Fan Changjiang

Fan Changjiang

Fan Changjiang (October 16, 1909 - October 23, 1970), male, formerly known as Xitian, was born in the countryside of Neijiang City, Sichuan Province. He joined the Communist Party of China in 1939. He is a famous journalist in China. He is an outstanding leader of the proletarian journalism and a pioneer of the journalism in New China. He plays an important role in the history of modern journalism in China. He once served as the general manager of Xinhua news agency, deputy director of the General Administration of information, President of people's daily, etc.

Fan Changjiang pursued revolution and progress in his youth, and actively participated in the Anti Japanese and national salvation movement. In 1935, he went to the northwest of China for investigation and interview, publicly reported on the long march of the Red Army, and wrote such classic works as "the northwest corner of China" and "ascending the frontier". On January 31, 1949, Peiping was peacefully liberated. Changjiang led a group of "news soldiers" to Beiping with the vanguard troops of the people's Liberation Army, and became one of the founders and pioneers of new China's journalism. In January 1950, Fan Changjiang was appointed president of the people's daily. During his lifetime, he wrote a lot of excellent news reports, served as the leader of news organizations, and made great contributions to the national journalism.

In 1991, the China Association for journalists and the Fan Changjiang News Award Foundation jointly established the "Fan Changjiang News Award", which is a national high-level News Award for young and middle-aged journalists in China. The award was merged with "Taofen News Award" in 2005 to become "Yangtze River Taofen Award". In memory of Comrade Fan Changjiang, November 8 (the date when Fan Changjiang founded the China Young Journalists Association) is designated as "China Journalists day" by the State Council every year.

Life of the characters

Extraordinary youth

In October 1909, Fan Changjiang was born in ZHAOJIABA village, Neijiang City, Sichuan Province.

Fan Changjiang has been studying with his cousin and grandfather since he was young. He also often imitates his grandfather's appearance and tone, shaking his head and reciting the famous words of his ancestor Fan Zhongyan.

In early 1927, Fan Changjiang, who failed to apply for the Huangpu Military Academy, entered the Chongqing Branch of Sino French university to study. Sino French Chongqing branch is a school founded by Wu Yuzhang, a Communist Party member, to propagate Marxism Leninism and train revolutionary cadres. Fan Changjiang gradually accepted the idea of anti imperialist and anti warlord here. He actively participated in social activities and gave a propaganda speech on anti imperialist and anti warlord in the street with his classmates.

After the "Nanjing Incident", Fan Changjiang took part in the demonstration after the incident and fought against the reactionary warlords who suppressed the demonstration. He became the wanted object of the reactionary warlords in Sichuan. He was forced to leave Chongqing and come to Wuhan. In order to make a living, Fan Changjiang joined the teaching regiment of the 20th army of the National Revolutionary Army led by he long, became a student soldier, and went to Nanchang with he long.

On August 1, 1927, Fan Changjiang took part in the famous Nanchang Uprising on August 1. After the Nanchang Uprising, Fan Changjiang was besieged by the reactionary forces of the Kuomintang on his way to battle with his troops. He lost contact with the troops and went to Nanjing.

Hard choices

In the autumn of 1928, Fan Changjiang was admitted to the central political school. The school, formerly known as the central party affairs school, is a university for the Kuomintang government to train administrative cadres, with Chiang Kai Shek as its president. Fan Changjiang studied in the Department of rural administration, intending to "build an ideal world in the poor countryside in the future". Here, Fan Changjiang joined the Kuomintang. However, the September 18th Incident changed Fan Changjiang's dream. Fan Changjiang clearly realized that the way out was to resist Japan and save the country, while the place where the Kuomintang trained so-called talents was not his destination. So fan Chang Jiang changed his school uniform and left Nanjing secretly. In the letter left to the school authorities, Fan Changjiang openly stated his own view: "reasonable education should inspire young people's thoughts, enable them to have a correct grasp of the laws of the universe and life, and then cooperate with the environment of various times to cultivate their ability to serve mankind and the country.". As he left the school, Fan Changjiang announced his departure from the Kuomintang.

Entering Peking University

At the beginning of 1932, Fan Changjiang came to Peiping and got a job of editing and pasting materials in the national language dictionary compilation office under the leadership of Li Jinxi. In the autumn of the same year, with his own efforts and the help of friends, he entered the Department of philosophy of Peking University.

During his stay in Peking University, Fan Changjiang extensively dabbled in philosophy, politics, economy, English and other books to enrich himself, and always paid attention to the development of the Anti Japanese situation. He often ponders: how to use the correct philosophy to serve the reality? In a class, he asked the professor two questions: first, what should we do if the people of the whole country want to resist Japan but the government does not? Second, a person is hungry, and he has no money, but the shop is full of food, can you bring it to eat? The answer is: This is not a matter of philosophy. Philosophy is mainly to understand the situation of various schools, not to solve practical problems. The professor's answer once again made Fan Changjiang lose confidence in university education. He decided to go out of his study and plunge into the real war of resistance.

Employment news

Since the second half of 1933, Fan Changjiang began to write news newsletters for the morning post in Peking, the world daily, and the Yishi daily in Tianjin, mostly in terms of culture and education. Because of his concise writing and unique perspective, he attracted the attention of Tianjin Ta Kung Pao press. Hu Zhengzhi, general manager of Ta Kung Pao, personally invited Fan Changjiang to write for Ta Kung Pao. Ta Kung Pao was a newspaper with national influence at that time, and its popularity was very high, so Fan Changjiang agreed. At the end of this year, after investigation and research, Fan Changjiang successively wrote several newsletters, such as "Buddhism in Peking University", "Tao Xisheng and" Shihuo "," Gu Jiegang and "Yugong", and "archives of Ming and Qing Dynasties collected by Peking University Research Institute and their arrangement", which were published in Ta Kung Pao and morning post.

A move to fame

At a time when Japanese militarism coveted China and the whole people's war of resistance against Japan was inevitable, Fan Changjiang realized from a reporter's political sensitivity that once war broke out between China and Japan, the coastal areas could not be defended for a long time, and the rear area of the war of resistance against Japan must be in the northwest and southwest. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate and study these areas.

When Fan Changjiang was 25 years old, as a special correspondent of Ta Kung Pao, he started from Chengdu and went through West Sichuan, East Gansu, Qilian Mountain, Hexi Corridor, Helan Mountain and Inner Mongolia He has traveled more than half of China and experienced more than 2000 kilometers. This journey is no less than the 25000 Li Long March. Not only that, he also wrote a lot of news reports, which truly recorded the miserable life of the people in Northwest China.

In May 1935, Fan Changjiang began his famous trip to the northwest in the name of travel reporter of Ta Kung Pao. After a short stay in Sichuan, he passed Jiangyou, Pingwu, Songpan, Xigu, Minxian and other places in Sichuan, and arrived in Lanzhou two months later. After a short rest in Lanzhou, he went west to Dunhuang, Yumen and Xining, and north to Linhe, Wuyuan and Baotou.

Fan Changjiang's trip to the West lasted for 10 months, more than 6000 Li, and achieved fruitful results. He wrote a large number of travel letters along the way, which truly recorded the hardships of the people in Northwest China, and made a profound description of the religious and ethnic relations in minority areas. More importantly, his travel letters also recorded the real situation of the long march of the Red Army. What is more valuable is that for the first time, Fan Changjiang openly and objectively reported the traces of the Red Army's long march in a realistic way, and his sympathy for the Red Army and even his respect for the Red Army were clearly expressed between the lines. After Fan Changjiang's newsletters were published in Ta Kung Pao one after another, they caused strong repercussions in the whole country, and the number of Ta Kung Pao's publications increased sharply. Soon after these newsletters were compiled into the book "northwest corner of China", there was a rush of readers to buy them. "Before January, thousands of the first edition were sold out, but the buyers were still very enthusiastic." Within a few months, the book was published in seven editions and became popular all over the country. Fan returned to Tianjin for his official visit. He successively wrote such famous correspondences as "from Jiayuguan to Shanhaiguan", "a trip to bailing temple after the war", "reminiscence of Simon" and so on.

Adventure interview

In December 1936, the Xi'an Incident broke out. Regardless of his personal safety, he went straight to the center of the incident and interviewed Zhou Enlai. After the outbreak of the war of resistance against Japan, Fan Changjiang went deep into the field to interview "under the enemy's fire" and wrote a large number of field communication reports. Zhou Enlai said in a letter to him: "it is not only exciting but also touching to hear the heroic news of the war you reported on the front line and return with glorious scars." Every time I think about it, it's very exciting!

In December 1936, after the "Xi'an Incident", Fan Changjiang decided to go to Xi'an, Yan'an and other places for interviews. "I am determined to go to Xi'an at all costs to explore Chinese politics." At that time, the Northwest's external transportation was completely cut off, and Fan Changjiang made use of all kinds of personal relations to venture to Lanzhou. He convinced Yu Xuezhong, chairman of Gansu Province and commander of the 51st army, to allocate a military truck and send several fully armed guards to accompany him to Xi'an.

On the evening of February 2, 1937, Fan Changjiang finally arrived in Xi'an in spite of the wind and snow. On February 4, with the assistance of colleagues from the Xi'an Distribution Office of Ta Kung Pao and the introduction of Deng Baoshan, President of Shaanxi Province, Fan Changjiang came to General Yang Hucheng's residence. Comrade Zhou Enlai warmly received Fan Changjiang, a 27 year old war correspondent of Ta Kung Pao, who came from the front line of Suiyuan and risked his life to enter Xi'an. After interviewing Zhou Enlai, Fan Changjiang visited Xi'an

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