Chen Songnian

Chen Songnian, born in 1910 in Anqing, Anhui Province. His father was the Chinese revolutionary Chen Duxiu; his mother was Gao Xiaolan, and his stepmother was Gao Junman. In his early years he lived with his mother in Anqing, with limited opportunities to be reuniited with his father. In the early 1930s, his father was detained by the Kuomintang in Nanjing; he visited him with his mother, which was the first time he ever saw his father. During that visit his father advised him not to cry easily, stressing that a man should be able to endure setbacks.

In his youth, his family faced multiple upheavals. His eldest brother Yanian was killed in Shanghai, the second brother Qiao Nian was killed the following year, and his sister Yu Ying died from a mental shock; family members died one after another. At 17, Songnian endured the blows of successive family deaths. As the Japanese invasion approached Anqing, the family property was hidden in the ancestral hall; the hall’s valuables were later looted by the Japanese army, leaving only a few pieces of furniture.

In his later youth, Chen Songnian, together with his wife Dou Hengguang, his grandmother, and his newly one-year-old eldest daughter, traveled from Anqing along the Yangtze River, passing through Wuhan and Chongqing, finally reaching Jiangjin to live with his father. The whole family subsisted on the meager salary from De Ganba No. 9 Middle School. Songnian did his best to care for his grandmother and to accompany his father in his old age. In 1942, his father Chen Duxiu died in Jiangjin, and his grandmother died soon after. In 1947, Songnian had the coffins of his grandfather, grandmother, and father transported down the river back to Anqing for burial; his father’s coffin bore the inscription “Chen Qiansheng.” The grave lay in a deep forest near Jixian Pass, with no tombstone to avoid political turmoil.

Before and after the liberation, Chen Songnian held various occupations, including accountant, teacher, kiln worker, and technician. In 1958, Mao Zedong, during an inspection in Anqing, learned of his difficult life and instructed that he receive a monthly living allowance of 30 yuan and arranged for him to work at a kiln. Thereafter, he served as a standing committee member of the Anqing City CPPCC, a member of the Anqing City Museum of Literature and History, and a member of the Anhui Province Museum of Literature and History.

As for family members: his eldest son Chen Changqi, born in 1947, is the current dean of the School of Mechanical Engineering at Hefei University of Technology, secretary of the Party Committee, and a professor; he is also a council member of the Chinese Vacuum Society. His eldest daughter Chen Changwei worked as an engineer at the Steel Design Institute and died in 1984. His second daughter Chen Changyu is a senior engineer at a military–industrial enterprise. His youngest daughter Chen Changpu was sent down to the countryside and later returned to the city; she worked as a staff member at Anqing Library, later served as deputy director of the Anqing City Cultural Relics Management Bureau, and engaged in research on her grandfather. Chen Songnian began annually visiting and paying respects at his father’s grave from 1976 onward, and he died in 1990.