Deng Zhongxia (1894-1933) was an outstanding proletarian educator in China and a pioneer of the May Fourth Movement. He was a famous leader of the workers' movement and one of the important leaders in the early days of the CPC, as well as an important theorist and scholar of the CPC.

In 1917, he was admitted to the Department of Literature at Peking University. He admired Li Dazhao and Chen Duxiu the most at school, and under their influence, he devoted himself to the May Fourth New Culture Movement.

On May 4, 1919, when Peking University students took to the streets for a protest, Deng Zhongxia was the main organizer and one of more than ten students who stormed into Zhao Family Building to start the fire and beat up traitors.

Later, he went to Changsha and got in touch with Mao Zedong to establish the Hunan Student Union. He also initiated the establishment of the Marxist Research Association and assisted Li Dazhao in establishing a Communist Party group in Beijing in October 1920. He became one of the founders of the Party.

In March 1919, Deng Zhongxia initiated the establishment of the Civilian Education Lecture Group at Peking University. In early 1921, he founded the Changxindian Labor Cram School, which was the first worker cultural school in China. It provided free education for workers.

In order to promote civilian education, he first organized a worker literacy class. At first, some people believed that it was useless for their work. Deng Zhongxia patiently explained that being literate is the only way to avoid being fooled and oppressed, and finally most of workers came to study willingly after work.

While teaching them to read and write, he also inspired the class consciousness of workers and united them to establish the Workers’ Club. As the representative of the club, he offered various welfare benefits to workers and also won their trust.

Deng Zhongxia was also appointed to a professorship at the Zhili Provincial Higher Normal University, invited to give lectures in Chongqing and guide education reform in Yizhang County of Chenzhou City, headed Shanghai University, established a proletarian education system in the national revolutionary base area of Guangzhou City Of Guangdong Province, protected persecuted Chinese students studying in the Soviet Union, and created a discipline of Chinese workers’ movement history. He made immortal historical achievements in the creation, exploration, promotion, and development of proletarian education in China.

In May 1933, Deng Zhongxia was arrested while working in Shanghai and was betrayed by a traitor. In prison, with the firm belief and iron will, he withstood the temptation of wealth and the devastation of severe torture.

He died on September 21, 1933.

Chinese source: jvb.cn