Ge Jianhao

Ge Jianhao, born Ge Lanying on August 17, 1865, in He Ye Guilin Hall, Shuangfeng County, Hunan Province, came from a prestigious Xiang (Hunan) gentry clan. Her father, Ge Baowu, served as a general in the Xiang Army and later held posts as Salt Transport Commissioner and as an inspector; the family also had kinship ties by marriage with Zeng Guofan. As a child she studied with her elder brother, and could recite the Classics such as the Four Books.

At age 16 she married Cai Rongfeng in Yongfeng, and they had children including Cai Hesen (also known as Cai He-xian), Cai Qingxi, and Cai Chang, among others. In 1903 her mother died; in 1904 her second daughter died in infancy; in 1907 her eldest son Cai Linxian died of diphtheria. In 1908 she moved with her husband from He Ye to Yongfeng.

In 1913 Cai Rongfeng planned to marry Cai Chang off to a landlord with a betrothal gift of 500 yuan. Ge Jianhao opposed this and escorted her daughter to Changsha to study.

In 1914 she changed her name to Ge Jianhao and gained admission to the Hunan Women Teacher-Training Institute without examinations, under the note “Remarkable ambition” to indicate an exceptional admission. Her daughter Cai Chang, born in the same year, also entered the school. In 1915, after graduation, she returned to Yongfeng and organized a second girls’ school, serving as principal and teacher. The school offered three divisions—Liberal Arts, Sewing, and Weaving—waived tuition and provided living allowances, and admitted women from laboring families. Thereafter she actively promoted women's rights and education.

From 1917 she began participating in social reform, associating with jovens including Mao Zedong; in 1918 she helped revive the Hunan Women’s Federation; in 1924 she pushed for provisions in the Hunan Province Constitution recognizing gender equality and the right to voting and education for those aged 21 and over. In 1925 she founded the People’s Women’s Vocational School at Yan Zi Temple in Changsha; the school maintained close ties with the Communist Party and became a site of revolutionary activity.

From 1920 to 1924 she went to France for a work-study program. After arriving in Paris, she studied in Montparnasse with Cai Hesen and Cai Chang, supporting herself through embroidery and other work and participating in the movement of Chinese students abroad; in 1921 she joined petition campaigns.

After returning to China, she continued to devote herself to women’s liberation and education, participated in constitutional governance work in Hunan Province, and promoted related legislation. Ge Jianhao was not a member of the Chinese Communist Party, but she is listed in Volume 6 of The Biographies of People in the History of the Chinese Communist Party as a non-member figure.

In 1931 Cai Hesen was killed in Guangzhou, and in 1932 her husband Cai Rongfeng died; the family endured prolonged pressure. On March 16, 1943, Ge Jianhao died at Shiban Chong in Yongfeng, aged 78. In 1985 a memorial to Ge Jianhao was erected in Yongfeng; in 2007 the township was named the Hometown of Chinese Heroines, and in 2008 eight heroines statues were unveiled.