The Red Composer Passes Away, Unaware of the True Story Behind the Red Detachment of Women

Screenshots from the CCP's Peking Opera Song of the Dragon River. (Video screenshot)

[People News] According to reports from mainland Chinese media a few days ago, Huang Zhun, a well-known "red composer" and member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), passed away on December 3 at the age of 98. Official accounts state that in 1938, she followed her brother-in-law, who was a CCP member, to Yan’an. She studied in the Drama and Music Departments at the Lu Xun Academy of Arts, under prominent instructors such as Xian Xinghai and Lü Ji. She joined the CCP in 1942 and later worked at both the Beijing Film Studio and Shanghai Film Studio. Huang composed music for many propaganda films, including Democratic Northeast, The New Heroic Sons and Daughters, March of the Democratic Youth, Women's Basketball No. 5, and The Red Detachment of Women. Among these, her work on the theme song for The Red Detachment of Women, Song of the Women's Army Company, gained nationwide fame. The short, single-section piece left many with a lasting impression of the lyrics and melody of "March Forward."

Reportedly, in 1960, to better compose music for The Red Detachment of Women, Huang traveled to Hainan three times to immerse herself in local life, interview veterans of the Women's Army, and collect local folk songs. After witnessing a specific scene in the film during its production, she created this piece, which strongly embodies the CCP's combative style.

On May 19, 2022, a journalist from Liberation Daily and Shangguan News visited Huang Zhun for an interview at Huadong Hospital. Due to her advanced age, Huang Zhun struggled to recall many details about her life, but when it came to the Song of the Women’s Army Company, which she had composed over 60 years ago, she could still sing it effortlessly, tapping along to the rhythm. The day after the interview, she even picked up a pen and carefully wrote on paper: "I come from Yan’an, and I love Yan’an!"

Clearly, even until her death, Huang Zhun remained unaware of many of the CCP's deceptions, including the truth about the Red Detachment of Women. In his article The Truth Behind the "Red Detachment of Women" and "Nan Batian", columnist Yang Ning reveals the actual story.

According to CCP historical records, in August 1930, the CCP’s Hainan Independent Division of the Red Army and its Women’s Special Service Company were officially established. The commander of the Women’s Company was Pang Qionghua (later known as Feng Zengmin), and the political instructor was Wang Shixiang. The company had three platoons: the first platoon led by Feng Zengmin (later Lu Saixiang), the second by Pang Xuelian (later Li Changxiang), and the third by Huang Dunying (later Cao Jiaying). Each platoon consisted of three squads, with ten soldiers per squad. Including messengers, flag bearers, buglers, clerks, porters, and three cooks, the company had a total of 103 people. Apart from two older male clerks, a porter, and a 13-year-old male bugler, all members were women.

These female soldiers of the Red Army "took up arms and fought alongside men," underwent rigorous military training, and participated in battles. However, in reality, these women were merely rural villagers deceived by the CCP, engaging in killing, arson, and other destructive activities.

In 1932, the Nationalist Army’s Guard Brigade launched a campaign against the CCP's Hainan base. By the spring of 1933, the Red Army in Hainan had been largely disbanded. After 500 days of existence, the Red Detachment of Women ceased operations following the deaths of 19 members and the dispersal of others. The remaining members went into hiding, and its eight leaders were eventually captured. After Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng’s Xi’an Incident, Chiang Kai-shek granted them amnesty, leading to their release.

This chapter of history was later adapted into the film The Red Detachment of Women after the CCP came to power. It was subsequently turned into a ballet and became one of the eight "model operas" during the Cultural Revolution, becoming one of the CCP's most influential propaganda tools for brainwashing the Chinese people.

The CCP's revised story of The Red Detachment of Women goes as follows: In the 1930s, in the coconut grove village near Wanquan River on Hainan Island, a tyrannical landlord named Nan Batian oppressed the local populace. A maid, Wu Qionghua (renamed Wu Qinghua in the ballet), suffered under his tyranny. After multiple failed escape attempts, she finally fled into the mountains. There, the CCP recruited over 100 village women to form a Women’s Armed Special Service Company. Guided by a CCP member disguised as a South Seas merchant, Hong Changqing, Wu Qionghua joined the Red Detachment of Women, with Hong Changqing as the Party representative.

During one battle, Hong Changqing was captured by Nan Batian and burned to death under a banyan tree. Wu Qionghua then led the Red Detachment of Women to bring the CCP's main forces to the coconut grove village, annihilating Nan Batian’s troops and killing him. Wu Qionghua eventually became the commander of the Women’s Company.

In the Red Detachment of Women, Nan Batian is portrayed as a "unrepentant, villainous landlord" who used his wealth to fund reactionary forces and oppose the CCP's guerrilla forces. In the end, he is killed by Wu Qionghua, the heroic company commander.

However, according to reports from Hainan Window, the real-life inspiration for Nan Batian was a local landlord in Lingao County, Hainan, named Zhang Hongyou. Zhang’s grandson, Zhang Guomei, stated that much of The Red Detachment of Women was fictional. In fact, the Red Detachment of Women was formed four years after Zhang Hongyou’s death.

Zhang Hongde, the cousin of Zhang Hongyou, and Zhang Guoqiang, one of the last surviving individuals who had met Zhang Hongyou, described him as a kind man. He did not oppress the villagers, nor did he have private guards, firearms, or fortifications.

Wang Shixiang, the political instructor of the Red Detachment of Women, also confirmed that Wu Qionghua was not a servant of Nan Batian’s family, nor did such a person as Nan Batian exist. A staff member from the Lingao County Historical Records Office stated that Zhang Hongyou had no "blood debts" and came from a family of educators. Tragically, the Chinese people have been profoundly deceived by the CCP.

The Tragic Fates of the Members of the Women's Army Company

An article published by mainland China's Blog World described the grim outcomes faced by members of the Red Detachment of Women. According to rural customs in Qionghai, young girls were often sent away as child brides, expected to bear children by age 15. If a woman remained unmarried by the age of 25, she would be removed from the family genealogy. When these women were released by the Nationalist government, the youngest among them, Feng Zengmin, was already 25 years old. Given their unique background, few men were willing to marry them.

Additionally, rumors that "women who joined the CCP became concubines for the Party" further stigmatized them. Following the Nationalist-Communist cooperation period, these women, with their complex identities and advanced age, sometimes married Nationalist officials or local gentry as a last resort.

For instance, Pang Qionghua, the first commander of the Women's Special Service Company, married a local gentryman after her release. Her husband was later killed by the Japanese army for refusing to serve as the chairman of a puppet association. Pang Qionghua herself was executed after resisting a Japanese officer.

Wang Shixiang, the company’s former political instructor, was also forced into a tragic marriage. After her release, her mother, fearing that her history with the CCP might endanger the family, arranged for her to marry Liu Hengying, a Nationalist militia leader. Liu was disabled and already had a 15-year-old daughter, but Wang was given no choice. After the CCP established its regime, Wang became a repeated target in the Party's political campaigns. At one point, despair drove her to attempt suicide, but her eldest son intervened in time to save her.

A similar fate befell Huang Dunying. Upon returning to her hometown, she caught the attention of Li Changjue, a Nationalist district chief who was already married. She became his concubine. In 1951, during the CCP’s land reform campaign, Li Changjue was executed. Huang was subsequently labeled a "landlord’s wife" and a "traitor," becoming a scapegoat during subsequent political movements. Additionally, she was accused of hiding a gun her husband had owned, which the CCP believed she had concealed. During the Cultural Revolution, she was paraded through the streets, beaten, and tortured. Her children were also stigmatized and persecuted.

Another member, Pang Xuelian, a comrade and neighbor of Wang Shixiang, faced similar mistreatment during the Cultural Revolution. She was humiliated and paraded as well, with the absurd accusation being, "Why did the Nationalists release them? Why didn’t Pang Xuelian stop or expose Wang Shixiang for marrying a Nationalist?"

In a 2006 article titled The 1952 Anti-Localism Campaign in Hainan by Ye Shuming, the struggles faced by the demobilized troops of the Qiongya Column shed light on the broader plight of other members of the Red Detachment of Women. The Qiongya Column included over 3,000 women, many of whom endured similarly unbearable experiences.

At that time, with the national war having ended, Mao Zedong ordered the collective demobilization of troops, including those in the Qiongya Column. Li Yingmin, a former propaganda minister for the Hainan District Committee and later a director in the CCP's Central Propaganda Department, reflected in 1996 on the mishandling of demobilization. He noted two key issues, one being that many female soldiers had no homes to return to. Despite their repeated requests to be assigned to local enterprises, these pleas were consistently denied. Most of these women were illiterate, uneducated, and accustomed to military life. Once placed back into society, they struggled to survive without skills or support.

After leaving the military, some of these women ended up homeless, reduced to begging for survival. Others were forced into prostitution to make ends meet. Some, overwhelmed by despair, chose to drown themselves or hang themselves, ending their lives. The CCP remained indifferent to their suffering. The fates of other members of the Red Detachment of Women were no less tragic.

The Misfortunes of Red Detachment of Women Cast and Crew

The misfortunes were not limited to the members of the Red Detachment of Women—those involved in the creation and performance of the ballet The Red Detachment of Women also suffered repeated tragedies.

For instance, Bai Shuxiang, the first actress to play the lead role of Wu Qionghua in the ballet, was accused of "sabotaging revolutionary model operas" and labeled a "counter-revolutionary." She was subsequently persecuted and sent to a labor camp. Liu Qingtang, who played the male lead Hong Changqing, was placed under isolation and investigation after the Cultural Revolution, eventually sentenced to 17 years in prison. During his imprisonment, his wife divorced him.

The ballet’s director and original head of the Central Ballet Troupe, Li Chengxiang, was branded a "capitalist roader" and sent to a labor camp known as the "cattle pen" during the Cultural Revolution. Later, the CCP reinstated him when they needed him to reprise his role as the antagonist "Nan Batian" in the ballet.

The composer of the ballet, Wu Zuqiang, was also criticized during the Cultural Revolution, stripped of his professional status, and deprived of his creative rights.

Despite the lies embedded in this production and the immense suffering it caused, the CCP continued to use The Red Detachment of Women as a propaganda tool, both domestically and internationally, to glorify its violent regime and promote its ideology. Even until her death, Huang Zhun remained proud of this work, laden with falsehoods and tragedy. If she were aware of the true history, would she regret her pride in such a piece?

(First published in People News)