History
The PMTI was one of the outcomes of the First United Front between the Kuomintang (KMT or Nationalist Party) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) during early-mid-1920s. In 1923, the KMT-CCP Alliance had been formed. The KMT was then led by Sun Yat-sen and carried out the policies of “alliance with Soviet Russia, cooperation with the Communists, and assistance to peasant and worker movements”. In 1924, Peng Pai (彭湃), one of the leaders of the CCP at its early stage, became a member of KMT and served as the Secretary of Peasant Department of KMT Central Committee. Based on Peng Pai’s idea and suggestion, the KMT Central Committee decided to set up the institute to train young idealists from all over China who then went out to educate the masses in rural China. The decision to establish the PMTI was historic, in that it was the first formal government-sponsored training institute for rural political activities. The institute was officially opened on July 3, 1924, in Guangzhou (Canton) in Huizhou Association headquarters (惠州会馆) at 53 Yue-Xiu-Nan-Lu (越秀南路), with Peng Pai as Director. Between July 1924 and September 1926, there were totally 6 classes or terms held in the PMTI. Peng Pai was the Director for 1st and 5th terms, and Mao Zedong was the Director for 6th term or class with the largest size. Luo Yiyuan (罗绮园), Yuan Xiaoxian (阮啸仙), and Tan Zhitang (谭植棠) were Directors for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th terms, respectively. Some of the famous figures in the CCP lectured here, including Zhou Enlai, Yun Daiying (恽代英), and Xiao Chu-nv (萧楚女) .
The institute was closed in 1926 as the relationship between the Nationalists and Communists disintegrated. Many former students were killed during the failed 1927 uprising and are remembered in the Martyrs Memorial Park.
The Peasant Movement Training Institute was opened as a commemorative site in the 1950s and the lecture rooms and dormitories of the young revolutionaries have been recreated.
Read more about this topic: Peasant Movement Training Institute At Guangzhou
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The second day of July 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more”
—John Adams (1735–1826)
“Humankind has understood history as a series of battles because, to this day, it regards conflict as the central facet of life.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)
“It is the true office of history to represent the events themselves, together with the counsels, and to leave the observations and conclusions thereupon to the liberty and faculty of every man’s judgement.”
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626)