The residence of Communist Manifesto’s Chinese translator now an exhibition center
students. As the school refused to obey the order, the government surrounded it with police, causing a public outcry.
Though the authority was forced to recall the order, Chen, then 29, returned to his hometown at the end of 1919 and began to translate the manifesto into Chinese based on Japanese and English versions, believing communism to be the way forward for China.
He completed the task in April 1920 and headed to Shanghai at the invitation of Chinese communist Chen Duxiu to join his periodical La Juenesse, also known as New Youth. The magazine was an important platform for the promotion of Marxism and anti-imperialist and anti-feudal thoughts.
In Shanghai, Chen founded a Marxism research society with Chen Duxiu, which is believed to be one of the first communist organizations in China.
They tried to publish the Chinese version of the manifesto, but found it difficult under the administration of the Kuomintang government. They secretly set up a printing press called Youxin, literally “new again,” at 12 Chengyu Lane on Fuxing Road M. to print 1,000 copies in August 1920.
Due to the tense situation and hasty editing, the copies had a mistake on the cover. The Chinese title of The Communist Manifesto — “Gong Chan Dang Xuan Yan” was wrongly printed as “Gong Dang Chan Xuan Yan.”
It quickly sold out and they hurriedly printed another 1,000 copies with the correct title, which was later reprinted across China.
Chairman Mao Zedong told American journalist Edgar Snow in an interview in 1936 that Chen’s translation was one of the books that embedded belief in Marxism in his heart.
Less than a year after the publication of the Chinese translation, the Communist Party of China was established in Shanghai.
Chen helped organize the Party’s First National Congress and was appointed first general secretary of its Shanghai Committee. He later organized several Chinese publications to promote Marxism in China and taught in several schools, including Shanghai University