Wang Yimeng

Wang Yimeng, female, born in 1902, graduated from a women’s normal school in the French Concession of Tianjin. On August 26, 1926, at the age of 24, she married Sun Yueqi, who was then 33 years old, becoming his second wife. Together they had children, including Sun Dawu and Sun Shuhan.

After marriage, Wang Yimeng accompanied her husband as he worked in different locations, including during his tenure at the Muling coal mine. Her life was closely tied to Sun Yueqi’s career and the political turbulence of modern China.

In 1966, with the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution, both she and her husband, by then in their sixties, came under severe persecution. Sun Yueqi was imprisoned in a "cowshed" (a makeshift detention facility), had his salary suspended, and was interrogated extensively. Wang Yimeng also suffered greatly; she endured humiliation, developed schizophrenia, and attempted suicide twice, though both times she was rescued. The couple was forced to live in a small house in Tangshan under harsh conditions.

In 1973, after Sun Yueqi regained his freedom, the couple used his back pay to travel around China twice at their own expense. Shortly after their second trip, the 1976 Tangshan earthquake struck, destroying their small home and burying them in the rubble. Although Wang Yimeng escaped without major injuries, the experience was harrowing. Afterwards, they relocated to Beijing, where life gradually stabilized with assistance from state leaders such as Deng Yingchao.

On January 10, 1996, Wang Yimeng passed away from illness at the age of 94. Her life was marked by hardship and resilience, sharing in both the struggles and endurance of her husband Sun Yueqi through the upheavals of 20th-century China.