#lu cui

“Loh Tsei, Chinese Joan of Arc”. Photographed on September 16, 1939 by Carl Van Vechten (1880-1964)

Loh Tsei 陆璀 (Lu Cui) (1914-2015) was a sociology student at Tsinghua University from 1934 to 1936. She was active in opposing Japanese imperialism leading up to WWII and was a prominent leader of the 1935 student demonstrations in Beijing. She became the first student demonstrator arrested by the police on December 12, 1935 and was dubbed “China’s Joan of Arc” by renowned journalist Edgar Snow.

On the cover page of the weekly publication, Public Life issued in December, 1935, was Loh Tsei 陆璀 (Lu Cui) (nicknamed China’s ‘Joan of Arc’) (1914-2015) then a student at Tsinghua University. She was delivering a passionate anti-Japanese speech as part of the student demonstrations that took place in Beijing on December 9th to urge resistance against Japanese aggression.  

Image 1: University student and political activist Lu Cui 陆璀 (1914-2015) n August, 1936 with the Chinese delegation attending the first World Youth Congress held in Geneva.

Image 2: In the summer of 1947, Lu Cui was part of the youth delegation of China to the first Youth Festival in Prague. Behind her is a map of China indicating the ‘liberated’ areas.

Image 3: Lu Cui and her husband Zhu Ziqi at home with a group of teachers and students.

Image 4: Lu Cui at home on November 18, 2012.