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Planting plum trees at Wang Jingwei’s tomb
RNG foreign minister Chu Minyi oversees the planting of young plum trees on Meihuashan (Plum Blossom Mount) in Nanjing, in the vicinity of Wang Jingwei’s tomb. The plum was (and remains) the national flower of the Republic of China, and the area around Wang Jingwei’s tomb was planted with plums as an act of patriotism after his death in late 1944. Very few photographs of Wang’s tomb survive.
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RNG leaders on steps of Government Headquarters, November 1940
Flanked by civilian and military staff, Wang Jingwei, Zang Shiyi (the Manchukuo ambassador to the RNG) and Chu Minyi (RNG foreign minister) pose for photographs in front of the ceremonial hall (litang) in the national government compound in Nanjing after the signing of the Japan-Manchukuo-China Joint Declaration on 30 November 1940, through which RNG China recognised Manchukuo.
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Chu Minyi in his office
In this staged photograph, the RNG foreign minister Chu Minyi is pictured reading a magazine in his office, with a photographic portrait of Wang Jingwei on the wall behind his desk, and Buddhist objets d’art in a cabinet behind him.
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Chu Minyi with film camera
The RNG foreign minister Chu Minyi tries his hand at filmmaking in this undated photograph. Next to him is (possibly) Chen Guoqi (a photographer for the RNG’s Central News Agency). The RNG Minister of Publicity, Mr Lin Baisheng, is on the far left of the image. This image was taken as Chu Minyi filmed a Cabinet meeting convened by Wang Jingwei in the summer of 1940. Newsreel footage of the event can be found here.
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Subhas Chandra Bose in Nanjing, November 1943
Lin Baisheng, RNG publicity minister (second from right) and Chu Minyi (second from left) accompany a uniformed Subhas Chandra Bose (far left) (leader of the Indian National Army) during his visit to Nanjing in November 1943. Both Wang Jingwei and Bose had attended the Greater East Asia Conference in Tokyo in the same month, and Bose’s visit to Nanjing was celebrated by an administration which had few opportunities to welcome prominent international leaders to its capital.