The May Thirtieth Lecture Hall

The May Thirtieth Lecture Hall

The May Thirtieth Lecture Hall is situated in Bexian Park in Zhenjiang City. It was constructed to commemorate the May Thirtieth Tragedy, ensuring that this event would be remembered forever. On June 3, 1925, schools, business entities, and civic organizations in Zhenjiang formed the “Zhenjiang Foreign Affairs Support Association” to back the May Thirtieth Movement in Shanghai and to protest the Japanese imperialists' killing of Gu Zhenghong, a Shanghai worker and Party member, as well as the British imperialists' suppression of the masses. On June 5, a demonstration attended by over 30,000 people was held. On June 26, representatives from all walks of life gathered at the public stadium to jointly swear an oath to “cut economic ties with Japanese imperialism, reclaim Lüshun and Dalian, and not recognize the Twenty-One Demands.” Worker and student organizations also initiated protests, imposing fines on merchants who concealed Japanese goods, raising tens of thousands of yuan in total. After discussions among various sectors, it was decided to use these fines to construct the “May Thirtieth” Lecture Hall as a memorial to this unforgettable patriotic act.

The construction of the hall began in August 1925 and was completed in 1926. It is a building designed in an ancient Chinese architectural style, with a rectangular floor plan measuring approximately 28 meters in length and 19 meters in width. The roof features a double-eaved hip-and-gable design covered with tubular tiles. The hall has two stories, with a stage inside, and seating is available on both the second floor and the ground floor. The ground floor is surrounded by a corridor. The interior structure is made of wood.