Patriotism beyond the ABCs: a school that turned idealism into action

Editor’s note:

Rome wasn’t built in a day. Neither was Shanghai. Once dubbed "the Paris of the East,” the city has evolved into a fusion of multiculturalism. Along the way, Shanghai has accumulated a repository of stories about the people and events that have shaped its history. Five areas of the city occupy pride of place in that journey: People’s Square, Jing’an Temple, Xujiahui, Lujiazui and Xintiandi. This series, a collaboration with Shanghai Local Chronicles Library, visits them all to follow in the footsteps of time.

Yangjing Middle School in the Lujiazui area of Pudong became more than a place of learning during the war against Japanese invaders and the civil war against the Kuomintang.

Behind its gates, students secretly read books banned by the Kuomintang government, and were inspired by ideas of resistance and change. Teachers like Lian Baisheng (1908-1992) transformed ideals into action, leading students from classrooms to the front lines of the anti-Japanese struggle.

As the Chinese civil war approached, the school evolved into a hub of underground activism, its legacy cemented in Shanghai’s fight for liberation.

Lian arrived at the school in 1935 as a librarian and teacher. Despite the “white terror” of the time, with Communist ideas under heavy suppression, Lian quietly resisted. In the school’s library, banned books like Edgar Snow’s “Red Star Over China” and “Inside Red China” by Nym Wales circulated among students, introducing them to the Communist Party of China’s vision of resistance and social justice.

The impact was profound. Many students, inspired by the Party’s call for national mobilization, began to align with its ideals. The tension between the school’s progressive elements and the controlling Kuomintang forces reached a peak in 1936 when Lian’s candid remarks at a school function nearly led to his arrest for “Communist sympathies.”

Though he escaped immediate persecution, his revolutionary resolve only deepened.

In August 1937, stray artillery fire destroyed a corner of the school in the Battle of Shanghai during the war against Japanese invaders. Lian was determined to return to his hometown in Nanhui County to join the armed resistance.

He rallied local youth, including some of his former students, to form the Fourth Unit of the Nanhui County Defense Corps. This group, later known as the “Lian Baisheng troop” among local residents, became a formidable anti-Japanese force.

By 1941, Lian’s guerrilla group had become a critical part of the Communist resistance in eastern China. His troops moved to the Siming Mountains in Zhejiang Province, a rugged region that became a stronghold for anti-Japanese activities. Operating deep behind enemy lines, Lian’s unit staged ambushes, sabotage missions and intelligence-gathering operations that hindered Japanese advances in the region.

Meanwhile, Yangjing Middle School remained an epicenter of underground activism. Even as Lian and his students engaged in armed resistance, the school’s teachers and students carried out acts of defiance.

They circulated anti-Kuomintang propaganda, organized fundraisers to support the resistance and collected intelligence for Communist forces. The efforts culminated in 1949, during the final stages of the civil war, when the school played a significant role in helping the People’s Liberation Army liberate Shanghai.

By the time of the city’s liberation, the school had a well-organized network of student activists, many of whom later took prominent roles in rebuilding the city and the nation.

Students such as Lin Youyong and Gu Zhengjun carried the revolutionary torch into the founding years of the People’s Republic of China. Lin later became a military leader in Zhejiang Province, while Gu earned commendations for his service in the army and later joined the Chinese People’s Volunteers with Lian to fight on the front lines of the 1950-53 Korean War.