Zhang Ruoming

In her youth, she was a leader in the May Fourth Movement in Tianjin and was known for her political association with Zhou Enlai and the Chinese Communist Party in France in the early 1920s.

Zhang Ruoming was born on 16 January 1902[a][2] in Wenren Village, south of Baoding in Hebei province.

She was a founder and leader of the Tianjin Women's Patriotic Association, alongside Liu Qingyang and Guo Longzhen.

[3] In 1920 Zhang was a correspondent, writing political analyses for the Beijing periodical Morning News.

She sent a copy of her thesis to Gide who wrote back, praising her understanding of his development and his work's meaning.

[2] Zhang married the ethnologist Yang Kun on 31 May 1930, and the pair returned to China in 1931.

[11] Zhang has been depicted in historical television dramas and films, including Nos Annees Francaises (2012) and The Founding of a Party (2011).