Kang Youwei, anyone with some understanding of modern Chinese history knows about him. During the Qing Dynasty, he advocated for reform and almost lost his head for it. During the Republic of China era, he was a royalist, supporting the restoration of the monarchy.
Among his descendants, his second daughter Kang Tongbi is the most famous. When she was young, she traveled to South Asia and Europe, and she once served as the president of the Chinese Women’s Association.
Kang Tongbi witnessed the Qing Dynasty, the Republic of China, and the Communist Party era. Initially, the Communist Party showed her great respect, but during the Cultural Revolution, the Kang family faced great difficulties. Kang Youwei tragically fell victim to the Red Guards, and in her old age, Kang Tongbi was criticized by the Red Guards, while her daughter was unjustly thrown into prison.
Today, let’s take a look at the tragic experiences of Kang Youwei’s descendants during the Cultural Revolution.
Kang Youwei, born in Nanhai, Guangdong, in 1858. Like an ordinary Chinese at the time, he studied Confucianism from a young age and participated in the imperial examinations. At the age of 21, after his first visit to Hong Kong, he began to be exposed to Western culture, reading a large number of Western books and gradually forming a thought system of reform.
In 1893, at the age of 35, he passed the provincial examination in Guangdong and two years later became a Jinshi.
Shortly before passing the Jinshi examination, while participating in the provincial examination in Beijing, he learned that the Qing Dynasty was about to sign the unequal Treaty of Shimonoseki with Japan. Therefore, he organized the scholars attending the examination to jointly petition, known as the “Public Bus Memorandum,” which caught the attention of the Guangxu Emperor.
After becoming a Jinshi, Kang Youwei repeatedly submitted memorials advocating reform and innovation. In 1898, with the permission of Empress Dowager Cixi and Emperor Guangxu, he began the reform known as the “Hundred Days’ Reform.” Eventually, due to Kang Youwei and other reformist officials proposing some unrealistic radical policies that touched the interests of the nobility, Empress Dowager Cixi staged a coup, and Kang Youwei was also wanted.
After many twists and turns, Kang Youwei fled abroad and founded the Monarchist Association. After the Xinhai Revolution, he returned to China and settled in Shanghai, actively participating in the restoration of the monarchy. He participated in the 1917 restoration led by Zhang Xun, which only lasted 12 days before failing.
In 1923, Kang Youwei moved to Qingdao. He passed away suddenly in March 1927.
There is a saying in China, “The deceased is great,” meaning that the dead should be respected and laid to rest.
However, everything changed with the start of the Cultural Revolution in 1966. With the slogan of “sweeping away all ghosts and monsters,” the Red Guards destroyed a large number of historical sites in China. Even Kang Youwei’s tomb was not spared.
Kang Youwei was known as the “greatest royalist in Chinese history.” His tomb was dug up by the Red Guards, his remains were desecrated, his skull with white hair was paraded in the streets, and the rest of his bones were scattered on the ground.
Thanks to a researcher at the Qingdao Museum who took the risk of being labeled a “loyal descendant of a royalist,” under the guise of an exhibition titled “Rebellion is Justified,” Kang Youwei’s skull and relics were placed in a wooden box and preserved. This way, there is a trace of his remains in Kang Youwei’s tomb today.
Kang Youwei had many children, but his most famous was his second daughter with his first wife, Kang Tongbi.
Influenced by Western ideas, Kang Youwei did not bind his daughter’s feet, allowing Kang Tongbi to search for her father far and wide, becoming a widely circulated touching story at the time.
In September 1898, Kang Youwei was forced to flee overseas due to the failure of the Hundred Days’ Reform. In the spring of 1901, his 18-year-old daughter Kang Tongbi embarked on a solo journey to join her father.
Dressed as a man, she sneaked out of Beijing alone, following the ancient silk road… Starting from the Juyong Pass, passing through Datong, crossing Tongguan, reaching Lanzhou, traversing the Hexi Corridor into Xinjiang; then, crossing Kashmir, turning south, until reaching India. She reunited with her father in November of that year. The newspapers in Britain and India reported her astonishing long journey.
Her actions moved Liang Qichao, who praised her as “like father, like daughter.” Even Kang Youwei was amazed by his daughter’s courage.
When Kang Tongbi reached the Himalayas in India, she wrote a poem full of pride: “Abandoning defense of mountains and rivers, enduring tribulations and ruins; Going around the destroyed palaces three times; Regarding the western traveler as a lady, I am the first person from China.”
After that, following in the footsteps of her father Kang Youwei, Kang Tongbi visited Southeast Asia, India, North America, and Europe, and also studied in the United States.
In 1909, she graduated from Barnard College, Columbia University, becoming the first Asian graduate in the history of the college, and dedicated herself to advocating for political rights for Chinese women.
After graduation, Kang Tongbi returned to China. During the Republic era, she served as the vice president of the International Women’s Federation, the president of the Shandong Moral Association, and the president of the Chinese Women’s Association.
In 1949, as the People’s Liberation Army surrounded Beijing, Kang Tongbi was appointed as a representative at the Northern China Seven Provinces Consultative Council convened by Fu Zuoyi to negotiate the peaceful occupation of Beiping by the Communists, making a contribution to protecting the historical sites of Beijing.
After the Communist takeover, Kang Tongbi was appointed as a researcher at the Central Academy of History and Literature, and also elected as a member of the Political Consultative Conference for three terms. Her husband passed away early, her son settled in the United States, and she decided to stay in China with her daughter Luo Yifeng to revise Kang Youwei’s chronicles, organize his posthumous writings, and manuscripts.
Recalling the early days of the Communist rule, Kang Tongbi remembered that they initially showed some respect to social celebrities like her, reciting in front of her the heroic poem she had written years ago, “A lady traveling to the West, I am the first from China.” However, as the Communist Party solidified its rule, the good days for people like Kang Tongbi came to an end.
Kang Tongbi’s residence in Beijing’s Dongcheng District was a large mansion combining Chinese and Western architectural styles, with a front courtyard and a rear courtyard designed by her husband Luo Chang. The layout was that of a traditional Chinese courtyard house with Chinese brick and wood construction but featuring Western interior design.
After her husband’s death, Kang Tongbi and her daughter Luo Yifeng moved to the front courtyard, renting out the rear courtyard to foreign diplomats, providing a substantial fixed income every month. Her son in the United States also regularly sent remittances back home. All of this ensured that the Kang family continued to live a comfortable life.
However, when the Cultural Revolution broke out, the Communist government decreed that private properties were to be confiscated. Their rear courtyard was taken away by the authorities and allocated to an official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who paid only a token amount in rent.
With a sudden decrease in income and the cessation of her son’s support, Kang Tongbi and her daughter had to rely solely on her monthly salary of 150 yuan from the Central Academy of History and Literature.
While this amount might be considered significant for an average person, they employed two workers, and due to their unfavorable “class background,” these workers exploited the mother and daughter, repeatedly demanding higher wages under the threat of reporting them to the neighborhood committee or colluding with the Red Guards to cause trouble in their home.
So, the mother and daughter had to endure in silence, living a tight life.
Even under these circumstances, they did not escape the scrutiny of the Red Guards. The Red Guards not only raided their home and took away the refrigerator but also smeared ink on the face of the elderly Kang Tongbi during a struggle session.
Faced with the widespread violence of the Cultural Revolution, Kang Tongbi was deeply resentful. During a gathering of “rightists” in her home, she once said that she intended to write a letter to Mao Zedong, “If things continue like this, what will become of the country? Toppling Liu Shaoqi — that’s a matter between you two; don’t drag the whole nation down with you!”
She even pointed at Mao Zedong’s portrait and said: “Talk about everlasting life, I see it as eternal disaster!”
In August 1969, Kang Tongbi fell ill. Initially just a common cold, she was cared for at home. However, her condition worsened, and Luo Yifeng brought her to the hospital, where she was placed in the observation room. She lay on a narrow bed facing the door, exposed to drafts, with the constant flow of people passing by.
Despite requests from Luo Yifeng to transfer her to a proper ward, the hospital staff sneered at her, saying, “Your mother is a social celebrity; this is good enough.”
A few days later, Kang Tongbi passed away in the observation room at the age of 86.
After Kang Tongbi’s passing, only Luo Yifeng remained in the house, without a job or a source of income. Moreover, following the Communist Party’s directive to transfer all private property rights to the state, the rental income from the rear courtyard of their house disappeared. She had to dismiss the two workers. Exploiting the situation, the workers demanded each 3,000 yuan as settlement fees, threatening to report them to the neighborhood committee if their demands were not met.
Luo Yifeng had to sell furniture, clothing, and groceries to gather the required sum. In the winter, she could no longer afford to heat the stove and had to rely on hot water bags for warmth.
Luo Yifeng remained unmarried throughout her life. She was a graduate of the Department of Home Economics at Yanjing University. She enrolled at the age of 16, being the youngest and most excellent student in the school, earning the appreciation of the school’s American principal John Leighton Stuart.
However, this appreciation turned into her accusation 30 years later, merely because John Leighton Stuart was a person criticized by Mao Zedong in the article “Farewell, Leighton Stuart.”
Following reports from the two workers, the local office demanded that she explain her relationship with John Leighton Stuart. Unsure how to handle the situation, Luo Yifeng ended up being sent to prison.
Shortly after her release in 1974, Luo Yifeng passed away at the age of 60. This was less than five years after Kang Tongbi’s death. At that time, their courtyard house had already been occupied by Ye Daoying, the younger brother of the Communist Party elder Ye Jianying.
Before her death, Luo Yifeng had confided in others. She loved shoes but feared being criticized by the Red Guards, so she had to throw away all her beloved shoes. She adored roses but on the day her home was raided in the summer of 1966, she tearfully poured boiling water on the roses herself. Her favorite perfumes, music, and English poems became taboo.
She said, “I have never hindered the Communist Party, but why does the Communist Party oppress me like this? This Cultural Revolution was a fatal blow to my family and a complete destruction of me personally!”
It was only after the end of the Cultural Revolution that a burial ceremony was held for Kang Tongbi and her daughter. The tombstone was made of a rough stone, unpolished, hastily engraved with the names of Kang Tongbi and her husband, and even without the name of Luo Yifeng, as if she had never existed.
The valuable relics, manuscripts, and collection of Kang Youwei preserved by Kang Tongbi and her daughter, including a precious set of Song Dynasty “Qisha Edition Tripitaka,” were all voluntarily handed over to the state according to Kang Tongbi’s wishes during her lifetime. All this resulted in a simple ceremony, funded by Kang Tongbi’s son in America.
— “The Century of Truth” Production Team