Fan Changjiang (1909-1970), an outstanding journalist, one of the founders and pioneers of the new Chinese journalism. He successively served as the chief of the Central China Branch and the Central China Branch of the Xinhua News Agency, the director of the Nanjing branch, the deputy editor-in-chief of the Xinhua News Agency, the captain of the Xinhua News Agency Task Force (the Fourth Brigade) during the period when he followed the central government to northern Shaanxi, the vice president of the Xinhua News Agency, the deputy director of the General Administration of Information, and the president of the People's Daily.
In 1935, when internal and external troubles and crises were getting worse, Fan Changjiang, a 26-year-old reporter of the "Ta Kung Pao", explored the road of resisting Japan and saving the country in a mixture of enthusiasm and confusion. He was keenly aware that in the coming War of Resistance Against Japan, northwest China was the great rear of the wartime wartime. At the same time, he came into contact with the Anti-Japanese ideas of the Red Army, which were active in northern Shaanxi, which attracted young hearts to the majestic Loess Plateau.
As a result, Fan Changjiang, as a travel journalist, resolutely began a trip to the northwest corner of China in July of that year. From July 1935 to May 1936, his footprints covered the vast land of Sichuan, Long, Shaanxi, Ningbo, Qingzhou and Inner Mongolia, using real and vivid words to restore the current situation in the northwest region, outlining the difficulties of people's livelihood under the magnificent rivers and mountains: the low-level people who left their hometowns, the Xiaoser villages with ten rooms and nine empty rooms, and the closed and ignorant social atmosphere... Fan Changjiang learned of the whereabouts of a large number of Red Army troops under the leadership of the Communist Party of China. He insisted on objectively reporting the activities of the Red Army. This was the first time in a legal Chinese publication that the Red Army was truthfully publicized and the Red Army's anti-Japanese ideas were published.
After these newsletters were published in the Ta Kung Pao, they caused a sensation and were quickly published in August 1936 under the title "Northwest Corner of China". After the book was published, there was a rush of readers, and seven editions were published in a few months, which became popular throughout the country.
Northwest Corner of China
A few months later (December 12, 1936), the Xi'an Incident broke out. Fan Changjiang, who was interviewing at the combat site in inner Mongolia, immediately took the route of Ningxia via Lanzhou, and arrived in Xi'an on February 2, 1937, despite the wind and snow in the midst of the chaotic army, and after hardships. In Xi'an, Fan Changjiang met comrade Zhou Enlai and asked to go to Yan'an for an interview. With Yan'an's consent, Zhou Enlai sent a car to take him to Yan'an. Fan Changjiang was warmly welcomed by the Communists in Yan'an and came to Comrade Mao Zedong's cave to "talk at night." Mao Zedong made an incisive analysis of the nature and tasks of the Chinese revolution, the general line and policy of the Communist Party at that time, and the anti-Japanese national united front, and suggested that Fan Changjiang return to the United Area to propagate the anti-Japanese national united front policy. Fan Changjiang recalled: "In Yan'an, Chairman Mao taught me an all-nighter, and the ten hours or so of teaching solved all the problems that I had been looking for in the past ten years and finding no way out, and I was really indescribably happy that night. ”
Fan Changjiang was the first Chinese journalist to enter Yan'an from the Kuomintang district. Although he only stayed in Yan'an for one day, he deeply felt the fiery anti-Japanese sentiment here. After returning to the Kuomintang area, Fan Changjiang objectively and enthusiastically reported on Yan'an and the Chinese revolution. After the outbreak of the "July 7 Incident", Fan Changjiang risked his life to insist on reporting on the battlefield, collected and published "Lugou Bridge to Zhanghe" and "Storm on the Western Front", and conveyed the smoke and blood of the battlefield to the benevolent people with patriotic hearts with infinite patriotic enthusiasm.
Left: "Lugou Bridge to Zhanghe", Right: "Western Front"
Yan'an in the 1930s and 1940s was like a beacon that illuminated the way forward for the Chinese revolution and attracted revolutionary forces to northern Shaanxi. Fan Changjiang's experience is a microcosm of a generation of young intellectuals who pursued salvation and survival in the process of exploration, rushed to the revolution, embraced the revolution, and finally embarked on the revolutionary road.
After the peaceful liberation of Peiping, Fan Changjiang, then editor-in-chief of xinhua news agencies, led the party's news team into Beiping and became one of the founders and pioneers of new China's journalism. The "Yangtze River Taofen Award," the highest award for journalists in the country, was developed to commemorate Comrade Fan Changjiang.