Today in History

Jan 12,1947: Liu Hulan dies a martyr's death

(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2011-03-25 16:36

Jan 12, 1922: Hong Kong seamen go on strike under the leadership of Su Zhaozheng and Lin Weimin of Seafarers' Joint Industrial Association

On Jan 12, 1922 more than 6,000 Hong Kong seamen went on strike under the leadership of Su Zhaozheng and Lin Weimin of the Seafarers' Joint Industrial Association due to their demands for increasing wages was rejected by the British capitalists. The strike lasted for 56 days and received such success that on March 8 the British authorities were forced to accept seafarers' demands for an increase in wages, pensions and the families of dead workers. Since then, China's labor movement under the leadership of the Communist Party formed a climax. Yangtze River crew and workers from Shanghai Postal, Shanghai cotton mill in China and Japan, Hanyang steel planst and Jinghan, Yuehan, Jingfeng, Jingsui, Zhengtai railways went on strike successively under the Party's leadership and encouragement and the majority of these strikes achieved victory.

Jan 12, 1947: Liu Hulan dies a martyr's death

Liu Hulan (1932—1947) was born in Yunzhouxi village, in the Wenshui County of the Shanxi province. She joined the Communist Party of China in 1946 and soon after joined an association of women working in Yunzhouxi village. On Jan 12, 1947, the Yen hsi-shan army invaded her village and Liu Hulan, betrayed by a traitor, was beheaded for cruelty.It was in her memory that Mao Zedong wrote the famous line, "a great life, a glorious death."