Outstanding journalistic warrior Fan Changjiang

In 2000, Our country designated November 8 as Journalists' Day every year. This day was chosen to commemorate the establishment of the China Young Journalists Association in Shanghai on November 8, 1937, by Fan Changjiang and other left-wing journalists. As an outstanding journalist in modern China, Fan Changjiang's works such as "China's Northwest Corner", "Plugged Up", and "Remembrance of Simon" have become immortal famous articles in the history of Chinese journalism in the 20th century, and the journalism award named after him has also become the highest award for Journalists in China.

"I no longer keep a little bit of the Kuomintang on me"

Fan Changjiang, whose original name was Fan Xitian, was born on October 16, 1909 in Zhaojiaba, Tian hometown, Neijiang County, Sichuan. Yangtze River is the pen name he used when he submitted his article, and he used it to write about it. Fan Changjiang Middle School received revolutionary enlightenment education, and in 1927, when he was studying at the Chongqing branch of the Sino-French University, he was expelled for actively participating in mass activities and had to go to Wuhan, the center of the Great Revolution at that time.

In Wuhan, Fan Changjiang joined the 20th Military Cadet Battalion of the Revolutionary Army, of which He Long was the commander, and participated in the Nanchang Uprising. In the process of going south, he was separated from the troops, and Fan Changjiang, who was wounded and sick, was even mistaken for death by the body collectors.

After that, he wanted to "find a way out of studying", so in the summer of 1928, he went to Nanjing and was admitted to the Central Party Affairs School. During his time at the school, his ideas gradually shifted from the old Three People's Principles to social reformism, and he joined the Kuomintang. After the September 18 Incident, Fan Changjiang was deeply disappointed by the Kuomintang's non-resistance and "indifferent" attitude after the fall of the country. At that time, the Central Party Affairs School required all students to join the Kuomintang, and Fan Changjiang felt that "joining the Kuomintang was a great shame and great shame", and finally decided to break with the Kuomintang and find another way. He changed the clothes issued by the school, dropped the Kuomintang party card, left the school in anger, "no longer retained a little thing about the Kuomintang on his body", and completely broke with the Kuomintang.

"China's way out, in my case, is to find"

In the autumn of 1932, Fan Changjiang entered the Department of Philosophy of Peking University. The next year, he began to write for the Beiping Morning Post and other articles, and thus embarked on the road of journalism. In January 1933, when the Japanese army captured Shanhaiguan and the Japanese army in Beijing and Tianjin was rampant, Fan Changjiang realized that "the original policy of finding a way out of China from studying did not work." He "very much wants to report what he has seen and bring it to the attention of his countrymen," which is one of the important reasons why he became a journalist.

Fan Changjiang advocated that journalists should have ambitions and "devote their whole lives to studying one or two questions, and these questions are raised from the masses." In his view, there were two problems at that time, that is, the trend of China after the Red Army moved north and the situation in the northwest after the War of Resistance. In order to answer these questions, in 1935, 26-year-old Fan Changjiang, in the name of a travel reporter for the "Ta Kung Pao", went north from Tianjin alone, through Qingdao and Shanghai to Chongqing, and then from Chengdu, through Lanzhou and into the Qilian Mountains, which lasted more than ten months, traveled all over five provinces, traveled more than 12,000 miles, and wrote more than 100 newsletters, which is the famous "Northwest Corner of China" expedition. Fan Changjiang's coverage of the Red Army's Long March predates Snow's "Journey to the West" by at least a year, and he is "the first person in a domestic newspaper to publicly and truthfully report on the 25,000-mile Long March of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army," which effectively promoted the understanding of all sectors of society about the Communist Party of China and the Red Army.

In order to gain an in-depth understanding of the situation in northern Shaanxi, Fan Changjiang requested to go to Yan'an for an interview and was approved. On February 9, 1937, Fan Changjiang arrived in Yan'an and was invited to give a "Talk of the Night" in Mao Zedong's cave that night. This long talk touched on such important issues as "the nature of the revolution in China at the present stage," "the relationship between ethnic and class contradictions," and "the strategy of the War of Resistance Against Japan." In 1969, Fan Changjiang said in "My Self-Description", "These ten hours or so of teaching have solved all the major problems that I have been looking for in the east and the west for ten years and cannot find a way out", and said happily that "China's way out, as far as I am concerned, has found."

According to Mao Zedong's suggestion, Fan Changjiang abandoned the plan to write a book and returned to Shanghai from Xi'an to publicize the CPC's anti-Japanese national united front policy and mobilize the people of the whole country to unanimously resist Japan. He not only published newsletters such as "The Overall Situation in the Northwest in Turmoil" in the Ta Kung Pao, but also serialized the newsletter "Journey to Northern Shaanxi" in the "National News Weekly". When "The Trip to Northern Shaanxi" was published on the occasion of the Third Plenary Session of the Kuomintang Central Committee, Fan Changjiang's communication greatly shocked the participants and caused Chiang Kai-shek to be furious and called Zhang Jiluan, editor-in-chief of the "Ta Kung Pao, to scold him."

In order to promote the anti-enemy struggle on the news front, on November 8, 1937, Fan Changjiang, Hu Yuzhi, Xia Yan and a group of other left-wing journalists established a united front organization for patriotic journalists, the China Young Journalists Association, known in history as "Qingji", that is, the predecessor of the China Journalist Association. In March of the following year, it was renamed the China Young Journalists Association, and the first congress was held in Hankou, and Fan Changjiang was elected as a standing director.

In the autumn of 1938, Fan Changjiang refused the request of Hu Zhengzhi, the manager of the Ta Kung Pao, to equip him with a reporter, a special car, and a radio station, but to "abandon the attitude of supporting the CCP and unconditionally support Chairman Chiang Kai-shek", angrily left the Ta Kung Pao and broke with the class he represented.

Pioneered the new Chinese journalism industry

After leaving the Ta Kung Pao, Fan Changjiang began his career as a journalist under the leadership of the party. He founded news agencies and newspapers and made important contributions to the party's journalism.

In May 1939, introduced by Zhou Enlai, Fan Changjiang joined the Communist Party of China in Chongqing. He first established the International News Agency in Changsha, and then co-founded Huashang Bao in Hong Kong and served as deputy general manager. After the fall of Hong Kong, he traveled to Guilin and Shanghai to reach the anti-Japanese base area in northern Jiangsu and organized the Central China Branch of Xinhua News Agency and Xinhua Daily (Central China Edition). In order to cultivate journalistic talents, it also promoted the establishment of the Central China Journalism College and served as the principal.

In June 1946, Fan Changjiang was ordered to leave the New Fourth Army and arrive in Nanjing to participate in the negotiations between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, and served as the director of the information department of the CPC delegation and was one of the CCP's foreign press spokesmen. In November, Fan Changjiang returned to Yan'an to serve as deputy editor-in-chief of Xinhua News Agency. In March 1947, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China took the initiative to evacuate Yan'an, and Fan Changjiang led a task force of more than 40 people from the Xinhua News Agency headquarters to fight in northern Shaanxi with the Party Central Committee. The main editorials and news of the Party Central Committee during this period were issued, and the red voice that spread throughout the country played an important role in promoting the liberation of China. Fan Changjiang not only edited and distributed many important articles of Mao Zedong, but also witnessed with his own eyes that "Chairman Mao commanded 30,000 or 40,000 people and defeated more than 200,000 hu zongnan" and "the national liberation war turned from defense to counter-offensive", which became the "most precious and memorable experiences" in his life.

Before the founding of New China, Fan Changjiang led the establishment of party newspapers in Beijing and Shanghai. On January 31, 1949, Fan Changjiang led the personnel of the North China People's Daily and the North China Branch of the Xinhua News Agency into Beiping, took over the Kuomintang North China Daily and the radio station, and officially published the Beiping edition of the People's Daily within two days. At the end of April, he entered Shanghai as a cadre going south, serving as the deputy director of culture and education of the Shanghai Military Control Commission, and concurrently serving as the president and editor-in-chief of Liberation Daily. In November, Fan Changjiang returned to Beijing from Shanghai and became the deputy director of the Press and Publication Administration. In January of the following year, he succeeded Hu Qiaomu as president of people's daily. On October 23, 1970, Fan Changjiang was persecuted to death. On December 27, 1978, Fan Changjiang was rehabilitated and was evaluated as an "outstanding journalistic warrior" and "made important contributions to the creation and development of new Chinese journalism."