Marxist literary critic who first sang The Internationale in Chinese, and party leader in 1927
18 June 1935, a small hill in Changting's Zhongshan Park. Facing the firing squad, Qu Qiubai sat down on the grass, smiled at the executioner and said, "Right here is fine!" He died singing The Internationale.
A leading intellectual of the May Fourth generation, Qu learned Russian and became one of the first Chinese correspondents to report on Bolshevik Russia from Moscow. Returning in 1923, he succeeded Chen Duxiu as de facto leader of the CCP, directing an insurrectionary line that included the Guangzhou Uprising, and served on the Comintern Executive Committee Presidium. After his political fall, he co-led the League of Left-Wing Writers with Lu Xun and Mao Dun, laying the foundations of Marxist literary theory in China and translating Russian and Soviet literature: most enduringly The Internationale into Chinese. Arrested by the Kuomintang in 1935, he was executed in Changting, singing The Internationale on the way to his death.
Career Timeline
- 1920–1922Moscow correspondent, Chenbao (Morning News)
- 1922Joined the CCP in Moscow
- 1923CCP Central Committee member; party propaganda and journal editor
- 1927–1928Head of CCP Provisional Politburo (de facto party leader)
- 1928–1930Comintern ECCI Presidium member; head of CCP delegation, Moscow
- 1930–1931CCP Central Committee; dismissed after 'putschist' criticism
- 1931–1934Led League of Left-Wing Writers, Shanghai; translation and literary criticism with Lu Xun
- 1934–1935Commissar of Education, Chinese Soviet Republic; editor of Red China