Qu Qiubai

Qu Qiubai () (January 29, 1899 – June 18, 1935) was born in Changzhou, Jiangsu, China. He was a leader of the Communist Party of China in the late 1920s.

Early life

Qu was born in the southeast corner of Changzhou city, Jiangsu province, China. His family lived in a building named TianXianLou, and the building was in a lane named QingGuo. Qu's father, Qu Shiwei, was born in a downfallen family which used to be powerful and glorious. Qu Shiwei was good at painting, fencing, and medical knowledge, but he wasn't interested in other things, particularly politics and business. Qu's mother, Kim Xuan, the daughter of elite government officials, was skilled in poetry. Qu had five brothers and one sister, and he was the eldest one. When Qu was young, his family lived in his uncle's house, on the support from their relatives. Though Qu’s father took a job as teacher, he was unable to gain enough money to support his family due to the fact that he became an opium addict afterwards.

In 1916, Qu went to Hankou and entered Wuchang Foreign Language School to learn English on his cousin’s support. In the spring of 1917, Qu went to Beijing to apply for a job, but didn’t pass the general civil service examination. Without enough money to pay for a regular university tuition, therefore, Qu enrolled in the newly...
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