The anti-screening struggle, in the name of youth to defend the right to read

After the victory of the War of Resistance, the Kuomintang government moved back to Nanjing. For a time, the receiving staff flew all over the sky, and the "five sons Dengke" received busy.

Just when the people were feeling disappointed and complaining, the Kuomintang also talked about "integrity" and referred to the teachers at all levels in the former occupied areas as "pseudo-teachers," while the students in colleges and middle schools were called "pseudo-students," and stipulated that they should be subjected to screening and examination. This discrimination and insult finally aroused public outrage.

Under the leadership of the ccp's underground party, students in Nanjing fought against the Kuomintang authorities for the right to study. The interrogation and the anti-screening suddenly collided with the spark of resistance.

Secondary school students boycott the exam

On September 26, 1945, the Kuomintang government promulgated the "Measures for the Screening of Students from Secondary Schools and Above in the Recovery Districts", stating that graduates, graduates, and students in schools in the former occupied areas were "pseudo-students" and should all be screened and trained. "All subjects examined are Chinese, English, and the Three People's Principles", and "punctuation notes on the relics of the Founding Father and the Destiny of China" and submits more than 20,000 words each to the main study report and academic papers." Even the faculty and staff were not spared.

As soon as the screening method comes out, it means that people who are still suffering from unemployment, hunger, and poverty after the arrival of the "central authorities" will not only have no guarantee for their lives and way out, but will also put on a hat of "rebellion" on their heads and fall into deeper suffering.

At a moment when the young students were wandering, the Nanjing Working Committee of the Communist Party of China took advantage of the situation and called on the students to "strive for survival with struggle and win with struggle", and promoted the students to carry out the struggle against discrimination, survival, and the right to study.

The anti-screening struggle in Nanjing began in middle school. At that time, when more than 1,600 middle school students who were subject to screening were disbanded from schools, teachers and students were unemployed and out of school, they petitioned the special commissioner of the Ministry of Education in Beijing and Shanghai districts several times, demanding that the government quickly accept the school and continue to attend classes, protesting the insulting title of "pseudo-student" and opposing the screening examination, but there was no result. The Nanjing Municipal Bureau of Education announced that October 29 will be the time for secondary school students to review the examination.

In October, underground CCP members and progressive students from colleges, model boys' middle schools, model girls' middle schools, and national normal schools secretly established the Four Schools Joint Anti-Screening Preparatory Committee, and in the case of repeated petitions without results, the preparatory committee decided to organize a strike and collectively boycott the screening. On the 29th, there were very few students in the examination hall of Jinling University. The authorities, enraged by the fact that they dispatched gendarmes to various schools to drag students to the examination halls, distributed dry food to the students who had already entered the examination rooms, were not allowed to go home to eat, and arrested 5 students who boycotted the examinations. Still, just over 500 students took the exam.

Since most of the students boycotted the exam, the authorities had to announce the make-up exam on November 4 and made concessions, promising that as long as they took the exam, they could enter the temporary secondary school and no longer be called "pseudo-students" in the future. Considering that the struggle had already won a substantial victory, the Nanjing Working Committee of the CPC instructed its party members to mobilize activists and the broad masses of students to seize the favorable opportunity to take the examination and strive for all students to return to school. In this way, about 1450 students took the "screening" examination.

The "anti-screening" movement of Nanjing middle school students was the starting point of the Nanjing student movement led by the Party after the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and also the prelude to the "anti-screening" movement of Nanjing university students in November of the same year.

National Central University

Pro University Cram School

At the same time that the "anti-screening" movement of middle school students won victories, students from Central University and other schools also launched a struggle against screening under the leadership of the party. In order to oppose discrimination and strive to open the school in the fall, middle school students have successively adopted various methods such as petitions, submissions, and press conferences. Under the initiative of underground party members Zhong Peizhang, Shi Zhengjian and other students, the "Central University Student Self-Government Association" was established. On October 10, the Student Self-Government Association took the opportunity of the "Double Tenth Festival" parade in Nanjing to write a letter to Chiang Kai-shek and handed the article to the reviewing officer, He Yingqin, commander-in-chief of the army. In the submission, the students demanded that the government correct the discriminatory policy, recognize the student's student status, prepare for the start of the fall school immediately, and improve the living conditions of the students.

On October 12, the education department announced that temporary university cram classes will be set up in Nanjing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Beiping, and Wang Shulin will be appointed as the head of the nanjing Linda tuition class. However, it is still claimed that students must register for screening before they can enter the cram school.

In November, CUHK students petitioned the Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Education's Beijing-Shanghai District three times, demanding recognition of student status and the opening of an official university against screening. Authorities rejected requests from students. However, due to the strong resistance of students in various places, the Ministry of Education, in order to alleviate the contradictions, changed the original "first screening, then remedial study" to all first remedial studies, and announced that the Nanjing Linda cram school will open on December 1, and the tuition and accommodation fees will be waived.

After the opening of the nanjing linda cram school, the class teacher Wang Shulin was keen on receiving materials and had no time to take care of the students. After the cram school was officially opened, students from the College of Engineering and medical school were sent to Shanghai to study, and the cost of food and lodging had to be settled by themselves. Nanjing's more than 2,000 students have just over 20 classrooms. There is a shortage of water and electricity in the student dormitories, and the living allowance is far away, so the complaints are getting higher and higher.

On the morning of January 6, 1946, hundreds of students approached Wang Shulin to reason. Wang Shulin's arrogant attitude aroused the public outrage of the students. A student picked up a human head specimen "skull" and threw it at the king, whose eye was scratched. Subsequently, the students dragged Wang Shulin to the Ministry of Education to petition, it was a cold winter, and the students waited from noon to late at night.

At about 3:00 a.m., the military police rushed into the compound of the Ministry of Education to drive away the students and took Wang Shulin away in the chaos. Several petitioning students were arrested by the military police. At the protest and demand of the students, Mayor Ma Junchao ordered the release of the people, and The Vice Minister of Education Hang Liwu also promised to properly solve the relevant problems. In the early morning of the 7th, the petitioning students lined up to return to the school.

Afterwards, the education authorities announced the expulsion of Yu Baiqing and 14 other students on charges of inciting a student uprising, gathering a crowd to beat up government members, and detaining Director Wang. The district court arrested eight key members of the Student Self-Government Association on charges of assaulting the division commander.

Wildfires burn endlessly

For a time, the Nanjing press circles had different opinions on the causes and consequences of the incident, which was right and wrong, and all sectors of society were also extremely concerned. On January 9, 1946, the students of the Nanjing Linda Cram School announced a strike, and on the 10th, under the titles of "Our Crying Complaint" and "Judgment Demanding Justice", they issued a complaint "Letter to The National Classmates" and the "Letter to the National Compatriots", revealing the situation of the students in the Linda Cram School, protesting the persecution of the authorities, and appealing for sympathy and support from all walks of life.

On January 24, eight arrested students were persecuted in a hunger strike after writing a death note. On the evening of the 24th, the students of Linsu University urgently discussed and suspended classes from the 25th until the matter was justly resolved. The next day, hundreds of students marched to Xinjiekou, and students and people from all walks of life visited the prison. Zhejiang University, Sun Yat-sen University, Jinan University, Shanghai Federation of Students and other foreign institutions and organizations sent letters of solidarity and carried out solidarity activities.

The Capital District Court heard the case in public on the afternoon of January 30, and eight volunteer defense lawyers vigorously defended the students. At about 6 p.m., the court acquitted the eight arrested students. As soon as the eight classmates were released from prison, Wu Zhaotang, the head of the Linda Training Department, blackmailed them into taking the lead in participating in the anti-Soviet and anti-communist "anti-specialization of the northeast" demonstration in the name of "patriotism." They immediately refused.

So the authorities forcibly sent them to Shanghai Linda University and Fudan University in an attempt to divide and disintegrate the progressive forces of Nanjing students. But the student movement is still "wildfires burn endlessly, and the spring breeze blows again." These students continued to join the "Shanghai Branch of the 12.1 Alumni Association" and joined the ranks of the anti-hunger and anti-civil war movement.

The student anti-screening struggle was the first direct struggle between the people of Nanjing led by the Communist Party and the Kuomintang reactionaries during the Liberation War. After this struggle, college students became the backbone and main force of the Nanjing patriotic student movement and continued to write a new chapter in a more brilliant patriotic student movement.

Source: Nanjing Red Online, China