The file photo shows Zhou Enlai at Nankai Middle School in Tianjin, north China in 1916. [Photo/360doc.com]

Why do you study?

"For my country's rise," answered one 14-year-old.

His name was Zhou Enlai. Born in a turbulent 19th-century China, Zhou became the first Premier of the People's Republic of China. Known as a skilled and able diplomat, he served as the country's first foreign minister from 1949 to 1958.

Student Leader

As a student activist at Nankai University in north China's Tianjin in 1919, Zhou Enlai and several other students established the "Awakening Society", declaring that "anything that is incompatible with progress in current times, such as militarism, the bourgeoisie, partylords, bureaucrats, inequality between men and women, obstinate ideas, obsolete morals, old ethics... should be abolished or reformed."

As leading supporters of a nationwide boycott of Japanese goods, Zhou and three other student leaders were arrested by the government. During their 6-month detention, Zhou organized discussions on Marxism. He also became familiar with organizers of underground Communist cells, which later attracted 15 Awakening Society members.