Memorial Hall of Railway Workers and Coal Miners Movement in Anyuan

( chinaculture.org )

Updated: 2011-09-13

Distant view of the Memorial Hall of Railway Workers and Coal Miners Movement in Anyuan

Closeup view of the Memorial Hall of Railway Workers and Coal Miners Movement in Anyuan

The Memorial Hall of Railway Workers' and Coal Miners' Movement in Anyuan, a museum in memory of the revolution, is located at Anyuan town of Pingxiang city in Jiangxi province, China. It used to be the site of the Anyuan Railway and Mine Workers' Club founded in 1956. In 1968, it was turned into an exhibition hall and opened to the public in 1969. In August 1984 it got the present name.

The Memorial Hall occupies a land area of 13.3 hectares with a total space of 3,245 square meters, 2,400 square meters of which are used for display.

In 1922, the Hunan Committee of the CPC, led by Mao Zedong, sent Li Lisan, Liu Shaoqi and Jiang Xianyun to Anyuan to initiate the workers' movement. In March that year, the Preparatory Committee of Anyuan Railways and Mines Workers' Club was set up. On May 1, the club was officially established, of which Li Lisan and Liu Shaoqi held the post of director successively. Subsidiary organizations of the CPC and the Communist Youth League and Workers' Pickets were also set up.

The statue of Mao Zedong

As the railways and mines authorities were in arrears with salary to workers over a long period of time and always oppressed members of the Workers' Union, more than 17,000 railways and mines workers, led by the Club, went on strike on September 14, 2002. They eventually gained victory and forced the authorities to accept?the requirements proposed by the workers. In 1923, railways and mines workers in Anyuan raised funds and set up a new club. All the units of the Club relocated to the new site with the move of their headquarters.

Zongping Lane

The memorial hall has collected around 1,000 items, of which about 200 are Class One exhibits, including the Anyuan Monthly Periodical, share certificate of workers' consumer cooperative and purchase coupons. A long ballade entitled A Story of Laborers (a handwritten copy) with 1,600 lines composed collectively by the Anyuan workers is a very valuable historical collection, having a very important position in the history of modern Chinese literature.

The new club was a two-storied building, which took the Great Theater of Moscow as its model and followed the Theater's style. The middle hall on the first floor was the office of Workers' Pickets with referees' office and accountants' office on its right and left, respectively. Left side on the second floor was a conference hall of general delegates, in front of which was a bedroom of Liu Shaoqi and his wife, He Maozhen. The big room on the right of that floor was an office for directors.

The new club was a two-storied building.