Kang Keqing (K'ang K'e-ching; ; September 7, 1911 – April 22, 1992) was a politician of the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, and the wife of

Zhu De Zhu De (; ; also Chu Teh; 1 December 1886 – 6 July 1976) was a Chinese general, military strategist, politician and revolutionary in the Chinese Communist Party. Born into poverty in 1886 in Sichuan, he was adopted by a wealthy uncle at ...

until his death in 1976.

Early life

Kang was born to a

Hakka The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka Han, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas are a Han Chinese subgroup whose ancestral homes are chiefly in the Hakka-speaking provincial areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan, Zhej ...

fishing family in the township of Luotangwan () Wan'an County, Jiangxi Province. In order to make ends meet, her parents sold five daughters in succession to other families as brides. Kang was given away when she was 40 days old to a

tenant farmer A tenant farmer is a person (farmer or farmworker) who resides on land owned by a landlord. Tenant farming is an agricultural production system in which landowners contribute their land and often a measure of operating capital and management, ...

called Luo Qigui (). Her future husband had not yet been born at this point and, when the Luo family finally had their child, it was a girl. This child died and Kang was cared for by the Luo family as a daughter; living in a peasant family, Kang was the main source of labour for her adopted parents.

Revolution

In 1924, the Wan'an County Communist member arrived in Kang's village as part of the

Northern Expedition The Northern Expedition was a military campaign launched by the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) of the Kuomintang (KMT), also known as the "Chinese Nationalist Party", against the Beiyang government and other regional warlords in 1926. The ...

and set up various activities to promote revolution, including plays and a night school. The member also promulgated concepts of

gender equality Gender equality, also known as sexual equality or equality of the sexes, is the state of equal ease of access to resources and opportunities regardless of gender, including economic participation and decision-making; and the state of valuing d ...

and freedom in marriage. At approximately age 14, Kang became a member of the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army ( Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, afte ...

. She would later promulgate the idea that

feudalism Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was the combination of the legal, economic, military, cultural and political customs that flourished in medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of structur ...

, imperialism, and bureaucratic

capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, priva ...

were the main enemies of the female labourer. She was elected permanent secretary of the Luotangwan Village Women's Association () and was the first local woman to cut her hair short. From this point onwards, Kang took every opportunity to pursue studies that her background had denied her as a child. In 1927, Chiang Kai-shek opposed the Communists and there was

violent conflict War is an intense armed conflict between State (polity), states, governments, Society, societies, or paramilitary groups such as Mercenary, mercenaries, Insurgency, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violenc ...

. Nearly 200 people in Wan'an were killed and, to temper Kang's revolutionary tendencies, her adoptive parents attempted to arrange a marriage for her. Kang left home in September 1928 and joined a guerilla band seeking shelter with the

Agnes Smedley Agnes Smedley (February 23, 1892 – May 6, 1950) was an American journalist, writer, and activist who supported the Indian Independence Movement and the Chinese Communist Revolution. Raised in a poverty-stricken miner's family in Missouri and Co ...

's biography of Zhu describes her as follows: ″Up from the Wanan district to the west came a delegation of Peasant Partisans, and among them was the woman leader Kang. She carried a rifle as if it were a part of her and, like the men, she walked with lithe decision and certainty. A woman in her middle twenties, of medium height and shingled hair, she wore the usual clean blue jacket and long loose trousers of the peasant woman. Her face was pock-marked and men said that because of this she was not beautiful. But they admitted that her large black eyes were beautiful and shone with the fire of conviction, and when she smiled, two rows of white teeth gleamed between beautiful red lips. Illiterate she was indeed, for she had been the slave of a rich landlord who had bought her in childhood and used her a field laborer. Though she could recognise but a few written characters, still she was very intelligent so that men said of her: ″'Her thoughts are as clear and direct as bullets fired from a machine-gun.'″ Kang married

on 30 December 1930. In 1932, she was made leader of a newly created branch of women volunteers, who were trained in the Red Army School.

Long March

She became a women's leader in the Red Army and was one of a small number of women who were on the

Long March The Long March (, lit. ''Long Expedition'') was a military retreat undertaken by the Red Army of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the forerunner of the People's Liberation Army, to evade the pursuit of the National Army of the Chinese ...

.Smedley, ''The Great Road'', pages 272 In the division of the Fourth Red Army, Kang was sent with

and

Zhang Guotao Zhang Guotao (November 26, 1897 – December 3, 1979), or Chang Kuo-tao, was a founding member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and rival to Mao Zedong. During the 1920s he studied in the Soviet Union and became a key contact with the Comi ...

. In October 1935, Kang fell ill after

's disastrous attempt to establish a communist base in Sichuan. Zhang reportedly kept Kang separated from her husband and attempted to leave her behind when the Fourth Red army moved to Shaanxi, but Zhu managed to bring a doctor and ensured Kang was carried on a stretcher through the Gold Mountains.

Yan'an

Kang was interviewed by the American journalist

Helen Foster Snow Helen Foster Snow (September 21, 1907 – January 11, 1997) was an American journalist who reported from China in the 1930s under the name Nym Wales on the developing Chinese Civil War, the Korean independence movement and the Second Sino-Japan ...

during her stay in

Yan'an Yan'an (; ), alternatively spelled as Yenan is a prefecture-level city in the Shaanbei region of Shaanxi province, China, bordering Shanxi to the east and Gansu to the west. It administers several counties, including Zhidan (formerly Bao'an) ...

. She commented on the military situation, telling Foster Snow that the army's numbers were a problem, but the issue of weaponry was urgent. Kang maintained contact with Foster Snow after this, even giving a speech at a 1991 conference congratulating her on being made Friendship Ambassador to China.

People's Republic of China

Kang served as vice chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), chairman of the

All-China Women's Federation The All-China Women's Federation (ACWF; ) is a women's rights people's organization established in China on 24 March 1949. It was originally called the All-China Democratic Women's Foundation, and was renamed the All-China Women's Federation in ...

, and president of Soong Ching-ling Foundation.

Cultural Revolution

During 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 goa ...

, Kang was under house arrest. She was later rehabilitated.

Rehabilitation

After the fall of the Gang of Four, Kang was instated as the head of the

and is credited with centralising the organisation's bureaucracy. She was a member of the 11th and 12th Central Committees of the Communist Party of China (1977-1987).

Women's Rights

Kang's ideology in the fight for

women's liberation The women's liberation movement (WLM) was a political alignment of women and feminist intellectualism that emerged in the late 1960s and continued into the 1980s primarily in the industrialized nations of the Western world, which effected great ...

is embodied in the slogan 'Seek liberation in war, seek equality in production' (). 'Liberation in war' referred to women joining the revolutionary struggle to attain equality, while 'equality in production' meant that women should attain powers equal to those granted to men. This included the right to labour, which Kang considered fundamental to improving women's economic position. Kang argued 'equality' should also be expanded to politics, culture, science, and technology. At the first meeting of the China Women's Committee in 1949, Kang made a speech advocating the liberation of women's labour and economic development.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kang, Keqing 1911 births 1992 deaths Zhu De family All-China Women's Federation people People's Republic of China politicians from Jiangxi Politicians from Ji'an Women in war in China Chinese politicians of Hakka descent Chinese Communist Party politicians from Jiangxi Vice Chairpersons of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference Burials at Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery