Liao Chengzhi - Early Life

Early Life

Liao was born in the Ookubo neighbourhood of Tokyo in 1908 to father Liao Zhongkai and mother He Xiangning. His father, a native of Huiyang in Huizhou, Guangdong, had wanted to study abroad ever since he was a student at Hong Kong's Queens' College; he left his wife behind in Hong Kong to pursue his studies in Tokyo in January 1903, but she joined him there just three months later. She pursued education there as well, taking time off after young Liao was born, but returning to school just six months later. Liao was overweight as a child; even his own parents referred to him as "fatty" (Hakka: 肥仔). His parents became members of the Kuomintang very early on; Sun Yat-sen was a frequent visitor to their household, sparking the young Liao's interest in politics. He and his sister Liao Mengxing also studied wushu with one of Sun's bodyguards. His family moved frequently; the young Liao attended school in Tokyo, Shanghai, and Guangzhou.

Liao returned to his parents' home of Guangdong in 1923, where he entered the middle school attached to Lingnan University. He first met Zhou Enlai, who was then an instructor at the Whampoa Military Academy in Guangzhou, the following year. Under Zhou's influence, Liao became further interested in politics, and joined the Kuomintang. In June 1925, he was one of the leaders of a protest march in Guangzhou which was fired upon by British and French troops, in what became known as the Shaji Incident; Liao himself had his hat shot off, and barely escaped with his life. His father was assassinated two months later by a member of a rival faction in the Kuomintang. In 1927, fearing for her family's lives, his mother took Liao and his siblings back into exile in Tokyo. The following year, Xu not only entered Waseda University, but also joined the Tokyo branch of the Chinese Communist Party, which provoked the university to expel him. His political activities also attracted unfavourable attention from the Japanese government, which deported him in the summer of that year; he then proceeded to Shanghai.

In November 1928, Liao went to Berlin, Germany, where he both studied and continued his political activities. His mother, who had returned to China from Japan, soon left the country again in disgust with Chiang Kai-shek's government; she first went to Paris where she made a living selling paintings before joining her son in Berlin. His mother would return to Shanghai with Soong Ching-ling in September 1931, just after the Mukden Incident, to join the anti-Japanese resistance movement. Around the same time, Liao was arrested by German police and deported again; he followed his mother to Shanghai in 1932. He then became secretary of the Communist Party Group of the National Seamen's Union. His political activities again brought him trouble, leading to his arrest in March 1933; however, he was released due to the efforts of Soong Ching-ling. Back in Shanghai, Liao struck up a relationship with Jing Puchun (经普椿); her father Jing Hengyi (经亨颐), a painter, was Liao's mother's friend, former classmate in Japan, and neighbour. Jing Puchun had come from Zhejiang to Shanghai with her elder brother to visit him. She was just 16 at the time. Her elder brother objected strenuously to their relationship, due to Liao's CPC membership; he feared his sister would get mixed up in political conflicts. In mid-July, her elder brother took her back to Zhejiang. The two kept in touch by letters; in August 1933, when Liao received CPC orders sending him to the Sichuan–Shaanxi area, he asked Jing in a letter to "wait for me for two years, if you truly love me".