A Lifelong Brown Leather Suitcase

Suitcases are one of the necessities for daily life, and for travel in particular. Among the personal belongings of Chen Yun, there is a suitcase which he often used on business trips. It is a brown leather suitcase that measures 80cm in length, 40cm in width and less than 30cm in height if packed full with clothing and other articles of daily use. On the front surface, there is an automatic lock and a leather handle with metal rings. Besides, the two straps that wrap around the suitcase on both ends are largely used to support the suitcase. The surface has worn-out and colors faded, and the straps are broken, revealing the traces of multiple repairs. Obviously Chen Yun tried to patch the suitcase for many occasions and was reluctant to throw it away. This suitcase was always shelved on the top of the wardrobe in Chen’s bedroom.

Chen Yun bought the leather suitcase in early 1933 when he was doing undercover work for the Party in Shanghai, Jiangsu and neighboring areas. In late October 1932, members of the Central Committee of the Communist Young League in Shanghai were hunted and arrested by Kuomintang spies. Later, Yuan Binghui, then secretary of the Communist Young League defected following his arrest. In the wake of the manhunt for members of the Central Committee of the Communist Young League, Kuomintang spies turned their focus on the members of the CPC Provisional Central Committee, who would be fallen into the hands of the former if they stayed in Shanghai. At this critical time, the CPC Provisional Central Committee reported the situation to the Communist International, and the Communist International agreed that the heads and bodies of the Provisional Central Committee should move to Jiangxi Central Soviet Area. Thus the CPC Provisional Central Committee in Shanghai decided on January 17, 1933 to move to Jiangxi Soviet.

As a result, the then three pillar members of the CPC Provisional Central Committee—Bo Gu, Zhang Wentian and Chen Yun also decided to move to Jiangxi Soviet. In order to cover his identity on route, Chen Yun bought this leather suitcase before departure. In late January 1933, he left Shanghai in secret, with this suitcase in hand, and moved to the Jiangxi Soviet. This suitcase, from then on, had always been with Chen Yun throughout his trips nationwide, from Shanghai to Jiangxi, Zunyi to the Soviet Union, Yan’an to northeast China, northeast China to Beijing, and Beijing to the rest of the country. It witnessed not only Chen Yun’s hard efforts to Chinese revolution and the construction of the New China, but the outstanding achievements scored by Chen all those years.

After days of long trek, Chen Yun managed to get by the lookout posts both open and covert of Kuomintang, finally arriving in Ruijin of the Central Soviet Area at the end of January 1933, of course, with his suitcase. At that moment, his heart was filled with excitement and joy beyond words, for he had always been worked undercover in Kuomintang-controlled areas over the past years and had to lead a careful life under the reign of white terror. Now he ultimately stepped on the ground under the control of the Party, where he no longer needed to watch his back all the time. Surprisingly, Chen Yun, a man famous for his calmness, dropped his suitcase and laid down on the ground of the Central Soviet Area, shouting loudly “long live” for three times in a row. The suitcase, just lying nearby Chen at that moment, witnessed his inside excitement and joy.

Later in 1935, Chen Yun went missing from the long march of the Red Army shortly after he was present at the Zunyi Meeting. Some said he disappeared. Some said he died. The truth is that he was instructed by the CPC Central Committee to secretly leave for Shanghai, with three important missions on his shoulder. The first was to resume the undercover work in Shanghai as soon as possible; the second was to identify the liaisons of the Communist International; the third was to report the recent development of the CPC Central Committee, especially the situation of the Zunyi Meeting, to the Communist International. With those missions in mind, Chen Yun left the Red Army when they arrived in the Lingguan Temple at the foot of Maogong Snow Mountain and moved to Shanghai. All he carried along was the suitcase that was packed with relevant documents, including the outline of the Zunyi Meeting, as he must march with light packs. Those documents were transferred to the Soviet Union later as important archives and kept intact, becoming rare historical materials for Chinese revolution.

On September 15, 1945, Chen Yun carried the brown suitcase and a light luggage, and together with Peng Zhen, Wu Xiuquan, Ye Jizhuang et al., boarded on the plane from Belousov to Yan’an to fly to northeast China. Unfortunately, at 15:00 the same day, the plane accidentally landed on the middle section of the runway in Shanhaiguan Airport and suddenly thrust its nose into a field before it could halt, with its body perpendicular to the ground. Peng Zhen, Ye Jizhuang and others were injured to varying degrees. But lucky for Chen Yun, he escaped from any injury as he was pushed into the cockpit at the time the cabin door was burst open. The suitcase also witnessed such a scary moment.

In January 1949, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) defeated Kuomintang at the Pingjin Campaign, leading to the peaceful liberation of Peiping (now Beijing). The conclusion of this campaign marked the victories of the three major campaigns launched by the PLA. An all-round victory was imminent as most of China was liberated. The next top priority on the CPC’s agenda was to figure out what a new China should be built and how. More than ten years’ wars had devastated the country which needed to be rebuilt. Against such backdrop, Chen Yun was entrusted to take charge of fiscal affairs of the central government which by no means were easy and simple. On May 13 that year, Chen Yun left from Shenyang to Peiping for his new post, and what he carried with him was still the brown suitcase. Since then, this suitcase had always been carried along by Chen nationwide for investigations, including the trip to his home Liantang, Qingpu for investigation of production and living of peasants, the tour to Guilin (a southern city) for investigation of steel business, the long-time stay in Jiangxi during the Cultural Revolution, the move into Zhongnanhai, and his last visit to Shanghai—the place where he embarked on the journey of revolution—at the age of 88 in 1993.

This suitcase had been along with Chen Yun for 62 years from his purchase for the purpose of work in 1933 to his death in 1995. It witnessed not only the lifelong hard efforts made by Chen Yun, a veteran proletarian revolutionary, to Chinese revolution and the founding of the New China, but also the great achievements scored by him as a strategist. This worn-out suitcase, with its repeatedly repaired straps, which served Chen Yun for 62 years, mirrors the great mind’s noble character of being frugal and caring for people even in high position.