Hello!
My name is Liu Rui Bao, and I am currently studying at the National Central University School of Humanities focusing on History. I first enrolled here in 1927, after the closure of Shanghai University, making my way here with a few friends also caught up in the whirlwind. My wife of only 2 years, Li Bozhao, died of consumption on the trek. Although I have not yet totally overcome this loss, an indescribable and incomparable torture, I have slowly reckoned with my own purpose in this world. I am a man who has only been on this earth for 23 years, still being educated, still learning about the wider world. This world, and nation, within which I have been placed is one of positivity and growth, yes, but also suffering and poverty, inequities that could largely be erased through cooperation and understanding. That is what I have come “here” to do, why I am writing right now. I intend to raise awareness of the grief many of us, including myself, have ignored for far too long.
Now, as I expect you are asking yourself right now, whatever do I mean by “including myself”? Well, from an early age, I was treated to a blissful existence. Although I do not originate from royalty or nobility, nothing of that grandeur, my family did find some repute within our local populace. I was born in Wuxi, a small town within Jiangsu province that sits on Lake Taihu in the year 1907. My background largely consists of traders and merchants, taking advantage of increasing trade in the urban center of Shanghai. Silks, porcelain, cotton, and various other textiles would pass through my family’s hands: profit through the labor of others. Although perspective allows me to grasp the parasitic behavior of my ancestors I still understand where it has brought me. An education, and the ability to pursue a life of self-subsistence in a tumultuous world, I stand as a consequence of my origins.
In regard to my goals in this world, I believe we can trace that back to my earlier years in university. I approached my schooling with a generic tone. My father had sent me off to study business in the hopes of his son earning a degree and bringing expertise back home which he frankly didn’t have. A world of opportunity, and in his eyes profit, was being revealed to China in the 1920s, he wished not to be left out. When I reached university I was overwhelmed with conversation and introspection. People of all creeds and backgrounds, Marxist and nationalist, poor and wealthy, all studying at the same place, Shanghai University. I fell in with a crowd that I would by-in-large describe as intellectuals, those who viewed our current circumstance as begging for change. It is in this group where I would find my late wife, who I grew attached to almost immediately. The events of 1927 only served to solidify my resolve in where my future lies. Many comrades and friends were taken in the chaos, although they will always be remembered. I view the study of History as a means of protecting our future, as a means of observing the class inequality that has plagued not just China but humanity’s history. This light, that of class conflict, has only been touched upon relatively recently, and I intend to further that pursuit to the best of my abilities, both in past and contemporary events.