Beijing Esperanto Association forty years | Unforgettable inaugural meeting
Weilun Li is a professor at Beijing Language and Culture University
On January 25, 1981, the inaugural meeting of The Beijing Esperanto Association was held at the Xinqiao Hotel. Qiu He, vice president of the Beijing Language Institute, asked for a big car and pulled the teachers and students of the Beihai Esperanto study class to the venue. The year before, I recruited a university student at the Xinqiao Hotel, and through her connections, the Xinqiao Hotel provided a large auditorium for free. At the inaugural meeting, one of my students gave a congratulatory speech in Esperanto on behalf of Beiyu, and his voice tone was very good, which was affirmed by the radio comrades and asked if he could work at the radio station in the future. Many famous Esperanto predecessors attended the conference, remembering Chu Tunan, Chen Yuan, Fang Shanjing, Chen Shide, Ye Junjian, Ge Baoquan, Zhang Hongfan, Zhang Qicheng, Li Naixi, Zeng Heyao, and so on. I was elected to the first Council and have been engaged in Esperanto activities since then under the leadership of the World Association.
(Early establishment of the Beijing World Association)
Author: Lee Weilun
Ge Baoquan, the first president of the Beijing Esperanto Association
Ge Baoquan (1913.2.15-2000.5.15), the first president of the Beijing Esperanto Association, was a native of Dongtai, Jiangsu Province. Graduated from Daxia University in Shanghai (now East China Normal University) in 1932, he is a famous foreign literary researcher, translator, and expert in Soviet literature in China, and the first diplomat sent abroad after the founding of New China.
Gobaoquan introduced Pushkin to China, and his translation of the Famous Passage of the Soviet writer Gorky, "Haiyan", was included in the Chinese secondary school language textbook.
Between 1928 and 1930, Ge Baoquan came into contact with and began to teach esperanto on his own while studying at Daxia University in Shanghai. Later, during his work at Xinhua Daily, led by Zhou Enlai, he participated in Esperanto activities and interacted with well-known Esperanto speakers at home and abroad.
In early August 1979, Hu Yuzhi, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and president of the All-China Esperanto Association, presided over the National Esperanto Work Forum and decided to fully resume Esperanto work. Esperanto speakers in Beijing took the initiative to prepare for the Beijing Esperanto Association.
(Group photo of the preparatory group of the Beijing World Association)
In May 1980, the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China issued an instruction: "It is agreed to establish the Beijing World Association, and comrade Ge Baoquan should preferably be the president." To this end, the preparatory group headed by Ge Baoquan began to work intensively, and under his leadership and careful arrangements, the preparatory work was carried out smoothly. On January 25, 1981, the Beijing Esperanto Association was officially established, and the inaugural meeting held at the Xinqiao Hotel in Beijing was held very solemnly, and Shen Yanbing, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference; Hu Yuzhi, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and president of the All-China World Association; Liao Jingdan, deputy director of the Propaganda Department of the CPC Central Committee; and Jia Tinglan, secretary of the Beijing Municipal CPC Committee, called and sent congratulatory letters respectively. Zhang Zhiyi, deputy director of the United Front Work Department of the CPC Central Committee; Chu Tunan, member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, member of the Standing Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and vice president of the Chinese Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries; Lu Ji, vice chairman of the All-China Federation of Literary and Art Circles; ye Lishi, vice chairman of the All-China World Association, attended the meeting, and Ge Baoquan was elected chairman of the Beijing World Association.
In 1985, the 72-year-old Ge Baoquan led a 40-member Beijing Esperanto delegation to attend the First National Esperanto Congress held in Kunming, and made a report in Esperanto on the topic of the conference, "The Road and Development of the Esperanto Movement in China", which was welcomed and praised by Esperanto speakers from all over the country. In the fifth year of its establishment, the Beijing Esperanto Association held the 71st International Esperanto Congress in Beijing, which was the first international congress held in China after the reform and opening up, with more than 1,000 foreigners participating. As the head of the Beijing Esperanto delegation, Ge Baoquan made a keynote speech in Esperanto on "Mutual Understanding, Peaceful Development": "Over the past half century, because we have had Esperanto as a tool, we have enhanced and strengthened mutual understanding among the peoples of all countries and achieved peace and progress for mankind..." His speech won warm applause from the representatives of Esperanto speakers from 50 countries around the world. (Beijing Esperanto Association)
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<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="15" > International Esperanto Association</h1>