East gate of Beijing Bayi School (20201125113149)

Beijing Bayi School (), also known as the August 1st School, is a public elementary through high school with three campuses in

Haidian District Haidian District () is a district of the municipality of Beijing. It is mostly situated in northwestern Beijing, but also to a lesser extent in the west, where it has borders with Xicheng District and Fengtai District. It is 431 square km in ar ...

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

. Tetsushi Takahashi of '' Nikkei Shimbun'' wrote that Beijing Bayi School is "prestigious".

Evan Osnos Evan Lionel Richard Osnos (born December 24, 1976) is an American journalist and author. He has been a staff writer at ''The New Yorker'' since 2008, best known for his coverage of politics and foreign affairs, in the United States and China. His ...

of ''

New Yorker New Yorker or ''variant'' primarily refers to: * A resident of the State of New York ** Demographics of New York (state) * A resident of New York City ** List of people from New York City * ''The New Yorker'', a magazine founded in 1925 * '' The ...

'' wrote that the "exclusive" Beijing Bayi School was known as the "cradle of leaders" (). - The article refers to the school as the "August 1st School".

History

Nie Rongzhen Nie Rongzhen (; December 29, 1899 – May 14, 1992) was a prominent Chinese Communist military leader, and one of ten Marshals in the People's Liberation Army of China. He was the last surviving PLA officer with the rank of Marshal. Biograph ...

established the school in 1947.

Campuses

Beijing Bayi School north campus (20210104135911)

Beijing Bayi School, primary division (20220404145834)

The school has three campuses: Main, North, and Elementary. The original campus was in a building that previously functioned as a residence for a prince who lived in the

Qing Dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

. It is about north of

Zhongnanhai Zhongnanhai () is a former imperial garden in the Imperial City, Beijing, adjacent to the Forbidden City; it serves as the central headquarters for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the State Council (central government) of China. Zhongn ...

, the residential facility for the top leadership of China.

Student body and student culture

Takahashi stated that in the era prior to the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goal ...

, descendants of the leaders of the

Chinese Communist Party The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victoriou ...

, known as "second-generation reds", were enrolled at Beijing Bayi School. Osnos wrote that in the pre-Cultural Revolution period the pupils "formed a small, close-knit élite; they lived in the same compounds, summered at the same retreats, and shared a sense of

noblesse oblige ''Noblesse oblige'' (; ; literally “nobility obliges”) is a French expression from a time when French (more specifically, Anglo-Norman) was the language of the English nobility, and retains in English the meaning that nobility extends beyo ...

." Mi Hedu, author of ''The Red Guard Generation'', wrote that pre-Cultural Revolution pupils "compared one another on the basis of whose father had a higher rank, whose father rode in a better car."

Notable alumni

Xi Jinping Xi Jinping ( ; ; ; born 15 June 1953) is a Chinese politician who has served as the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), and thus as the paramount leader of China, ...

- Attended at the elementary and junior high school levels, graduated in 1968 *

Khemmani Pholsena Khemmani Pholsena (; born ?) is a Lao politician, Minister and Head of the President's Office and a member of the 11th Central Committee of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP). She is the fifth daughter of former Lao Minister of Foreig ...

- Attended school in Beijing between 1963 and 1969,

References

External links