Peking University Red Building 北京大学红楼
五四大街29号
Dusty monument was early 20th-century breeding ground for revolutionaries
Part of A Better Guide to Beijing’s coverage of the Imperial City
Also known as the Xīn Wénhuá Yùndòng Jìniànguǎn (新文化运动纪念馆, New Culture Movement Memorial Hall), this brick building with red upper storeys and grimly institutional interior of grubby white walls and red doors is a key ‘Red tourism’ site, filled with hagiographic material on early Party grandees. These include Chén Dúxiù (陈独秀),‘first to sound the bugle of the New Culture movement’, and Lǐ Dàzhāo (李大钊), Chief Librarian, both founders of the Communist Party, which grew rapidly with Soviet assistance after the demonstrations of 4 May 1918 (see Square of Heavenly Discord). One room is supposedly where the flags and placards for the march were produced.
Others in the New Culture movement included novelist and polemicist Lǔ Xùn (see Lǔ Xùn Museum). Its members rejected orthodox Confucianism in favour of modernity, science, democracy, and a generally more global outlook. While cynically claiming the New Culture movement for itself, the Party would like you to overlook the continuing absence of democracy.
The room where Lǔ Xùn lectured on the history of Chinese novels has been preserved complete with old-fashioned desks, as has the library once run by Cài Yuánpéi (蔡元培), later President of National Peking University, and his assistant, one Máo Zédōng (毛泽东), who arrived in August 1918 and worked for ¥8 a month while he ‘built up his faith in Marxism’. Newspapers hang neatly over wooden dowels, and glass-fronted cabinets are stacked with musty documents. Group photographs of earnest men line the walls.
▶ Běijīng Dàxué Hóng Lóu, Wǔ Sì Dàjiē 29, t 6402 4929, 8am–4pm, Tue–Sun. Free. m Museum of Art (Line 8); Dōng Sì (Lines 5 & 6) and walk W. b to 沙滩路口西: 101电车, 103电车, 109电车, 111电车, 609, 685.
Jǐng Shān Park is a short walk further west, and the National Art Museum of China to the east, with plenty of eating in neighbouring streets, particularly 大佛寺东街 (Dà Fó Sì Dōng Jiē) N of the museum’s NE corner.
Related: Other key ‘Red Tourism’ sites in Běijīng include Tiān’ān Mén Square, the little walled town of Wǎnpíng Chéng, and the Jiāozhuānghù Tunnel Warfare Site.
Next: Introduction to South of Qián Mén — The Old Chinese City
Previous: In Search of the Ice Houses (walk)
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