Former Residence of Martyr Ke Guotai

Former Residence of Martyr Ke Guotai

The former residence of Martyr Ke Guotai is located at No. 13, Liucha Lane, Shangxiping Road, Xiangqiao District. It was built in 1924 and is categorized as an important modern historical site and representative architecture.

Ke Guotai (1924–1949), also known as Ke Jiashi or Ke Yiqi, was born in 1924 in Liucha Lane, Chengcheng (old city area) of Chaozhou Prefecture.

When the nationwide War of Resistance Against Japan broke out, Ke Guotai, then a student at Chao’an County No. 1 Middle School, actively participated in student salvation movements. In 1938, he joined the Communist Party of China. After graduating from middle school, he traveled between Chao’an and Jieyang, engaging in anti-Japanese salvation work. In the spring of 1943, he studied at Jinan University, which had relocated from Shanghai to Jian’ou, Fujian, and continued his involvement in student activism. After the victory of the War of Resistance, he returned to Shanghai, where he served as president of the Jinan University Student Union and was one of the leaders of the student movement there. His revolutionary activities drew surveillance from the reactionary Kuomintang. In May 1947, upon the decision of the Party organization, he left school and moved to Hong Kong; in September of the same year, he transferred to Changhua, Taiwan. After arriving in Taiwan, he continued underground revolutionary activities. In early 1948, he and his wife Zheng Jingying were arrested together. Between May and June 1948, they were released back to the mainland under the bail of Zheng Jingying’s father, and resumed their revolutionary path. Ke Guotai served as deputy political instructor of the Long Company, 11th Regiment of the People’s Liberation Army Han River Detachment. Later, he was transferred to the Chao-Cheng-Rao Plain Working Committee of the CPC, where he was responsible for student movement affairs and served as an editor for the newspaper Haixiao. In July 1949, Ke Guotai was arrested at the Shamei Creek crossing in Chenghai and was transferred to the Chao’an Prison. He endured various forms of torture in prison but remained resolute. On August 28, he was executed at the South Drill Ground in Chaozhou City, sacrificing his life at the age of just 25.

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The former residence of Martyr Ke Guotai is located

at No. 13, Liucha Lane, Shangxiping Road, Xihu Subdistrict, Xiangqiao District, Chaozhou City

The former residence of Martyr Ke Guotai was built during the Republican era. Despite being over a hundred years old, it remains sturdy and intact. The residence faces south and has a northward orientation. Its main structure features a central pillar and a moon-beam frame with rammed earth walls coated with plaster. It has a flush-gable roof covered with gray tiles, covering a construction area of about 270 square meters. The overall layout consists of two courtyards with a rear annex, forming a rectangular floor plan that is 11.6 meters wide and 23.6 meters deep. The residence is currently owned by Ke Guotai’s younger brothers, Ke Jiahui and Ke Jiazhe, and is inhabited by Ke Jiahui and his descendants.

The former residence of Martyr Ke Guotai was designated as an immovable cultural heritage site of Xiangqiao District, Chaozhou City, by the Xiangqiao District People’s Government of Chaozhou on January 2012, and was declared a Chaozhou Municipal Cultural Heritage Protection Unit by the Chaozhou Municipal People’s Government in April 2020.

On April 16, 2020, the former residence of Martyr Ke Guotai was announced as part of the fourth batch of Chaozhou Municipal Cultural Heritage Protection Units.