Dongguan Xiuyuan — Site of the Dongguan Branch Office of the China Youth League

Dongguan Xiuyuan — Site of the Dongguan Branch Office of the China Youth League

Dongguan Xiuyuan — Site of the Dongguan Branch Office of the China Youth League is located at the northern foot of Boshan Hill in Dongguan People’s Park, Guancheng District, Dongguan City, covering an area of approximately 4,000 square meters, with several brick-and-wood flat houses.

In the summer of 1935, Communist Party member Wang Junyu organized the China Youth League (later renamed the China Youth Anti-Japanese League, abbreviated as “China Youth”) in Guangzhou. In July of the same year, progressive youths from Dongguan — Zhang Guangye, Wang Shizhao, and Lu Zhongfu — joined the “China Youth.” In August, the Guangzhou branch of the “China Youth” sent Mai Pufei to Dongguan to establish the Dongguan Branch of the “China Youth” at Dongguan Xiuyuan. Zhang Guangye served as the branch secretary, Lu Zhongfu as the organizational committee member, and Wang Shizhao as the publicity committee member. After its establishment, the branch recruited progressive youths such as Wang Luming, Wang Yan, Zhang Shisheng, Huang Zhuangping, and He Tai, and set up China Youth groups in Dongzhong and Gaobu in Guancheng, as well as in Dalang and Dongkeng.

The main activities of the Dongguan Branch of the “China Youth” included organizing young people to form various reading clubs to study current affairs, social sciences, and Esperanto; and forming cultural groups such as choirs and drama societies to promote resistance against Japan and national salvation.

The establishment and activities of the Dongguan Branch of the “China Youth” united and educated a large number of revolutionary youths in Dongguan, advanced the development of the anti-Japanese salvation movement in Dongguan, and laid the ideological and organizational groundwork for the recovery and rebuilding of the Communist Party organization in Dongguan. (Tan Zhiheng, Editorial Office of Guancheng District Chronicles)