Xiang Jingyu

Xiang Jingyu向警予 (* 1895 in Hunan ; † May 1, 1928 in Wuhan ) was one of the first women in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and a close friend of Mao Zedong during his years in Changsha .

Childhood and youth

Xiang Jingyu was born in Hunan in 1895 as the daughter of a merchant. She attended a progressive girls' school. She was active in the May Fourth Movement and organized a campaign against the tying of the feet . In 1919 she went to Paris to study. There she became a member of a student discussion group that dealt with socialism and anarchism .

Political career

She returned from France in 1921 and in August 1922 became the first chairman of the newly created Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) Women's Bureau . She became the first woman to hold a leadership position in a CCP organization. She was mainly involved in the organization of factory workers from the spinning and weaving mills in the industrial centers.

Xiang significantly expanded the women's organization. At the 3rd Congress of the KpCh in 1923, she tried to dispel the reservations of male delegates against the women's organization. She argued that this was of political importance in spite of her previous extensive inaction and internal rifts, and warned her male colleagues against neglecting this large group. In Canton, for example, the party had hardly any women. It was only after Xiang's commitment to women at the 4th Congress of the KpCh in January 1925 that a resolution was passed that gave priority to recruiting female party members.

On May 30, 1925, she planned and led the demonstration in Shanghai (" May 30th Movement "), which on the one hand demanded the release of imprisoned students and on the other hand was directed against the events in Qingdao a few days earlier. The police opened fire on the demonstrators, so that the events of May 30, 1925 went down in history as the "May 30, 1925 Massacre" (五卅參按 wusa can'an). In 1926 she was sent to Moscow for further training, which practically meant her political end. Her successor was Yang Zhihua楊之華.

After her return in 1927, Xiang was unable to gain a foothold in political leadership as a single woman. The political landscape had changed: on July 15, 1927, the Kuomintang formally terminated the existing alliance with the communists under Mao Zedong , which resulted in a civil war for power in the state between the two groups.

On May 1, 1928, Xiang was captured by French soldiers in a French concession in Wuhan and, after they betrayed them, shot by the Kuomintang.

Political priorities

She wrote down her views on women in China in essays. She saw the goals of the socialists as the opposite of those of the bourgeois feminists . A similar position was represented in Europe by Alexandra Kollontai in Russia and Rosa Luxemburg in Germany. Xiang saw no gain in a movement that saw itself primarily as a struggle between women and men or advocated women's suffrage , individual freedom, and free love. Her argument against women's suffrage was that it was meaningless: a total social revolution was necessary, not the possibility of participating in a deficient system. Her position on the participation of women in provincial elections in 1924 leaves no doubt: “If the women's suffrage movement is successful, it only means that a bunch of women will come to the pigsties of capital and the provinces, where they, together with the boars, over the misery of the Nation and other people's misfortunes. "

Intertwining of private life and political career

Xuang married Cai Hesen in Paris in 1920 . He had been a member of the CCP Central Committee since 1922. At the wedding ceremony they both held a copy of Das Kapital . Together they published a volume of poetry, The Upward Alliance , in which they vowed to fight together for the revolution. After Gilmartin, connection with a party leader was essential to Xiang's career. The revolutionary harmony between the two was soon disrupted by Xiang's affair with another activist, Peng Shuzhi . As a result of this affair, Xiang lost her status and leadership role in the party's women's organization. Xiang and Hesen were sent to Moscow in 1926: Xiang to study at the Communist University of the Working People of the East , Hesen as a delegate to the Communist International .

Xiang was the mother of two children (born 1922 and 1924).

reception

From Xiang it can be seen that the path for women to management positions in China was very difficult at the time and that a different picture is conveyed today. It has been emphasized again and again in official reports that Xiang was an official delegate of the Chinese Communist Party from 1922 to 1927 ; The All-Chinese Women's Association in particular has shown an interest in this representation in its publications. Most of the sources for their election are unreliable, however, and recent studies have not confirmed Xiang's election as delegate. In their written memoirs, leading communists of the time speak of Xiang's participation in the meetings and of taking on a large part of the administration, but not of an official function as a member.

Notes and individual references

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Jad Adams: Women and the Vote. A world history. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, ISBN 978-0-19-870684-7 , page 363.
↑ According to Adams, Xiang Jingyu did not establish the Communist Party's women's section until 1923; Jad Adams: Women and the Vote. A world history. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, ISBN 978-0-19-870684-7 , page 363.
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j Christina Gilmartin: The Politics of Gender in the Making of the Party . In: Tony Saich, Hans J. Van de Ven (Eds.): New Perspectives on the Chinese Communist Revolution . ME Sharpe, New York (NY) 1995, ISBN 978-1-5632-4428-5 , p. 45
^ ^A ^b ^c Christina Gilmartin: The Politics of Gender in the Making of the Party . In: Tony Saich, Hans J. Van de Ven (Eds.): New Perspectives on the Chinese Communist Revolution . ME Sharpe, New York (NY) 1995, ISBN 978-1-5632-4428-5 , p. 46
↑ 1928: Xiang Jingyu, Communist. In: http://www.executedtoday.com . Accessed August 4, 2019 .
↑ Elizabeth Croll: Feminism and Socialism in China. London, Routledge 1978, p. 192. Quoted from: Jad Adams: Women and the Vote. A world history. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, ISBN 978-0-19-870684-7 , page 363.
↑ Louise Edwards and Mina Roces: Bourgeois Women and Communist Revolutionaries? De-Revolutionizing the Chinese Women's Suffrage Movenemt. In: Maja Mikula: Women, Activism and Social Change. Oxford, Routledge 2005, p. 3. Quoted from: Jad Adams: Women and the Vote. A world history. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, ISBN 978-0-19-870684-7 , page 363.
^ ^A ^b Andrea McElderry: Xiang Jingyu. In: Biographical Dictionary of Chibnese Wonen; The Twentieth Century. Armonk NY, ME Sharpe 2003, p. 579, quoted from Jad Adams: Women and the Vote. A world history. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, ISBN 978-0-19-870684-7 , page 363.

personal data
SURNAME	Xiang Jingyu
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Chinese politician
DATE OF BIRTH	1895
PLACE OF BIRTH	Hunan
DATE OF DEATH	May 1, 1928
Place of death	Wuhan

[Adams363-1] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Jad Adams: Women and the Vote. A world history. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, ISBN 978-0-19-870684-7 , page 363.

[2] According to Adams, Xiang Jingyu did not establish the Communist Party's women's section until 1923; Jad Adams: Women and the Vote. A world history. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, ISBN 978-0-19-870684-7 , page 363.

[Gilmartin45-3] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j Christina Gilmartin: The Politics of Gender in the Making of the Party . In: Tony Saich, Hans J. Van de Ven (Eds.): New Perspectives on the Chinese Communist Revolution . ME Sharpe, New York (NY) 1995, ISBN 978-1-5632-4428-5 , p. 45

[Gilmartin46-4] A ^b ^c Christina Gilmartin: The Politics of Gender in the Making of the Party . In: Tony Saich, Hans J. Van de Ven (Eds.): New Perspectives on the Chinese Communist Revolution . ME Sharpe, New York (NY) 1995, ISBN 978-1-5632-4428-5 , p. 46

[5] 1928: Xiang Jingyu, Communist. In: http://www.executedtoday.com . Accessed August 4, 2019 .

[6] Elizabeth Croll: Feminism and Socialism in China. London, Routledge 1978, p. 192. Quoted from: Jad Adams: Women and the Vote. A world history. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, ISBN 978-0-19-870684-7 , page 363.

[7] Louise Edwards and Mina Roces: Bourgeois Women and Communist Revolutionaries? De-Revolutionizing the Chinese Women's Suffrage Movenemt. In: Maja Mikula: Women, Activism and Social Change. Oxford, Routledge 2005, p. 3. Quoted from: Jad Adams: Women and the Vote. A world history. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, ISBN 978-0-19-870684-7 , page 363.

[McElderry-8] A ^b Andrea McElderry: Xiang Jingyu. In: Biographical Dictionary of Chibnese Wonen; The Twentieth Century. Armonk NY, ME Sharpe 2003, p. 579, quoted from Jad Adams: Women and the Vote. A world history. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, ISBN 978-0-19-870684-7 , page 363.