Xiang Jingyu (, – , ''née'' Xiang Junxian), was one of the earliest female members of the

Chinese Communist Party The Communist Party of China (CPC), also translated into English as Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Founded in 1921, the CCP emerged victorious in the ...

(CCP), widely regarded as a pioneer of the women's movement of China. Xiang sought to unite the various women's movements in China around women workers and principles of anti-imperialism. She worked to support labor strikes including those which were part of the

May Thirtieth Movement The May Thirtieth Movement () was a major labor and anti-imperialist movement during the middle-period of the Republic of China era. It began when the Shanghai Municipal Police opened fire on Chinese protesters in Shanghai's International Set ...

. In 1928, the Kuomintang (KMT) arrested and executed her.

Early life

Xiang Jingyu was born in Xupu,

Hunan Hunan is an inland Provinces of China, province in Central China. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the Administrative divisions of China, province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to the east, Gu ...

province on 4 September 1895. Her father was Xiang Ruiling, may have been of the Tujia ethnicity, a successful businessman, and her mother was Deng Yugui, who died when Xiang Jingyu was young. She had ten siblings. Xiang Jingyu's one brother, Xiang Xianyue, who had studied in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, was a leader of

Tongmenghui The Tongmenghui of China was a secret society and underground resistance movement founded by Sun Yat-sen, Song Jiaoren, and others in Tokyo, Empire of Japan, on 20 August 1905, with the goal of overthrowing China's Qing dynasty. It was formed ...

in West Hunan. Xiang Xianyue founded a primary school in Wenchangge in 1903. Xiang Jingyu (then named Xiang Junxian) attended this school because of the influence of her brother and became the first girl who studied in a school in the imperial era of China. Xiang Jingyu was versed in both classical education and modern education. Xiang Jingyu went to

Changsha Changsha is the capital of Hunan, China. It is the 15th most populous city in China with a population of 10,513,100, the Central China#Cities with urban area over one million in population, third-most populous city in Central China, and the ...

after the downfall of

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

with the

1911 Revolution The 1911 Revolution, also known as the Xinhai Revolution or Hsinhai Revolution, ended China's last imperial dynasty, the Qing dynasty, and led to the establishment of the Republic of China (ROC). The revolution was the culmination of a decade ...

. She renamed herself Xiang Jingyu and attended the First Provincial Women's Normal School of Hunan, but then left this school and attended Zhou Nan Women's School. In this period, Xiang Jingyu was concerned with state affairs. When the humiliating

Twenty-One Demands The Twenty-One Demands (; ) was a set of demands made during the World War I, First World War by the Empire of Japan under Prime Minister of Japan, Prime Minister Ōkuma Shigenobu to the Government of the Chinese Republic, government of the Re ...

was signed, she and other students made speeches in the streets, hoping to wake the patriotic enthusiasm of Chinese people. After graduating from Zhou Nan Women's School, Xiang Jingyu went back to her hometown. She thought that education could rescue China, so she founded Xupu Primary School under the support of some local progressives. As the principal of this school, she employed some progressive youths as teachers. What the difference was compared to most other schools was that her school taught new knowledge and new ideas. At the beginning, there was only one class and dozens of students. However, the numbers of students expanded quickly and reached up to 300. In 1918, a

warlord Warlords are individuals who exercise military, Economy, economic, and Politics, political control over a region, often one State collapse, without a strong central or national government, typically through informal control over Militia, local ...

in Xupu named Zhou Zhelan proposed to marry Xiang and Xiang's father consented to the proposal. Xiang refused, stating that she would "marry the nation and be celibate for life." In 1919, Xiang joined the New Citizen Study Society, which had been founded by

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; traditionally Romanization of Chinese, romanised as Mao Tse-tung. (26December 18939September 1976) was a Chinese politician, revolutionary, and political theorist who founded the People's Republic of China (PRC) in ...

and

Cai Hesen Cai Hesen (March 30, 1895 – August 4, 1931) was an early leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and a friend and comrade of Mao Zedong. Cai was born in Shanghai but grew up in Shuangfeng County in Hunan Province of China. He hel ...

. So Xiang Jingyu went to Beijing, and paid a visit to Mr. Cai Yuanpei, the principle of

Peking University Peking University (PKU) is a Public university, public Types of universities and colleges in China#By designated academic emphasis, university in Haidian, Beijing, China. It is affiliated with and funded by the Ministry of Education of the Peop ...

. In Beijing, Xiang Jingyu met with

and had a good relationship with him. In January 1920, Xiang and Cai went on a work-study to France. While in France, they married. Their marriage became known as the "Xiang Cai Alliance" or the "looking upward alliance" as a model for marriage based on principles of individual freedom and shared revolutionary beliefs. Xiang Jingyu and Cai Hesen

When Xiang Jingyu studied in France, she was concerned with the conditions of the world and China. In France, Xiang studied the works of

Karl Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...

and concluded that a socialist revolution was necessary to save China. In May 1920, she wrote her first essay analyzing women's issues in China from a Marxist viewpoint. The essay, ''A Discussion about Women's Issues and Transformation'', contended that women's liberation could only be accomplished through the emancipation of the

proletariat The proletariat (; ) is the social class of wage-earners, those members of a society whose possession of significant economic value is their labour power (their capacity to work). A member of such a class is a proletarian or a . Marxist ph ...

Revolutionary

In 1921, part-time students were expelled from France due to a petition for rights of study and living. Xiang Jingyu went back to China in the same year. In early 1922, Xiang Jingyu was accepted by

(CCP) and became one of the earliest female party members. At the Party's 2nd National Congress in July 2022, Xiang was appointed to lead the Party's women's movement. Xiang viewed women laborers as the primary force to achieve a revolution for women in China. Xiang led the various women's movements in CCP and had a major impact on Chinese women's movements in the 1920s. Xiang wrote articles for ''Guide Weekly'' and ''Women's Weekly'', two publications which aimed to disseminate communist ideals and

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

ideals. In her writing, she elaborated on Chinese women’s problems and called for Chinese women to unite and fight for liberation. On 1 April 1922, she gave birth to her daughter. In August 1922, Xiang worked with women silk workers in Shanghai to support their strike. In June 1923, Xiang attended the Party's 3rd National Congress. She drafted the ''Resolution about the Women's Movement'', which emphasized the importance of women workers' movements and stated that shared anti-warlord and

anti-imperialist Anti-imperialism in political science and international relations is opposition to imperialism or neocolonialism. Anti-imperialist sentiment typically manifests as a political principle in independence struggles against intervention or influenc ...

themes could unite the various women's movements in China such as the feminist movement, the

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the women's rights, right of women to Suffrage, vote in elections. Several instances occurred in recent centuries where women were selectively given, then stripped of, the right to vote. In Sweden, conditional women's suffra ...

movement, and the movement to abolish prostitution. At the Congress, Xiang was appointed to lead the Party's women's movement. After Party's 3rd National Congress, Xiang prepared a report detailing the women's movements in China. The report recognized the contributions of the feminist and women's suffrage movements in the areas of marriage, politics, and

education Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...

. It stated however that these had not become mass movements and often involved only a few elite women representatives in government. Xiang's report noted that Christian women's movements in China had taken significant steps to focus on women workers, establishing schools and childcare in factories, and educating women about birth hygiene and discouraging habits like drinking, smoking, and gambling. Xiang stated that these movements relied on foreign capital, and therefore were not independent Chinese women's movements capable of achieving national salvation. These views were significant in shaping the Communist Party's early women's movements. With the establishment of the United Front with

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT) is a major political party in the Republic of China (Taiwan). It was the one party state, sole ruling party of the country Republic of China (1912-1949), during its rule from 1927 to 1949 in Mainland China until Retreat ...

(KMT) in 1923, Xiang became editor of a weekly supplement to ''The Republican Daily'', a KMT newspaper. Xiang also became editor of ''Women's Weekly''. In 1924, she led a strike involving about ten thousand female workers from silk factories. Then, Xiang Jingyu founded the Committee of Women's Liberation, and trained many female cadres, who then became a force against feudalism and imperialism. In January 1925, Xiang Jingyu was once again elected to the Central Committee now for the third time. She played a key role in the strikes and protests of the

of 1925. The growth of the Communist Party after the May Thirtieth Movement also created organizational challenges and disagreements within Party leadership. Some leaders, such as Peng Shuzhi and

Chen Duxiu Chen Duxiu ( zh, t=陳獨秀, p=Chén Dúxiù, w=Ch'en Tu-hsiu; 9 October 1879 – 27 May 1942) was a Chinese revolutionary, writer, educator, and political philosopher who co-founded the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1921, serving as its fi ...

advocated for centralizing Party authority. Others, such as Cai Hesen and Qu Qiubai, advocated for the Party to allow greater flexibility to local bodies. The extramarital relationship between Xiang and Peng exacerbated these disagreements. In the period following the 5th National Congress, the affair harmed Xiang's standing in the Party and resulted in her removal from the Party's core leadership. In late October 1925, Xiang and Cai were sent to Moscow by the Party, with the hope that they could reconcile. Their relationship dissolved. In late 1926, Cai married Li Yichun in Moscow. Xiang studied at the Communist University of the Toilers of the East. She had a relationship with a fellow student from Mongolia. In March 1927, Xiang returned to China from Moscow. Beginning in April, she led the women's movement in Wuhan, worked at the PArty's Hubei Propaganda Department, and edit the Party underground newspaper ''Great River''. On 12 April, Chiang Kai-shek started his counter-communism war in Shanghai, and Xiang Jingyu decided to flee to

Wuhan Wuhan; is the capital of Hubei, China. With a population of over eleven million, it is the most populous city in Hubei and the List of cities in China by population, eighth-most-populous city in China. It is also one of the nine National cent ...

and work in the Propaganda Department of the Federation of Trade Unions of Wuhan. The Wuhan National Government under Wang Jingwei's administration also expelled the CCP in the July 15 Incident. Regardless of danger, Xiang Jingyu stayed on in Wuhan editing the party journal ''Chang Jiang'' and helping the workers’ movement and underground Party.

Death

Xiang was arrested in Wuhan by the KMT in a purge of Communists and those who supported the Communists. Xiang Jingyu was arrested in the French Concession Sandeli in Wuhan on 20 March 1928 due to the betrayal of members of her group to the police. The French officials turned her over to the Nationalist government in April. The KMT executed her on 1 May 1928.

Commemoration

Mao Zedong praised Xiang's legacy as a revolutionary. In a 1936 interview with

Edgar Snow Edgar Parks Snow (July 19, 1905 – February 15, 1972) was an American journalist known for his books and articles on communism in China and the Chinese Communist Revolution. He was the first Western journalist to give an account of the history of ...

, he described her as the only female founder of the CCP. At a conference for

International Women's Day International Women's Day (IWD) is celebrated on 8 March, commemorating women's fight for equality and liberation along with the women's rights movement. International Women's Day gives focus to issues such as gender equality, reproductive righ ...

in 1939, he described Xiang as someone from whom everyone should draw inspiration. At the inauguration of the Chinese Women's University in the

Yan'an Soviet The Yan'an Soviet was a soviet governed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) during the 1930s and 1940s. In October 1936 it became the final destination of the Long March, and served as the CCP's main base until after the Second Sino-Japanese War ...

, Zhou Enlai praised Xiang as an important role model for Chinese women. A statute on Tortoise Mountain in Wuhan honors Xiang.

Notes

References