Zhang Qinqiu, a Heroine from Zhejiang——From the Only Female General of the Red Army to the Founding Minister of the PRC

On July 1, 2018, a lecture entitled “Zhang Qinqiu, a Heroine from Zhejiang——From the Only Female General of the Red Army to the Founding Minister of the PRC” was held in Zhejiang Library. Zhou Wenyi, a famous biographer and playwright attended and presided over the lecture. Multiple audiences who were fond of literature also participated in the lecture.

During the lecture, Mr. Zhou Wenyi introduced the legendary life of Zhang Qinqiu in a vivid manner. With simple but profound expressions full of witty remarks, Mr. Zhou revealed the whole life of Zhang Qinqiu from the only female general in the Red Army to the founding minister of the PRC, and from an ordinary student to a war heroine. Zhang Qinqiu stayed true to her missions and made unremitting efforts for these missions during that unforgettable era. Mr. Zhou’s gentle but eloquent language, coupled with multiple photos and passages of historical materials, rendered a real, vivid and well-rounded image of Zhang, covering her family, education, marriage, and revolution.

Zhang Qinqiu, a native of Tongxiang County, Zhejiang Province, graduated from Zhejiang Provincial Women's Normal School, with her student name as Zhang Wu. Zhang Qinqiu was a famous and the only female general of the Red Army in history. She joined the Chinese Communist Party in November 1924 and studied at Moscow Sun Yat-sen University. During the Long March, she held important positions such as the director of the Political Department of the Fourth Red Army and a member of the North-West Bureau of Central Committee of Chinese Communist Party.

After the founding of the PRC, Zhang served as the deputy party secretary and deputy minister of the Ministry of Textile Industry. In 1968, this outstanding woman suffered cruel persecution during the Cultural Revolution and she fought resolutely at the cost of her life. During the political rehabilitation in 1979, Marshal Xu Xiangqian presided over her memorial meeting.

We were infected by Mr. Zhou’s passionate telling and also lamented over the helplessness of Zhang Qinqiu. As the lecture drew to a close, audiences still hoped to know more about this heroine who had outstanding achievements during the revolutionary war and the peacetime construction period.

At the end of the lecture, Mr. Zhou answered questions raised by enthusiastic audiences one by one, and they also made many interactions around the theme.