Yo Banfa!

Published by The New Zealand-China Society and the Progressive Book Society, Auckland, 1976, 218 pages.

Rewi Alley was born in Springfield, Canterbury, New Zealand in 1897. He went to primary school at Amberley and Wharenui (Christchurch) where his father was headmaster.

In 1912 he entered Christchurch Boys? High School and in 1916 enlisted in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force which fought in France. He was twice wounded and received the Military Medal for bravery. Returning home at the end of World War 1 he bought a farm with an old schoolmate in the Moeawatea Valley inland from Waverley (Taranaki), where they struggled for six years of farming depression.Then he left New Zealand and headed for China, arriving on April 21st 1927. He obtained work in Shanghai as a fire officer and later as Chief Factory Inspector. During this time he saw the terrible conditions of the Chinese workers at first hand and identified with their struggles.

A member of the Communist Party of China, he dedicated 60 years of his life to the cause, and was a key figure in the establishment of Chinese Industrial Cooperatives and technical training schools, including the Peili Vocational Institute (also known as the Bailie Vocational Institute or the Beijing Bailie University). Alley was a prolific writer about 20th century China, and especially about the Communist revolution. He also translated numerous Chinese poems.