Yu Guanglang () (b. 1897 - d. 1980) was a Chinese politician and scholar who served 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 ...

Early life and family origins

Yu was born in 1897 in Tongcheng,

Anhui Province Anhui is an inland province located in East China. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze and Huai rivers, bordering Jiangsu and Zhejiang to the east, Jiangxi to the south, Hub ...

during the late

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 ...

. He grew up without his father and was raised largely by his siblings. He attended the Tongcheng Secondary School which was notable for its creation of many political and revolutionary figures of the period.

Biography

After graduating from Tongcheng Secondary School, Yu went to Japan and then the United States to continue his education in a work-study program. In the 17th year of the founding of the

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

(1928), he returned to China where he became a mathematics professor at

Nanking University Nanjing University (NJU) is a public university in Nanjing, Jiangsu, China. It is affiliated and sponsored by the Ministry of Education. The university is part of Project 211, Project 985, and the Double First-Class Construction. The university ...

. Due to his schoolboy connections to

Fang Chih Fang Chih or Fang Zhi ( zh, c=方治; 23 November 1895 – 28 March 1989), courtesy name: Xikong (希孔), was a politician, provincial governor, diplomat, author and a high-ranking Kuomintang official of the Republic of China. Family hist ...

, a government official, he was offered various positions within the

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 ...

government but declined to accept them. These refusals soon alienated Yu from the ruling party and he gradually became active in the Communist underground to whom Yu offered his house for the purpose of holding secret meetings. The Kuomintang Secret Police eventually had Yu listed as a Communist spy. Further career promotions for Yu were blacklisted and his activities were monitored by authorities. After the fall of Nanking to the Communist forces, Yu became an influential figure in the field of education with the new Communist government. He went on to become a member of the Jiangsu Province Political Consultative Conference Standing Committee and the deputy director of the Nanjing NLD student organization.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yu, Guanglang People of the Chinese Civil War 1897 births 1980 deaths