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of the China Traditional Opera Research Institute. Cheng joined the Communist
Party in 1957. PP. 279, 302, 325
123 This remark, which means socialism has grown stronger than imperialism,
is from a talk given by Mao Zedong in Moscow on November 17, 1957, to Chinese
students studying in the Soviet Union. P. 281
124 The characters designated in the Scheme for Simplified Chinese Characters
were published in four batches from February 1, 1956, to July 15, 1959. Acting
on the instructions of the State Council, the Committee for Reforming the Chinese
Written Language then prepared a General Table of Simplified Characters including
an additional number which brought the total to 2,238. P. 287
125 Li Fenglian was a model worker in a quilt and garment factory in Yan’an
during the War of Resistance Against Japan. In 1958 she was working in the
All-China Fedration of Trade Unions. P. 288
126 Li Zhuchen (1881-1968), a native of Yongshun, Hunan Province, was at
this time a member of the Standing Committee of the National Committee of the
Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, Vice-Chairman of the China
Democratic National Construction Association and Vice-Chairman of the All-
China Federation of Industry and Commerce. P. 288
127 The Phonetic Alphabet, to be used to transcribe Chinese characters phonet-
ically, was drafted by the Association for the Unification of Pronunciation in 1913
and published by the Ministry of Education of the northern warlord government in
1918. The Kuomintang government laer renamed it the Phonetic Symbols. P. 244
128 See “A Layman’s Remarks on Writing” in Lu Xun’s Essays of Qiejieting,
Selected Works, Eng. ed., FLP, Beijing, 1980, Vol. IV, pp. 109-10. P. 296
129 Towards the end of the 18th century, Britain smuggled large quantities of
opium into China, which resulted in widespread addiction among the Chinese peo-
ple and the outflow of large quantities of silver from China. At the end of 1838,
the Qing government sent Imperial Commissioner Lin Zexu to Guangzhou to ban
the opium trade. In June 1839, Lin Zexu ordered the public destruction of 1,150
tons of opium seized from British and American merchants. In 1840, Britain
launched a war of aggression against China under the pretext of protecting trade.
The Qing government wavered and compromised with the enemy, and only part of
its troops joined the people in resistance. As a result, after invading the coastal
areas in Guangdong, Fujian and Zhejiang provinces, the British army occupied
Wusong, pushed towards the Changjiang River and threatened Nanjing. In August
1842, the Qing government was forced to sign the humiliating “Treaty of Nanjing”.
Thereafter, China gradually became a semi-feudal, semi-colonial country.
PP. 298, 367
130 In the last years of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), China’s postal services
were under the control of Britain. The Postal System was a system by which the
British used Latin letters to spell Chinese place names. P. 298
131 The Wade System for transcribing Chinese into the Roman alphabet was
published in 1867 by Thomas Wade, a secretary working with the Chinese language
in the British embassy in China. P. 298
132 Lu Gangzhang (1854-1928), a native of Tong’an, Fujian Province, was one
of the earliest advocates of reform of Chinese characters. In his Clear at First
Glance: The Initial Steps, published in 1892, he proposed a system of phonetic
notation which he named qieyin xinzi (new phonetic alphabet). P. 298