Site of the Hongwuwu Peasant Association

Site of the Hongwuwu Peasant Association

The Site of the Hongwuwu Peasant Association is located at No. 31 Miaolian Road, Hongwuwu Village, Hongmei Town, Dongguan City. Originally a temple-style building named “Yong’an Shexue,” it was 12 meters wide, 18 meters deep, and covered an area of over 200 square meters. Facing east and situated westward, it had three sections: a front hall, a rear shrine, a central courtyard, and corridors on both sides of the courtyard. The Shexue was a local venue for mediating civil disputes and holding discussions. Between 1923 and 1926, it served as the main site for activities of the Hongwuwu Peasant Association and party-youth organizations.

In October 1923, the first youth organization in Dongguan—the Dongguan Branch directly under the Guangdong Regional Committee of the Chinese Socialist Youth League—was officially established in Hongwuwu. Its secretary was Mo Cuihua, and its members included Mo Shijiang, Zhang Fa, Chen Chang, Mo Jiongzhai, and five others, all of whom were from peasant backgrounds. In November 1924, the Dongguan Branch of the Youth League was reorganized into the Dongguan Special Branch of the Socialist Youth League, with Mo Cuihua continuing as secretary. Members held oath-taking ceremonies, meetings, and discussions here.

In late August 1924, after attending the First Guangzhou Peasant Movement Institute, Mo Cuihua was sent back to his hometown to carry out peasant movement activities. Using the Shexue as his main base, he trained members, reorganized the branch, and mobilized more people to join the peasant association with the members as the backbone. Mo Cuihua also used a slide projector he brought back to show hand-drawn slides in the Shexue, conducting lively and engaging publicity campaigns that were very popular with the peasants. During this period, pioneers of the Guangdong Peasant Movement such as Ruan Xiaoxian and Peng Pai visited Hongwuwu multiple times to guide the youth league and peasant movement work.

In September 1924, the Hongwuwu Peasant Association was officially established at Yong’an Shexue, making it the earliest peasant association in Dongguan. At the time of its establishment, streets and alleys were plastered with slogans such as “Down with local tyrants and evil gentry” and “Implement land to the tiller.” A plaque reading “Hongwuwu Peasant Association” was hung above the entrance of the Shexue, and more than 100 people formally joined. A makeshift podium was set up on the open ground in front, using two square tables stacked together. First, Peng Pai, who had come specially from Guangzhou, delivered a speech to the ecstatic peasants who had gathered waving colorful flags. Then Mo Cuihua spoke, and the Provincial Peasant Association awarded the association a plow flag. Finally, everyone signed their names on a large red sheet of paper to signify their formal membership in the peasant association. Members wore bronze plow-shaped badges. Subsequently, a peasant self-defense army was formed, with Zhang Yunfa and Chen Chang serving as the president and vice president of the association and as the captain and vice-captain of the self-defense army, respectively. Influenced by the Hongwuwu Peasant Association, the peasant movement spread like wildfire, with neighboring villages responding one after another. Before long, Mo Cuihua convened a meeting of the Eighteen Villages in Meisha Village, establishing the “Eighteen Villages Joint Office” to discuss major issues related to the peasant movement. A peasant self-defense army centered on Hongwuwu and comprising 200 members was also formed. On this basis, the Second District Peasant Association of Dongguan County was established. In the past, village affairs were handled by local gentry, but after the establishment of the peasant association, the association took charge of resolving them. The bandits who had previously dominated the area also feared the power of the peasant association.

From April 1927 to 1928, during the revolutionary downturn when party and youth organizations were destroyed, the Hongwuwu Peasant Association also fell into disarray.

In the early years after liberation, Yong’an Shexue was allocated to four poor peasant families as housing, and was later converted into a primary school. It was completely demolished in 1958, with its bricks and tiles transported elsewhere to build communal canteens, leaving the site in ruins. In 1968, the front half of the original Shexue site (12 meters wide and 6 meters long) was repurposed into a single-story brick-and-tile warehouse for the supply and marketing cooperative (the rear part of the original site became private residential land). In 1974, as the cooperative expanded, the warehouse and the adjacent supply and marketing cooperative department store to the south were demolished and rebuilt into a two-story concrete structure. The new cooperative building faced east and was 24 meters wide and 6 meters deep, stretching north-south in a row. The street in front was the busiest area in Hongwuwu at the time. In 2001, after the dissolution of the cooperative, the building was handed over to the Miaoxiafang Village Group and is now used as a community recreation room.

(By Lun Jiansheng, Dongguan Hongmei Town Local Chronicles Office)

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