Jianhong Wang

Wang Jianhong (1901–1924), of the Tujia ethnicity, was born in Longtan Town, Youyang County, Sichuan Province. Her mother died when she was 12. Her father, Wang Boshan, was a Tongmenghui member and later served as secretary to Sun Yat-sen's Guangzhou National Government. Her childhood and adolescence were spent in Youyang, where she attended Longtan Higher Primary School and Youyang Lianli Middle School. In the autumn of 1916 she was sent to Changde, Hunan, to be cared for by her aunt Wang Xingyu. In 1916 she enrolled in Taoyuan County Second Girls’ Normal School in Hunan.

During the May Fourth Movement in 1919, she organized female teachers to march in the streets, established a propaganda team and a debate society, and engaged in activities such as boycotting Japanese goods, giving lectures and running night schools, and discussing women’s social issues. The act of cutting off braids became a notable symbol.

After 1919 she went to Shanghai, where she came into contact with Chen Duxiu, Li Da, and others, and embraced new ideas. In 1921, the Shanghai Chinese Women's Federation reorganized into the Chinese Women's Federation, of which Wang Jianhong was one of 23 members. She helped found the weekly Women’s Voice and the People’s School for Women. Women’s Voice was the first female publication founded by the Communist Party; the editors-in-chief were Wang Jianhong and Wang Huiwu, and its contributors included Chen Duxiu, Shen Yanbing, Shen Zemin, Shao Lizi, and others. While helping to establish the People’s School for Women, she persuaded Ding Ling, who was still in Hunan, to come to Shanghai to join the school, and the two became friends. The People’s School for Women and Women’s Voice closed in 1922 due to funding problems, after which she entered Shanghai University to study.

In the summer and autumn of 1923, in Nanjing she met Ding Ling, who had just returned from the Soviet Union, and through introductions by Shi Cun-tong, Qu Qiubai, Ke Qingshi, and others, Wang Jianhong and Ding Ling entered Shanghai University’s Department of Literature, where they studied under Shen Yanbing, Tian Han, and others, and frequently attended Qu Qiubai’s lectures. The two were married in the winter of that year. In January 1924, Qu Qiubai returned to Shanghai from Guangzhou and formally married Wang Jianhong. In July 1924, Wang Jianhong died in Shanghai from a lung illness at the age of only 23.