Site of the Dongguan County Youth Anti-Enemy Comrades Association

Site of the Dongguan County Youth Anti-Enemy Comrades Association

The Site of the Dongguan County Youth Anti-Enemy Comrades Association serves as a patriotic education base.

The Site of the Dongguan County Youth Anti-Enemy Comrades Association is located at the former site of the Dongguan County Museum and Library within Dongguan People’s Park in Guancheng Subdistrict. GPS coordinates: 23°02'29.9"N, 113°45'09.9"E, elevation 24 meters.

The Dongguan County Museum and Library was founded by prominent local figure Deng Jiwang and completed in 1931. The building faces southeast, with a northwest orientation, and features a two-story brick, tile, and concrete structure, covering a construction area of 686 square meters. In 1959, the Dongguan County People’s Government renovated the building and renamed it the Dongguan County Museum. In January 1994, the new Dongguan Museum near the main entrance of the People’s Park was opened, and the old museum has been idle ever since.

During the War of Resistance Against Japan, the Dongguan County Youth Anti-Enemy Comrades Association was established here. After the Marco Polo Bridge Incident in July 1937, people from all walks of life in Dongguan joined the anti-Japanese salvation movement. In December of the same year, through extensive anti-Japanese united front work, the CPC Dongguan Central Branch secured the support of the Kuomintang authorities in Dongguan, mobilized the masses, and established anti-Japanese mass organizations such as the Dongguan County Youth Anti-Enemy Comrades Association and the Dongguan County Women’s Anti-Enemy Comrades Association. These two associations had a combined membership of over 1,000 members, focusing their activities primarily in Guancheng, although many districts and rural areas also set up branches.

These anti-Japanese groups were effectively under the control of the CPC Dongguan organization. Their members included young students, elementary school teachers, young workers, young farmers, and progressive young members of society, mostly progressive students from Guancheng, with many being Communist Party members. They frequently organized singing troupes and drama teams to carry out anti-Japanese salvation propaganda on the streets and in villages—putting up slogans, publishing wall newspapers, drawing cartoons, and mobilizing the public to resist Japan. Many core members of these anti-Japanese groups, such as those from the Dongguan County Youth Anti-Enemy Comrades Association, later joined the Dongguan Anti-Japanese Model Militia and went on to fight on the battlefield.

In April 2008, Dongguan People’s Park, where the Site of the Dongguan County Youth Anti-Enemy Comrades Association is located, was designated by the Dongguan Municipal Spiritual Civilization Construction Committee as a Dongguan Patriotic Education Base. In April 2010, upon approval by the CPC Dongguan Municipal Committee, it was confirmed as a Dongguan CPC History Education Base.

Guancheng Subdistrict: Covering an area of 13.5 square kilometers with a population of 152,000, Guancheng has a history of nearly 1,250 years dating back to the second year of the Zhide era of the Tang Dynasty. As the political, economic, and cultural center of Dongguan for over twelve hundred years, Guancheng has accumulated profound historical and cultural heritage at the foot of Qifeng Mountain and along the Dong River. With a long-standing cultural legacy, Guancheng is one of the birthplaces of Lingnan culture and has developed its own distinctive cultural identity.

Guancheng is a microcosm of Dongguan’s history and culture, exuding a strong humanistic atmosphere and embodying the unique spirit and soul of the district. In Guancheng, you can find the Relic Pagoda of Zifu Temple from the Song Dynasty, the West City Tower from the Ming Dynasty, and sites that bear witness... More details about Guancheng Subdistrict ++