Rever berations of a Capital "W" in China

Feb. 12,1927 was a date that must be capitalized in the military histories both of the Communist Party and the Kuomintang. Over the large lawn of the Lianghu Academy of Classical Learning in Wuchang, there was an exceedingly solemn and respectful atmosphere. The Huangpu Military Academy was holding a schoolopenimg ceremony for the sixth batch of its cadets. What was different from previous ceremonies was that a formation of servicewomen in uniforms was to go through the review together with more than 4,000 servicemen. More that 300VIPs, including Song Qingling, Xu Qian, Sun Ke ,Peng Zemin, Wu Yuzhang and other persons in charge from the Central Party Headquarters and the National Government of the Kuomintang, and Dong Biwu and Zhan Dabei, representatives from the Party Headquarters of Hubei Province and Wuhan City of the Kuomintang, attended the ceremony as honored guests.

The whole audience seethed with excitement when the honored guests on the rostrum solemnly saluted with eyes the formation of servicewomen wearing the red signs of "W" on both of their sleeves. This was a pioneering undertaking since the dawn of history and a sharp sword thrust into the feudal camp by the revolutionary army. This batch of servicewomen, consisting of 130 people, was the first one in the contemporary history of China. "W" is the abbreviation for "woman" in English. The use of it as a mark of the servicewomen's uniforms, despite a flavor of imported culture, was in itself symbolic of a new wave of opening to the outside world.

Yet the emergence of this "W" gave rise to a shaking no less strong than a hurricane in society and the servicewomen's families.

That a young woman, carrying a baby in her arms, signed up for the entrance examination for the Central Military Academy caused a sensation in Wuhan. She was Wang Yixia. At the moment she had no time to give consideration to the kind of "figure"she had become or the disgusting satires, abuses and ridicules in the newspapers. She must find a place for her child as soon as possible, for it was after all impossible to attend a military academy with a baby. Learning that the Catholic church took in children, she went there with her child. The Catholic father said: "We may take in the child, but he will belong to God rather than to you in the future." The young mother was astonished: "It's incredible that a mother should join the revolutionary ranks with her child given to God!" She entrusted her

baby to the care of a rickshaw man and went to register at the military academy.

Huang Jie, her classmate, also found herself in an unexpectedly awkward predicament. She had her hair cut in a style then called "army hair" and sent back home a picture of herself as a servicewoman. She meant to getthe support from her family members and yet was cursed by her uncle as "the scum of the family" and as being offensive against decency. Her brother-in-law on the paternal side, owner of a private bank, specially had a message sent to her that she was not to walk through the street in front of her own family's house.

There was another woman cadet who sent home a "letter of safety". Her relatives and friends were anxious to know the destination of this woman who had left home to attend the college entrance examination. Unfortunately her mother fainted on the floor before the letter was finished. Being a servicewoman meant being a bandit, a whore to the old woman who kept murmuring: "Who will marry such a girl?"

The servicewomen initiated a "war" without any experience of war yet. The shock waves of this "war"threatened to destroy them and their families.

With a deposit of more than 2'000 years, the Chinese feudal society had long before set a fixed position for its females. Women from rich and influential families had only two addresses: "Miss" before marriage and "Mistress" after marriage. Women from lowly families were termed respectively "maid", "wet nurse," and "whore, " etc. But "servicewoman" was excluded from its standard dictionary. The only woman practitioner of martial arts recorded in Chinese history was an imperial concubine of Emperor Shang, by the name of Fu Hao. Though she excelled in martial arts, her skill constituted no more than mere amusement for the emperor. As to Mu Guiying, Fan Lihua and Hua Mulan, characters from literary and artistic works, they might lead forces in expeditions and behave remarkably in battles, and yet they were simply material for entertainment, to be sung about in tearooms or on theatrical stages among the folks. They were not at all mentioned in history books written in biographical style or in classical works.During the period of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Hong Xiuquan once led a force of about 100'00 servicewomen, who together with their head, the valiant and forthright Hong Tianjiao, were merely a synonym for "bandits" and "female thieves" in public dictionaries. Historians can ascertain their establishment and estimate their forces only through Collection of the Thieving Situations, compiled by the Qing Government at that time. This massive army of servicewomen, encircled and suppressed by the formidable feudal forces of the nineteenth- century China, eventually disappeared.

Today servicewomen and career women in cities are a common sight,

but at the early stage of this century, the paradigms for Chinese women were "delicately formed hands," "three-inch golden lotuses"—women's bound feet, and "smiling without showing the teeth." Most females locked themselves within their chambers, never venturing outside. Their marriages were wholly at the mercy of their parents, for they must stick to the matches arranged by go-betweens according to their parents'wishes. Among the Chinese people there was an old and popular saying which goes like this: Good men never join the army just as good iron is never used to forge nails, Imagine the response at that time to the idea of women joining the army, women who had been suppressed for about 2'000years under the patriarchal system and all its concepts, like the authority of the father, the husband, the clan, and religion.

It seemed as if the patriarchal society purposely desired to teach the servicewomen a lesson. For soon a piece of greater news hit the streets of Wuhan City: 100 women went on demonstration naked, advertising themselves as women cadets of the military academy. While girls and young wives along the streets all covered their eyes with their hands, hooligans and sinister gangs, whistling and spitting, shouted: "What kind of cadets are they? They are whores from the brothel! They are prostitutes!" In the end, however, the true identity of these women was discovered. They were prostitutes all right, but they had been employed to pose as cadets by rightwingers who put on this farce in order to cause confusion and humiliate this first group of new women brave enough to challenge the feudal society.

Thus the Chinese servicewomen came into being under these circumstances. They put off the dresses of young ladies, wiped away the powder and rouge on their faces, and put on grey-cloth uniforms, black-cloth stockings, grey-cloth puttees, leather belts of more than one cun in width, and trey-cloth army caps that concealed their golden hair. Most of these servicewomen were students from provinces of Hunan, Sichuan and Henan, and many of them had quietly signed up for the military academy without their families' knowledge.

Having never before received any training, this army did not march in step yet, and the servicewomen still had tears left over from yesterday on their somewhat childish faces. Yet they felt mature as if all of a sudden, for they were no longer ordinary young girls or young wives. They were now servicewomen. The youngest of them all was Zeng Xiping, who had secretly signed up for the military academy against the will of her family that had sent her to study at the Sangchan School in Changsha. To these women, their decision meant not only the casting off once for all of traditional female life patterns but also a severe test of their future destinies. There was no paradigm to seek after at that time for the future of servicewomen, whereas examples of women being punished for transcending the restrictions and fetters

of the feudal system could be found everywhere.

Just a few days before, some of them had gone through a mental struggle with regard to the cutting of braids. Among the female candidates from Sichuan twenty-eight were admitted to the military academy. They had to make some preparations now that they were about to join the army. "Our dresses must be changed! Thousands of servicemen are all wearing uniforms. How can we servicewomen be allowed wear cheonsams?" said Tong Youzhi, throwing back her short hair. Seeing this act, You Xi said: "I'm afraid that we should all have our braids cut off." Jiang Shenchu said: "Talking about cutting braids, there had been a big unrest in Sichuan about this. A county head even placed a ban on it. Now that we can freely cut our braids, some are reluctant⋯" Saying this, she took a look at Chen Deyun, who lowered her head and coiled up her braids around one of her hands. Long hair had been the mark of women since ancient times. Numerous men of letters had eulogized it. In Chen Deyun's case, ever since she could remember things, all the praise she received from her neighbors had started from this head of beautiful hair. She could not in the least imagine how she would look without her braids. While Chen Deyun was still hesitating, Duan Huiyun, taking out a pair of scissors, said: "I'll be the first. Who will cut my braids for me?" In a moment, one braid after another was cut off and Chen Deyun's braids were eventually cut off, too. Her eyes were red, and even though she forced herself not to cry, she still shed some tears of reluctance.

The appearance of the servicewomen on the stage of Chinese history was not unprepared. The outlook of female emancipation, advocated by Mr. Sun Yat-sen, pioneer of the Chinese democratic revolution and president of the Republic of China, was deeply rooted in the guiding principles of the democratic revolution he put forward and the democratic revolution he directed. The running of girls' schools, the advocacy of women participating in government and political affairs, the opposition to arranged marriages and the binding of feet, these had all become fashions in cities and towns. Mr. Sun himself had recommended for membership in the Chinese Revolutionary League he led Madame He Xiangning and Madame Qiu Jin, who became staunch revolutionaries and outstanding leaders of the women's mobrmrny. Madam Song Qingling, the president's wife, was even more a vanguard fighter in implementing the revolutionary guiding principles put forward by Mr. Sun. In 1936, immediately after she followed the Northern Expeditionary Army to Wuhan, then the revolutionary center, she, together with 14 communists and leftist leaders of the Kuomintang, formed the Central Executive Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang and the Interim Joint Conference of the committee members of the National Government as the interim supreme power organization of the Party and

the Government before the capital was moved. At the same time, she took the lead in forming with Deng Yanda and 12 other people the Wuhan Branch of the Central Political Conference of the Kuomintang and served as a member. At No.5,Siwei Road, Hankou, she set up the first training class in politics for the revolutionary women and she herself took up the post of director, training women cadres and arousing women to participation the national revolution. This training class, forming actually the reserve force for the national revolutionary army of women, was aimed at uniting women of the whole country and even the whole world to form a massive revolutionary alliance. In addition, together with He Xiangning, she organized the Red Cross Society, launched a movement of expressing sympathy and solicitude for the wounded, plotted wartime relief work, and asked personally by telegram the National Council of the Soviet Trade Union to mobilize all the trade union organizations in providing relief to the wounded soldiers in Wuhan.

The spring tide of the revolution also prepared excellent cadres for the birth of the armed forces of women. Cai Chang, who, together with Xiang Jingyu, had formed in 1918 the Work-Study Society of Hunan Women Studying in France, was now back home after studying in Paris, France and Moscow, the USSR. Having led the women's movement in Guangdong with He Xiangning, Cai Chang, just relieved of the post of secretary of the Women's Federation of the District Committee of Guangdong and Guangxi of the Chinese Communist Party(CPC), now assumed the office of the French interpreter and concurrently the section chief of propaganda of the Political Department of the National Revolutionary Army. Deng Yingchao, who had taken part in the May Fourth Movement and organized the women's and students' federations and the League of Women's Rights Movement in Tianjin, had now finished her school days and was transferred to the post of head of the Women's Section of the District Committee of Tianjin of the CPC and a member of the District Committee of Guangdong and Guangxi as well as head of the Women's Section of the Committee.

The military academy, located on the cite of the former Lianghu Academy of Classical learning established by Zhang Zhidong, leader of the Westernization School of the late Qing Dynasty, was a branch campus of the Central Military and Political Academy(also termed the Huangpu Military Academy), jointly founded by the Kuomintang and the CPC. The Huangpu Military Academy was set up on June 16, 1924by Mr.Sun Yatsen on Huangpu Island of Guangzhou. Five of the 10 marshals of the People's Republic of China-Ye Jianying, Xu Xiangqian, Nie Rongzhen, Chen Yi and Lin Biao-were graduated from the Huangpu Military Academy; 3 senior generals-Xu Guangda, Chen Geng and Luo Ruiqing, 8 generals, 9 lieutenant generals and 8 major generals were also graduated from there. It could be called the cradle of the contemporary marshals and generals

of China. The Huangpu teachers and cadets trained there had by now successfully launched two eastern expeditions against reactionary warlords, unified the revolutionary bases in Guangdong, and immediately afterwards conducted the Northern Expedition. After the Northern Expeditionary Army attacked and occupied Wuhan in Oct. 1926, the statesmen, while drawing up the blueprint for the branch campus, added a capital "W"-enrolment of the first batch of servicewomen of the revolutionary army.

The general regulation of enrolment of the military academy was published in all the major newspapers of the time and made a great stir throughout the country. In Changsha alone, there were. 1,000 or so people who signed up. The force far exceeded that of the old saying of "hundreds responding to a single call."

The applicants had to go through a very strict examination, the scene of which was solemn. Those who cheated were disqualified on the spot.

The enrolment rate for applicants from Hunan was 100 to 1. After the list of successful candidates was published, those who flunked, feeling a sense of injustice for not having been admitted, surrounded the Party Headquarters of the province, which was forced to instruct persons concerned to make public the examination papers and allow representatives of those who had failed in the examination to check them and ascertain that all the papers had been sealed and numbered without names, that grades were given according to the scores of the papers, and that there was no exchange of papers of malpractices, etc. Only by doing so was the disturbance put down.

The sunshine of the early spring of the South bathed the large drill ground of the former Lianghu Academy of Classical Learning in warmth. The uniforms of the servicewomen at drill were soaked with sweat. In marching, the distance covered in each step should be 75 centimetres. To meet this requirement these servicewomen kept raising their legs and swinging their arms. Moreover, they had to finish their meals within 10 minutes. At first, many of the servicewomen felt unaccustomed to such gobbling up , which was considered most disgraceful even at home, let alone in public. Nevertheless, military discipline was rigid. After ten minutes, they must put down their bowls and chopsticks. As a result, quite a few servicewomen, unable to meet the requirement, couldn't have enough. Yet they knew that this was something they had to go through as a soldier.

Their studies of basic theories were also regular as those of the servicemen. Drill Regulations for Foot Soldiers, Shooting Manual, Army Orderlies, these they all had to learn. Besides, they participated in military maneuvers, listened to talks by Yun Daiying on the workers' movement, the students' movement and the historical status of the

proletariat, talks by Shen Yanbing on female emancipation, and talks by Xu Deheng on the ABC of Communism. The academy also frequently invited relevant persons in charge and well-known figures to deliver lectures or speeches on the campus. Mao Zedong was once specially invited to lecture on the peasants' movement in Human and Hubei. Song Qingling, Guo Moruo, Chen Duxiu, Qu Qiubai, Wu Yuzhang, Dong Biwu and some others were also invited to the academy to deliver lectures. These good teachers and helpful friends of the cadets opened the eyes of the servicewomen to an unprecedented mental world.

It looked as if history wanted deliberately to test these courageous servicewomen. War headed towards them before their graduation.

In May, 1927, Xia Douyin, division commander of the 14th Independent Division stationed in Yichang, turned traitor and, colluding with Yang Shen, a warlord in Sichuan, launched an attack on Wuhan along the banks of the Yangtse River. The cadets of the military academy and the trainees of the Peasants' Movement Institute were organized into the Central Independent Division, to be under the single command of Ye Ting, division commander of the 24th Division of the 11th Corps. By this time , Ye Ting was already a famous general of the Northern Expedition and the troops headed by him were called an "iron army." The servicewomen all felt lucky and proud to be under his command. In his mobilization talk before the fighting, division commander Ye said: "From this day on, you are no longer cadets of the Central Military Academy. You belong to a regular army now. You are the soldiers of the Central Independent Division. You should be firm and brave enough to shoulder the important revolutionary tasks at present." The speech by this military commander of a little over 30 years old was, like his age, full of youth and vigor. Upon turning his eyes towards the servicewomen in the ranks, he found them firm and composed enough in their expressions to be relied upon. To this unfamiliar and uniquely female force he made the following remark: "You servicewomen also have arduous tasks. In addition to fighting the enemy with guns, you have to carry on the work of arousing the masses of the people. This means you have to conduct propaganda. Besides, you have to assume rescue work." He called on the servicewomen to be daring warriors carrying on the revolution with their pens, their mouths and their actual deeds.

This was a kind of life never before experienced by the servicewomen. Though they did not go to the front to fight at close quarters with the enemy, they did get an idea of what a genuine soldier should be like. The servicewomen, divided into the propaganda team and the ambulance corps, fought from Zhifang to Tuditang and moved forwards towards areas of Jiayu, Puqi, Xianning and Xindi. They put in order towns and village damaged by the rebel forces, pasted up slogans,

distributed leaflets, and helped the folks to return to their homeland. They either delivered speeches on the streets, conducted propaganda from house to house, or helped the masses to resume the Peasants' Society or the Women's Association. Each day they were so lively and so unique. While the troops were pressing forward, the servicewomen often couldn't eat in time. When thirsty, they simply drank some water from the mountain streams; when hungry, they just tightened their because of lack of food. Not one of them fell behind. At night they slept in the open on hilltops, spreading army blankets beneath them and covering themselves with raincoats. The South in May happened to be a season of plum rains. The ground was damp and the air cold. When the girls got up before dawn, they could wring water out of the army blankets and their hair was wet through. Huang Jingwen, one of the servicewomen, found herself suffering from bloody blisters on her feet, the result of constant rubbing, and her legs ached so much that she found it hard to step forward again once she stopped. Soon she discovered that many others were in the same plight. Interestingly no one uttered a sound. Perhaps they were afraid that they would pass on their agony to their sisters once they did. After a few days, they all looked upon blisters on their feet as nothing uncommon and began to tease and make fun of one another. You Xi, another servicewoman, even caught a local tyrant by the nickname of "Devil Incarnate," who had attempted to collect military information. Over a month of life on the road transformed these women from being weak, delicate and refined girl students a few months before into servicewomen with good physique, strong willpower and the ability to bear hardships.

In fighting west with the troops, Xie Bingying, one of the servicewoman, wrote Diary of A Woman Soldier, which was published in the supplement to the Central Daily of that time and made a great stir. She wrote: "The girl students had all secretly signed up for the military academy, without the knowledge of their families or their schools. I believe that at that time, the girl students' motive in joining the army was most probably to break away from the oppression of feudal families and to find a way out for themselves. But once they put on uniforms and bore arms, they began to think differently. They came to realize that on their shoulders were the tasks of carrying the national revolution to an end and building a prosperous and strong China."

The revolutionary army defeated the troops led by Xia Douyin at Tuditang. When the servicewomen came back with the army from their western expedition, the then Women's Association of Hubei presented them with a silk banner, on which was written: "Epochmaking!"

After the defeat of the Great Revolution in China, the Central Military Academy decided upon an earlier graduation. The women cadets

were not given any promises, just as they were not when they joined the army in the first place. The only thing to show for their life in the academy was that they could no longer return to their old selves. The status of having been a cadet, like a birthmark, was forever printed in their lives. Decades later, many of these cadets took part again in the Nanchang Uprising, the Guangzhou Uprising and the Long March. Some were even taken to the enemy's court and prison. While they all enriched their experience, none of them could forget the short period of life and fighting in the military academy, which was a most significant overture to their long life.