Red House

The foundations of the Communist Party were laid here

Before the whole university moved out to Haidian in 1952, Peking University’s Red House on Wusi Dajie was home to the institution’s library and arts department.

It was here, in 1919, that a meeting between two people working in the library would change the course of Chinese history.

Librarian Li Dazhao was one of the founders of the Chinese Communist Party; his assistant was a man from Hunan province by the name of Mao Zedong.

Li founded the New China Study Group here to teach the new philosophies of Marxism and Darwinisn in classes attended by Mao.

The Red House became central to the anti-imperialist May 4th Movement in 1919, which was a key precursor to the founding of Li’s Chinese Communist Party.

Today, the room whereMao worked contains a display with his three-drawer desk and chair, along with a copy of Beijing University Monthly, which contains a listing announcing Mao had been granted a permit to act as auditor for the lectures of the Beijing University Journalism Society.

Next to Mao’s office, some classrooms have been restored to their original ‘rustic’ appearance (note the presence of spittoons for those needing to take a mid-lecture spit).

Peking University has come a long way since its humble beginnings, but the red brick building on Wusi Dajie remains a key Beijing building. Simon Fowler