View source for Kang Keqing

{{Short description|Chinese politician and sixth wife of Zhu De (1911–1992)}}
{{family name hatnote|[[Kang (Chinese surname)|Kang]]|lang=Chinese}}
{{Infobox Officeholder
| name                = Kang Keqing
| native_name         = {{nobold|康克清}}
| native_name_lang    = zh
| image               = File:Kang_Keqing.png
| caption             = Kang Keqing in 1952 at the International Convention for the Protection of Children
| office              = [[Spouse of the President of the People's Republic of China|Spouse of the Head of State of China]] (de facto){{NoteTag|The position of [[President of the People's Republic of China|Chairman of the PRC]] was officially abolished in 1975 and the functions of head of State were formally transmitted to the [[chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress]] until Song Qingling became Honorary President in 1981.}}
| term_start          = 17 January 1975{{NoteTag|[[Zhu De]] was re-elected as [[Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress|Chairman of the NPCSC]].}}
| term_end            = 6 July 1976
| birth_name          = Kang Guixiu ({{zh|c=康桂秀}})
| birth_date          = {{Birth date|1911|9|7|df=y}}
| death_date          = {{Death date and age|1992|4|22|1911|9|7|df=y}}
| spouse              = [[Zhu De]]
| parents             = Kang Niangou ({{zh|c=康年苟}})
| office1             = Chairperson of the [[All-China Women's Federation]]
| term_start1         = 1978
| term_end1           = 1988
| predecessor1        = [[Cai Chang]]
| successor1          = [[Chen Muhua]]
| party               = [[Chinese Communist Party]]
}}
'''Kang Keqing''' ('''K'ang K'e-ching; '''{{zh|c=康克清|p=Kāng Kèqīng}}; September 7, 1911 – April 22, 1992) was a Chinese revolutionary and politician. As a teenager, she joined the [[Chinese Red Army]], fighting with the [[Chinese Communist Party]] during the [[Chinese Civil War]] and participating in the [[Long March]]. She later served as chair of the [[All-China Women's Federation]] and served on the [[Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party]] during the 1980s. She was also the wife of general [[Zhu De]] until his death in 1976.<ref>{{cite news |author1=Nicholas D. Kristof |author-link1=Nicholas D. Kristof |title=Kang Keqing, 80, Women's Aide And Veteran of the Long March |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/04/23/world/kang-keqing-80-women-s-aide-and-veteran-of-the-long-march.html |url-access=subscription |access-date=23 August 2022 |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=23 April 1992 |page=D 26}}</ref>

==Early life==
Kang was born to a [[Hakka people|Hakka]] fishing family in the township of Luotangwan ({{zh|s=罗塘湾乡}}) [[Wan'an County]], [[Jiangxi Province]].<ref name="jiefang">{{cite journal |last=Chuan 傳 |first=Yan 妍 |year=1992 |title=康克清妇女解放思想初探 |trans-title = Preliminary examination of Kang Keqing's female liberation ideology |journal=Funü Yanjiu Luncong 妇女研究论丛 |issue=2 |pages=30–32 }}</ref> In order to make ends meet, her parents sold five daughters in succession to other families as [[Tongyangxi|brides]]. Kang was given away when she was 40 days old to a [[Sharecropping|tenant farmer]] called Luo Qigui ({{zh|s=罗奇圭}}). Her future husband had not yet been born at this point and, when the Luo family finally had their child, it was a girl.<ref name="kejia">{{cite journal |last = Li 李 |first=Kuiyuan 奎原 |year=2016 |title = 上世纪三十年代客家女性革命史研究——以康克清等三人为例 |trans-title = Research on the revolution history of Hakka women in the 1930s: Kang Keqing and two other cases |journal = Dangshi Bocai 党史博采 |issue=11 |pages=9–10 }}</ref> This child died and Kang was cared for by the Luo family as a daughter;<ref name="kejia" /> living in a peasant family, Kang was the main source of labour for her adopted parents.<ref name="changzheng">{{cite journal |last = Cui 崔 |first = Jun 军 |year=2011 |title = 长征中的朱德和康克清 |trans-title = Zhu De and Kang Keqing on the Long March |journal= New Hunan Review 新湘评论 |issue=6 |pages=53–54 }}</ref>

==Revolution==
In 1924, the [[Wan'an County]] [[Chinese Communist Party]] member arrived in Kang's village as part of the [[Northern Expedition]] and set up various activities to promote revolution, including plays and a night school.<ref name=kejia/> The member also promulgated concepts of [[gender equality]] and freedom in marriage.<ref name=kejia/> At approximately age 14, Kang became a member of the [[Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army|Red Army]].<ref name=jiefang/> She would later promulgate the idea that [[feudalism]], [[imperialism]], and bureaucratic [[capitalism]] were the main enemies of [[Feminism in China|the female labourer]].<ref name=jiefang/>

She was elected permanent secretary of the Luotangwan Village Women's Association ({{zh|s=罗塘湾乡妇女协会}}) and was the first local woman to [[Chinese clothing#Early People's Republic|cut her hair short]].<ref name=kejia/> From this point onwards, Kang took every opportunity to pursue studies that her background had denied her as a child.<ref name="shixi">{{cite journal |last=Geng 耿 |first=Yanpeng 艳鹏 |year=2012 |title= 康克清：学而时习之 |trans-title = Kang Keqing: study and practice on a regular basis |journal = Fujian Monthly on the Party History 福建党史月刊 |issue=6 |pages=21–23 }}</ref> In 1927, [[Chiang Kai-shek]] opposed the Communists and there was [[Shanghai massacre|violent conflict]]. Nearly 200 people in Wan'an were killed and, to temper Kang's revolutionary tendencies, her adoptive parents attempted to arrange a marriage for her.<ref name=kejia/> Kang left home in September 1928 and joined a [[Guerrilla warfare|guerilla band]] seeking shelter with the [[Chinese Red Army]].<ref name=kejia/>

[[Agnes Smedley]]'s biography of Zhu describes her as follows:

″Up from the Wanan district to the west came a delegation of Peasant Partisans, and among them was the woman leader Kang.  She carried a rifle as if it were a part of her and, like the men, she walked with lithe decision and certainty.  A woman in her middle twenties, of medium height and shingled hair, she wore the usual clean blue jacket and long loose trousers of the peasant woman.  Her face was pock-marked and men said that because of this she was not beautiful.  But they admitted that her large black eyes were beautiful and shone with the fire of conviction, and when she smiled, two rows of white teeth gleamed between beautiful red lips.  Illiterate she was indeed, for she had been the slave of a rich landlord who had bought her in childhood and used her a field laborer.  Though she could recognise but a few written characters, still she was very intelligent so that men said of her:
″'Her thoughts are as clear and direct as bullets fired from a machine-gun.'″<ref>Smedley, Agnes. ''The Great Road: The Life and Times of Chu Teh''. Monthly Review Press 1956. Page 137</ref>

Kang married [[Zhu De]] on 30 December 1930.<ref name=shixi/> In 1932, she was made leader of a newly created branch of women volunteers, who were trained in the Red Army School.<ref name=shixi/>

===Long March===
She became a women's leader in the Red Army and was one of a small number of women who were on the [[Long March]].<ref>Smedley, ''The Great Road'', pages 272</ref> In the division of the [[Long March#The Fourth Red Army|Fourth Red Army]], Kang was sent with [[Zhu De]] and [[Zhang Guotao]].

In October 1935, Kang fell ill after [[Zhang Guotao]]'s disastrous attempt to [[Zhang Guotao#Military leadership|establish a communist base in Sichuan]]. Zhang reportedly kept Kang separated from her husband and attempted to leave her behind when the Fourth Red army moved to Shaanxi, but Zhu managed to bring a doctor and ensured Kang was carried on a stretcher through the Gold Mountains.<ref name=changzheng/>

===Yan'an===
Kang was interviewed by the American journalist [[Helen Foster Snow]] during her stay in [[Helen Foster Snow#Caves of Yan'an and Mao Zedong|Yan'an]]. She commented on the military situation, telling Foster Snow that the army's numbers were a problem, but the issue of weaponry was urgent.<ref name="hailun">{{cite journal |last=Ye 叶 |first = Meijuan 梅娟 |year=2015 |title=康克清与海伦・斯诺的友谊 |trans-title = The friendship between Kang Keqing and Helen Snow |journal = Bolan Qunshu 博览群书 |issue=1 |pages=113–116 }}</ref> Kang maintained contact with Foster Snow after this, even giving a speech at a 1991 conference congratulating her on being made Friendship Ambassador to China.<ref name=hailun/>

==People's Republic of China==
Kang served as vice chairman of the [[Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference]] (CPPCC), chairman of the [[All-China Women's Federation]], and president of Soong Ching-ling Foundation.{{cn|date=August 2024}}

==Cultural Revolution==
During the [[Cultural Revolution]], Kang was under house arrest. She was later rehabilitated.{{cn|date=August 2024}}

==Rehabilitation==
After the fall of the [[Gang of Four]], Kang was instated as the head of the [[All-China Women's Federation]] and is credited with centralising the organisation's bureaucracy.<ref name="jing'ai">{{cite journal|last=Luo 罗|first=Qiong 琼|date=2002|title=Mianhuai jing'ai de Kang Keqing dajie 缅怀敬爱的康克清大姐 [Respectful commemoration of elder sister Kang Keqing]|journal=Zhongguo Fuyun 中国妇运|issue=5|pages=11–12}}</ref> She was a member of the [[11th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party|11th]] and [[12th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party|12th]] [[Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party|Central Committees of the Chinese Communist Party]] (1977-1987).{{cn|date=August 2024}}

==Women's Rights==
Kang's ideology in the fight for [[Feminist movement|women's liberation]] is embodied in the slogan 'Seek liberation in war, seek equality in production' ({{zh|c=在斗争中求解放、在生产中求平等}}). 'Liberation in war' referred to women joining the revolutionary struggle to attain equality, while 'equality in production' meant that women should attain powers equal to those granted to men. This included the right to labour, which Kang considered fundamental to improving women's economic position. Kang argued 'equality' should also be expanded to politics, culture, science, and technology.<ref name=jiefang/>

At the first meeting of the China Women's Committee in 1949, Kang made a speech advocating the liberation of women's labour and economic development.{{cn|date=August 2024}}

== Notes ==
{{NoteFoot}}

== References ==
{{reflist|2}}

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{{China First Ladies}}
{{CPPCC Vice-Chairpersons}}
{{Chairwomen of the All-China Women's Federation}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kang, Keqing}}
[[Category:1911 births]]
[[Category:1992 deaths]]
[[Category:Family of Zhu De]]
[[Category:All-China Women's Federation people]]
[[Category:People's Republic of China politicians from Jiangxi]]
[[Category:Politicians from Ji'an]]
[[Category:Women in war in China]]
[[Category:Chinese politicians of Hakka descent]]
[[Category:Chinese Communist Party politicians from Jiangxi]]
[[Category:Vice chairpersons of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference]]
[[Category:Burials at Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery]]
[[Category:Members of the 11th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party]]
[[Category:Members of the 12th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party]]