Chen Bijun

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Chen Bijun
陳璧君
Born(1891-11-05)5 November 1891
George Town, Penang, Straits Settlements
(now Malaysia)
Died17 June 1959(1959-06-17) (aged 67)
Shanghai, China
OccupationPolitician
SpouseWang Jingwei
Children5
Chen Bijun
Traditional Chinese陳璧君
Simplified Chinese陈璧君

Chen Bijun (Chinese: 陳璧君, 5 November 1891 – 17 June 1959) was a Chinese politician. She was the acting head of the Canton (Guangzhou) government for four months in 1944–1945.[1]

Life[edit]

She was the daughter of the Chinese millionaire Chen Gengji and his second wife Wei Yuelang[2]: 36  and was raised in Penang in British Malaya. Cheng Gengji had many children, and the household was boisterous and propsperous.[2]: 36  Chen Bijun was regarding by her family members as a strong-willed child.[2]: 36  Like Chen Gengji's other children, Chen Bijun received home schooling in traditional Chinese learning before attending Catholic boarding schools for an English-style education.[2]: 36 

In 1909, she moved to Japan to on the pretext of furthering her studies and formally became a member of the Tongmenghui revolutionary group.[2]: 39  Her father was a royalist and unaware of her political activities; Chen Bijun's mother funded her activism.[2]: 36 

She was introduced to Wang Jingwei through a local Tongmenghui leader.[2]: 36  Chen broke off her engagement to a cousin and went with Wang to Singapore to meet Sun Yat-sen.[2]: 36  They become betrothed and held an informal wedding days before the failed assassination plot by Wang and other Tongmenghui members against Prince Chun.[2]: 40–44  Wang's arrest followed two weeks after the failed attempt.[2]: 40–41  He was released from prison in 1911 as part of the amnesty for political prisoners following the Wuchang uprising.[2]: 44 

Chen and Wang formally married in 1912.[2]: 47  They ultimately had six children together.[2]: 22 

Chen joined the Kuomintang (KMT) with Wang. In 1924, she was one of only three women delegates of the KMT national congress along with He Xiangning and Tang Yungong, and elected a member of the KMT Central Supervisory Committee.[1] During the 1936 kidnapping of Chiang Kai-shek, the Xi'an Incident, she unsuccessfully attempted to have her spouse depose Chiang Kai-shek in a coup.

Wartime activities[edit]

During the Second Sino-Japanese War, she and her husband regarded the communists as a worse threat than the Japanese,[citation needed] and defected to the Japanese and established a puppet government under Japanese control. Chen Bijun was elected member of the KMT Central Supervisory Committee for their government party. When her spouse died in 1944, he was replaced by Chen Gongbo. Chen Bijun left Nanjing and took control of the Canton government, which she kept for four months.[citation needed]

Post war[edit]

After the surrender of the Japanese in August 1945, she was offered but rejected an evacuation by the Japanese. She was arrested by the order of Chiang Kai-shek on 25 August and charged with treason. She refused to admit guilt. In 1949, she was imprisoned in Shanghai when the Communist took over the city. On the request of He Xiangning and Soong Ching-ling, Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai offered her a pardon if she would admit guilty on the charge of treason, but as she refused, she remained in prison until her death.[citation needed]

In popular culture[edit]

The 2007 Chinese historical film Road to Dawn features the character "Xu Danrong" based on Chen played by Malaysian-born actress Angelica Lee.[3]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Lily Xiao Hong Lee: Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Women: v. 2: Twentieth Century
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Yang, Zhiyi (2023). Poetry, History, Memory: Wang Jingwei and China in Dark Times. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press. ISBN 978-0-472-05650-7.
  3. ^ "Serendipity leads to box office". www.chinadaily.com.cn.
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