Former Site of the Workers' Night School for the Anyuan Railway and Mining Workers

Former Site of the Workers' Night School for the Anyuan Railway and Mining Workers

The former site of the Workers' Night School for the Anyuan Railway and Mining Workers is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

The former site of the first night school for the Anyuan Railway and Mining workers is located in Wufuzhai Lane, Laohou Street, Anyuan Town. It is a two-story brick-and-wood building consisting of four blocks and three rooms per floor. The structure is symmetrical both upstairs and downstairs, with corridors one meter and thirty centimeters wide surrounding the entire building. Originally, it belonged to Wang Shouyu, a large landlord from Danjiang who lived four kilometers away from Anyuan and served as an advisor to the Pingxiang Mines. In October 2019, it was included in the eighth batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units.

In the winter of 1921, Mao Zedong, together with Li Lisan and others, came to Anyuan to carry out workers' movements. In order to gain legal status and the conditions for open activities, so as to widely engage with the working masses, they decided to start with running education for common people to mobilize and organize the workers. They rented the three upper-floor rooms of this house in Wufuxiang, Laohou Street, to establish a schoolhouse and opened a commoners’ primary school, admitting workers’ children for free. Li Lisan served as the teacher and lived on the second floor. After starting the commoners’ primary school, Li Lisan often contacted workers extensively under the pretext of visiting students’ parents. On this basis, in 1922, he founded the first night school for railway and mining workers. Daytime classes were for elementary students, and evening classes were for workers, hence the night school.

Initially, the night school had over 60 students. Since there were more workers from the railway bureau, they were divided into two classes based on their literacy levels. Workers attended classes every evening with a lecture permit and were issued graduation certificates upon completion. The textbooks for the night school initially used lecture notes from the Canton–Hankow Railway Workers' School, but later the teachers compiled and printed their own. To prevent sabotage by enemies, the school also provided workers with two sets of teaching materials: one was a regular literacy textbook, and the other was the revolutionary-minded "Workers’ Reader."

The night school textbooks introduced knowledge in various fields such as natural science, daily life common sense, and class struggle. The books were vivid, easy to understand, and some even included illustrations. Coupled with Li Lisan’s lively and engaging explanations, the workers were deeply educated and inspired.

The funding for the night school initially came from donations by people in Changsha and Shanghai who were enthusiastic about workers' education. After the establishment of the Workers’ Club, the funding was allocated by the club. In September 1922, after the great victory of the Anyuan Railway and Mining Workers’ Strike, the number of night schools grew from one to seven, with over a thousand students. At the same time, supplementary departments, children’s departments, women’s vocational departments, reading rooms, and libraries were established. Reading corners were also set up at various workplaces, stocked with newspapers and magazines such as Workers’ Weekly, Labor Weekly, and Ta Kung Pao for workers to read freely during their spare time.

The establishment of the workers’ night school improved the workers’ cultural knowledge and class consciousness, creating conditions for training cadres for the workers' movement and establishing and developing Party, League, and club organizations.

Further Reading:

· Eighth Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units