Burying past bitterness

• Source: Global Times
• [08:24 February 14 2011]
• Comments

Communist secret agent Zhu Feng is led on June 10, 1950 to Machangding, the execution grounds during the 1947-1987 White Terror.

By Wang Fanfan

Her mother's violent death was a mystery to Zhu Xiaofeng for over a half century.

All Zhu knew about her mother Zhu Feng was that she was a Communist secret agent dispatched to Taiwan in 1949 and executed by the Kuomintang in 1950.

Then in 2001, two photos shook her world. They appeared in the 16th issue of Old Pictures published by Shandong Pictorial Publishing House and shocked Zhu Xiaofeng to the core.

The first was of her mother in court standing alongside Wu Shi, the highest-level Communist secret agent ever uncovered by the Kuomintang and the man Mao Zedong once dubbed "secret agent No. 1."

The other was of Zhu Feng being led to her execution: Her hands, shoulders and neck were all tied with rope.

"It was exactly the same cheongsam she wore at home," Zhu Xiaofeng said.

The photos stirred up long-dormant memories and feelings, strengthening Zhu's resolve to see her mother's remains returned home.

"I don't know if my mother was buried or not," Zhu said. "She deserves to come back home."

A retired doctor at the general hospital of Nanjing Military Base, 80-year-old Zhu Xiaofeng as a child spent little time near her mother.

"My mother was always open to progressive thoughts," Zhu said.

Through the help of the publishers, Zhu contacted Qin Feng, a former journalist of the Taipei-based China Times who had stumbled across the photos in 1999.

Entrusted by the Zhu family, veteran reporter Qin sought out the remaining relatives in Taiwan hoping to locate the last resting place of Zhu Feng.