The Tragedy of 謝雪紅

Xie XueHong’s purging has dragged on since November of last year as the Party leaders, to much fanfare, have announced that there will be a struggle session for Xie XueHong in April of this year. The bandits recently published an account of the various charges that have been brought against her thus far: 

1. According to a report from the Party mouthpiece Xinhua News that came out last Christmas, the Taiwanese independence activist Chen BingJi had met with Xie XueHong multiple times, and the two had become allies.
2. On December 31st, the Party announced a condemnation against the formation of a Taiwanese-Shanghaisese party cell, of which Xie XueHong played a role in creating. 
3. On January 7th, the Party held a six hour long meeting in which 27 members spoke against Xie XueHong’s “rightist attitudes” especially her “clearly worldly views”. It was decided that she must be dealt with. 
4. On January 6th the bandits announced that the Fujianese “People’s Assembly” must be disbanded
5. On January 25th, through Xinhua News, the Party published their findings regarding Xie XueHong: “She continues to reject any line of criticism or admit her wrongdoings.” This led them to the decision that “Xie XueHong must be expelled from the Party”. Additionally, they rescinded Yang K’o-huang’s position of “Taiwanese League Central Party Leader”. Finally, the Party’s representative ChunQing announced, “The anti-rightist struggle in Taiwan will be accomplished through the disbanding of the dangerous leadership. 
6. On February 1st, again in Xinhua News, the Party announced that during the Fifth Annual National People’s Congress a resolution to rescind XueHong Xie’s status as a representative and recall her position from the executive committee. This effectively stripped her from all participation in either the National People’s Congress or the Taiwanese League.
7. The Communist camp recently announced that Xie XueHong is currently imprisoned and if she does not publicly renounce her anti-Party behavior, she may be sent to a”reeducation camp” or face harsher treatment.

Based on what they have published themselves, is it hard to imagine what lies in store for Xie XueHong? That is the future that lays ahead as we begin this portrait of Xie XueHong.

iii. Forty years of suffering…for whom? 

Most of Xie XueHong’s life thus far can be recorded as a series of sacrifices for the Party’s sake. And now, “amidst the red wave, she is now thought of only as a ‘traitor’”.

However you feel about her prior Party activities, we can’t help but feel sorry for her.

Xie XueHong, now fifty-six, was born A-lu in Changhua county in southern Taiwan. Her family was extremely poor. When she was twelve, her parents left her with an aunt so they could find work in a factory. At fifteen, she was married to ChunRong Hong from Taichung. At seventeen, she escaped that life and found work at a sugar factory in Tainan. This is where she met Chang Shu-min. They ran off to Japan together where they opened a shop selling straw hats. In her spare time she studied Japanese and read Chinese literature.  

At twenty-one, she returned to Taiwan with Chang Shu-min and they established a successful tailor shop and general store. In 1924 the two of them headed to Shanghai. Because of some outstanding debts, Chang shu-min had to return to Taiwan. But Xie stayed. She traveled to Hangzhou and Nanjing where she met Taiwanese students who were active in the independence movement.  Three years later, she had joined the Party and took the name FeiYing Xie.³ The same year she enrolled at the Scientific University of Shanghai. In December of that (very busy) year, she traveled with a delegation from the university to study in Moscow. In 1927, the bandits began preparing for the creation of a Taiwanese faction of the party, and the next year Xie, alongside Mushun Lin were chosen as representatives. She played an active role in the 1925 May Fifth Movement, partook in the farmers’ tribunes, and played a leading role in numerous social movements. 

It was during this time that she met Yang K’o-huang. He headed one of the Communist cells of the Taiwanese faction, and she the other. ⁴

Chang Shu-min, spurned by Xie’s relationship with Yang K’o-huang, testified against her and she was sent to prison along with Yang K’o-huang. ⁵

However, due to poor health,  Xie XueHong was released after a short time. She returned to Taiwan and lived with Yang K’o-huang’s younger brother in Taichung. There she linked up with local Communists and worked together to both recruit Taiwanese to go study with the bandits in Mainland China and participate in illegal Communist activities in Taichung. 

Japan surrendered in 1945, and as Taiwan began its recovery, Xie helped found the new Taiwanese Revolutionary League. In 1947, in order to follow in the steps of the New Russian Imperialism, and expand their territory, called on Xie XueHong and others to take advantage of the February 28 Incident to participate in a revolt. ⁶

Xie joined the rebellion in Taichung. When it failed all over the island, Xie campaigned for reparations for the victims. After a short while, Xie and Yang K’o-huang fled Taiwan (again) passed through Hong Kong and returned to ShangHai. There, under the direction of the party, she put the Taiwanese Revolutionary League under the direction of the Shanghai faction, essentially rendering the Taiwanese delegation toothless…

…However, Xie, along with others in the Taiwanese Revolutionary League, took advantage of the “Hundred Flowers Bloom” campaign to vehemently criticize the Party’s treatment of the Taiwanese. The bandits responded by publishing an article in the Guang Ming Daily that “regarding members of the Taiwanese independence movement” who had overextended themselves and were “maintaining pro-capitalist sentiments”. Xie’s letter, this “flower that had bloomed”, was the beginning of the end for her involvement in the party. Not long after, the investigation against her that we outlined in chapter one began.