The Site of the Ping Bao Newspaper Office

The Site of the Ping Bao Newspaper Office

The Site of the Ping Bao Newspaper Office is a cultural tourism attraction and a classic red tourism site.

After the full-scale outbreak of the War of Resistance against Japan, students from Pingyang who were studying elsewhere returned to their hometown. Together with local progressive teachers and young intellectuals, they formed the Pingyang Youth Anti-Japanese Salvation Corps (referred to as the “Anti-Japanese Salvation Corps”) under the leadership of the Zhejiang South Special Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and the Pingyang County Committee. On August 14, 1937, the Salvation Corps published the War Report, which was renamed the Pingyang Daily on November 1, and then changed again to Ping Bao on December 3. To obtain legal status for Ping Bao, the newspaper applied for registration with the Nationalist government of Zhejiang Province and asked Huang Shaohong, Chairman of the Nationalist Government of Zhejiang Province, to write the masthead. More than ten individuals served as board members, including Xu Yong, the Nationalist County Magistrate of Pingyang, and other enlightened gentry, while Huang Qiang, a left-wing member of the Nationalist Party, served as the publisher. Ping Bao promoted the Party’s anti-Japanese stance, reported news about the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army’s resistance efforts, introduced the democratic politics of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Anti-Japanese Democratic Base Area, and covered local news. It played a role in boosting the morale of the people in the resistance, and was deeply cherished by patriotic and progressive individuals as well as widely welcomed by the masses. With a circulation of over 2,000 copies, its distribution expanded from the southern Zhejiang region to areas such as Fuding and Fu’an. However, this also drew the hostility of the die-hard faction of the Nationalist Party. On March 14, 1940, Zhang Shaowu, the Nationalist County Magistrate of Pingyang, sent troops and police to shut down the Ping Bao office and arrested Huang Zaoru, the chief editor, Wang Yudong, the accountant, and Lin Fu, a woodcut artist staying at the office and also the Propaganda Minister of the Pingyang County Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.

The Site of the Ping Bao Newspaper Office is located at Kangfudi on Tanggu Street, Aojiang Town, Pingyang County. The site is a three-story building with five bays, facing northwest and situated southeast, covering an area of 160 square meters.

Source: The Party History Research Office of the Wenzhou Municipal Committee of the Chinese Communist Party