Rewi Alley is a renowned New Zealand social activist, educator and writer. He arrived in China in 1927. Not long after his arrival, he engaged himself in developing ties with the Chinese workers and caring the children of poor families. He thus developed a strong bond with the Chinese people. He initiated the Gung Ho Campaign and founded the Shandan Beilie School, enormously contributing to the National Salvation through Increasing Production Campaign in the rear areas. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, he further devoted himself to the socialist construction and reform and opening-up endeavors of China, playing a pivotal role in the normalization of China-New Zealand relations. He was highly respected and admired by the Chinese people, who had witnessed his contribution to promote friendly exchanges between the peoples of China and New Zealand and among the peoples of the whole world as well.

The Path to A New Life

In December 1897, Rewi Alley was born in Springfield, New Zealand into a teacher's family. His father was a strict person and her mother was diligent and optimistic. He was deeply influenced and shaped by his parents. At the age of 19 in 1916, Alley volunteered for war service. He was sent to France to fight the Germans during the World War I. He was so seriously wounded in a battle in 1918 that he had to spend a night in a horse manure pit. The shelling destroyed one side of the wall of the pit and he was buried in earth, with his head barely above the rubble. Fortunately, he was rescued by his comrades-in-arm the next morning.

After the end of the World War I, Alley returned to New Zealand. On returning to his home country he joined a companion in establishing a ranch in Taranaki. They reclaimed wasteland in a remote hilly bush land, isolated from urban centers and normal social life. They sometimes had to work for 16 hours a day, "toiling the field like slaves." They cleared the bush, grazed cattle, planted vegetables, milked the cow, made butter and repaired the road. The six years' hard physical experiences in the ranch endowed his short frame with stamina and resilience. However, New Zealand had an economic recession after the war and the ranch became financially untenable for Alley and his partner. Alley felt he was a "nonstarter" in his family as his brothers and sisters were more successful at the time. At the Christmas eve in 1926, he made the decision to "go and have a look at the great Chinese revolution." A path to a new life was awaiting him.

In April 1927, Alley arrived in Shanghai, a city beset by political turmoil at the time. Chiang Kai-shek launched the April 12th Counterrevolutionary Coup and slaughtered the communists and revolutionaries. Alley worked in the Shanghai International Settlement, first as a sub-off icer at what is now Hongkou Fire Station and then as a municipal factory inspector. As the factory safety inspector, he worked among the Chinese workers and interacted directly with them. Later, he admitted that what disturbed him most was the unimaginable hardship sustained by child laborers in silk-reeling factories. The workshop was full of vapor and the blistering heat of Shanghai just made things more unbearable. Even a man as strong as him could only stay in the workshop for several minutes at best. However, many children as young as eight or nine years old had to stand in front of the silk boiling tank for more than ten hours a day. If they made a minor mistake, the supervisor would whip them with iron wire rope or burn their small arms with hot water. Most children had symptoms of severe acute malnutrition. They dragged their weak bodies everyday to work and struggled to survive. Alley was appalled by the harsh working conditions under which the Chinese workers had been struggling to survive.