Century Old China-France Exchange Program Documents Tell Stories of Hope

A membership certificate of the Socialist Youth League of China in Europe issued in 1925 is now housed in the China Three Gorges Museum of Chongqing. This orange-red card is about the same size as a business card. It is simple in appearance, but it records the important history of the Movement of the Work-Study Program to France.

It also carries the dream of aspiring young people who came to France from Chongqing for work-study programs more than 100 years ago to explore the path of revitalizing China. On the front side of the membership certificate, the words "Communist Youth League of China in Europe, Membership Certificate of the European Branch of the Socialist Youth League of China, Owned by Wang Bangti, Lin Wei, Secretary of Executive Committee, No. 340, Seine, January 22, 1925" are printed in traditional Chinese regular script. The first article of Chapter 1 of the Constitution of the Communist Youth League of China in Europe is printed on the back.

This membership certificate belongs to Wang Bangti, a native of Tongliang District, Chongqing.

On August 27, 1920, 20-year-old Wang Bangti went from Chongqing to France for a work-study program with 83 other students. They took the "Jiqing" passenger ship of the French business Jufu Firm to Shanghai. Then after several transfers, they finally arrived in Marseille, France.

Deng Xixian (the original name of Deng Xiaoping) was with him at that time. By the 1920s, Chongqing had opened its commercial port for 30 years, and it had been at the forefront of Southwest China and even the whole country in the acceptance and dissemination of progressive ideas. In the National Movement of Work-Study Program to France, Sichuan ranked first among all provinces in China in the number of students coming to France for work-study programs. Chongqing accounted for more than one-third of the total number from Sichuan.

After Wang Bangti and other students arrived in France, they were assigned to work as casual laborers and handymen in factories, farms, coal mines, and other places. On the one hand, they witnessed the tragic experience of the proletariat at that time, and on the other hand, they encountered the economic crisis in France in 1921. A large number of factories closed, and plenty of workers lost their jobs. In this period, they were exposed to Marxist ideas, learned about the history and experience of the European workers' movement, and thought about the new revolutionary path of China.

In 1921, the news of the founding of the Communist Party of China traveled to Europe. In June 1922, Zhao Shiyan, Zhou Enlai, and others founded the "Youth Communist Party of China in Europe." In 1923, it convened the Provisional Congress in Paris. At the Congress, the Youth Communist Party of China in Europe was included in the Socialist Youth League of China, established in Guangzhou in the previous year, as its "European Branch." It was renamed as the "Communist Youth League of China in Europe." In 1925, Wang Bangti applied for its membership and got this membership certificate that has been preserved to this day. In 1985, his son Wang Dingzhu donated this membership certificate to the Chongqing Municipal Museum (the predecessor of Chongqing's China Three Gorges Museum). Afterward, this membership certificate was recognized as a class-A heritage under national protection.