans will like it too. So, we should do it. Regarding distribution, I'll try to get both the US and Europe to pass relevant legislation to help."

"Secondly, it needs to be formalized. There is no freedom of publication in Japan. As far as I know, any cultural product released in the Japanese market needs to be strictly reviewed by the Allied Command. It is in a state of cultural castration."

"For 60 million Japanese, they can only read American culture. The most popular comic book on the market is 'American Girl.' Is that crap really good and in line with our Asian aesthetics and values?"

"In all of Japan, the entertainment industry can't be developed anywhere else, but here in Osaka, it can. Naturally, we have to take the path of formalization. To put it bluntly, we have to film both naked and clothed things."

"Right now, the entertainment industry's market environment is not good, but I'm saying that in fifteen to twenty years at most, the global entertainment industry will explode and flourish."

"I plan to use a larger plot of land in Osaka to build a film studio dedicated to producing serious films. I'll start with romance and erotic films as a prelude, and then I'll also shoot some serious commercial films."

"At this time, we can cooperate with Penang. We can find Penang actors to play decent characters who don't take off their clothes and are not vulgar. If they pass the review of the Penang Cultural Department, they can be released throughout the South Asia Association."

"Of course, if it doesn't pass the censorship, at least it can be released nationwide in Japan, and even exported to Europe and the United States."

"In addition to these three pillar industries, tourism, leisure, and the service industry can completely become Osaka's fourth industry. This time I come to Japan, I will bring a large number of Japanese foreign workers, hundreds of thousands of them, to work abroad. In addition to the Saudi pipeline, they will probably take other jobs later. I can't keep not paying them."

"These people earn their money through hard work, but they definitely earn more than local Japanese people. They only return to Japan once or twice a year and most likely settle in Osaka. What do you think they do? They definitely want to have fun."

"The Middle East has nothing but oil and sand. Women are hard to find, and it's a Muslim-only place."

"Although everyone in Japan sells it now, it's still not legally allowed. People sell it covertly and there's no tricks involved."

"Nightclubs, saunas, hot springs, everything we need should be built in Osaka first. If you don't have the money, we can give you a loan. I even think it's not impossible to open a casino, as long as it's legal and has a gambling license."

To put it bluntly, Japan.

Even if Osaka is incorporated into the Southern Alliance and some not-so-good things happen here, Zheng Yi will not have any psychological burden.

Most people in SAARC don't have any psychological burden.

The Japanese in this era deserve whatever suffering they endure.

Any harm is fine.

So if Zheng Yi really wanted to locate Osaka, it would be the sewer of the Southern Alliance.

Directly under.

But it is impossible for Zheng Yi to give over any good industries.

It is unrealistic to prevent these Japanese from getting rich. If you want a horse to run, you have to feed it grass. Especially since Osaka is directly under the jurisdiction of the government, it is really not possible without economic development.

But Zheng Yi felt unwilling to let them get rich.

If the Japanese lived better than the Chinese in Southeast Asia, or even close to their living standards, Zheng Yi would feel very uncomfortable.

Think about it.

Or this industry is more suitable for them.

And to be honest, can Chinese people also come here to travel?

Although Alor Setar is a tourist destination in Penang, it is mainly because of its proximity. Although the scenery there is beautiful, the Malays are Malays after all and have religious beliefs, so they are unlikely to overdo it.

The Japanese are different.

Although they are also one of us.

but……

For many Chinese people, some things, in addition to providing physical comfort, also satisfy their spiritual needs.

　Sorry, it's late. It's almost the New Year and I have a lot of personal matters to attend to. Please forgive me.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)