100 years on, memories for Chinese communist pioneers still cherished

Paris. Nearly a century after the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC), some of the party’s pioneers, who were then just young students studying abroad, were still remembered by many in Europe with fondness and respect.

As the CPC celebrates its centenary this year, Xinhua revisited some of those places with footprints of the party’s founders and early leaders across the continent, to dig out stories about the early days of the world’s largest political party.

Paris

A small room on the ground floor of Hotel Neptune in downtown Paris witnessed the life of Zhou Enlai, the first premier of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), in his youth.

Zhou, born in 1898, lived here from 1922 to 1924 when he was among the thousands of progressive young Chinese who went to Europe under the Diligent Work-Frugal Study Movement to search for the future of the then-impoverished China.

In this small room which could barely accommodate a bed, a desk and a chair, Zhou studied and worked tirelessly, writing for a progressive newspaper based in north China’s Tianjin to promote new ideas he learned in Europe, and organizing communist activities.

Nearly 100 years later, now the hotel is run by Chinese-French Li Jianle, who believed that it is his obligation to protect the historic building and present it to both Chinese and foreign guests when he bought the hotel in 2001.

Today, with a bronze statue of Zhou carved by noted French sculptor Paul Belmondo in 1979 on its wall facing the street, the about 160-year-old building on rue Godefroy, Paris remains intact, standing to tell the story of its former tenant.

Montargis

It was also in France that late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, the architect of China’s reform and opening-up, established a lifelong friendship with Zhou.

Deng, six years younger than Zhou, was among the more than 200 Chinese students who worked at Hutchinson factory by then on the outskirts of Montargis, a small town about 100 km south of Paris, said Wang Peiwen, president of the China-France Friendship Association in Montargis.

“My grandfather used to work there, too,” said Lea Pereira, a high school student at Lycee en Foret in Montargis.

In an interview with Xinhua, Pereira said her grandfather told her about Deng and other young Chinese communists. At 18, Deng lived in a wooden shed with his colleagues, worked 10 hours a day from Monday to Friday, and a half day on Saturday, for an hourly wage of one franc.

“I’m impressed by the horrible working conditions that Deng had to endure,” said Pereira’s classmate Flavien Gavoille. “I also admire him because he was never discouraged, and he successfully achieved his goals: by having completed his study in France and coming to know the communist ideology.”

The two teenagers are among dozens of Chinese language learners at Lycee en Foret. Their Chinese teacher has also briefed them on the history of the Chinese students who worked and studied in their hometown Montargis.

The small town with a population of 15,000 bears marks of that period of history: the square in front of the central railway station is named after Deng Xiaoping. A massive monument was erected there in 2019 to mark the 100th anniversary of the Diligent Work-Frugal Study Movement. (Xinhua)