The Last Speech of Wen Yiduo

    About this rhetorical analysis, I want to talk about a Chinese poet and scholar’s speech-----the Last Speech given by Wen Yiduo in 1946.9, as this title says, this speech is his last speech in his life, five hours after giving this speech, he was gunned down on his way home. Wen Yiduo is one of the most admirable scholars of mine, his poetries and works is full with patriotism and the yearning for democracy and peace, also the Last Speech he gave in 1946 express the same theme and the contending against dictatorship by Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party).

    Wen Yiduo is one of China’s most talented poets and the early leader of the Democratic League. He had studied at Art Institute of Chicago and Colorado College, and in the late 1920s became a professor of English and American Literature at Nanjing University. When Wen Yiduo gave speech, he was at memorial service for Li Gongbu in Kunming, who was assassinated by Kuomintang’s secret agents because he objects to Jiang Jieshi(Chiang Kai-shek, the leader of Kuomintang)’s dictatorship in public. After Second Sino-Japanese War(1937-1945), Jiang jieshi still maintained his autocracy and launched the war with Chinese Communist Party(Second Chinese Civil War, 1945-1949) in spite of the opposition of the people. At that time, a lot of demonstration for stopping autocracy and civil war but all of the demonstrations were suppressed by Kuomintang’s army, large amount of democratic personages were assassinated by secret agents of Kuomintang, include Li Gongbu. At his memorial service, most of audience are Kunming’s citizens who disagree with civil war and Lianda (National southwest associate University)’s students, but some secret agents sneaked into the service and try to mess up the memorial service, when Li Gongbu’s wife made speech in a tearful voice, they started to laugh and shout. In fact, Wen Yiduo wasn’t invited to give memorial speech because the compere worried about Wen had been already on Kuomintang’s blacklists, if he give speech, he would get into great danger. But after Mrs. Li giving speech, Wen stood up and stepped on the platform, gave his speech that was filled with indignation.

    Wen Yiduo did not follow the rules of usual memorial essay that should begin with decedent’s life and express his condolences to decedent. He offered a striking statement: “The most despicable, the most shameless incident occurred in Kunming.” Wen noticed the audience that it is a shameless murder that was schemed by Kuomintang, also warned the secret agents in the service that I know you did that. Then put up some question to stir up audience’s anger and queried secret agents: “What crime had Li Gongbu committed to deserve such an ending in unconscionable hands!” “Today I want to know if there are more secret agents here, right here, step up, you, tell us, why you killed Li Gongbu!” Wen began with the theme and topic that what a great patriot Li Gongbu is and how contemptible the Kuomintang did, in the speech, Wen Yiduo use a kind of body language-----hammering on the table to express his anger and it also stir up audience’s anger. The introduction is short but it make people get angry to this contemptible assassinate and know the true self of Kuomintang’s autocracy. So I think this speech more like a fight talk than memorial speech.

    In the conclusion, Wen ended with a striking sentence by quoting Li Gongbu’s words: “We are not afraid of death, we are constantly ready to follow in Li Gongbu’s footstep, the moment we step out of the door, we don’t think of stepping back!” He indicated toughly that he would insist on fighting against autocracy foe democracy and never give up. It is quiet effective and speaker achieve clarity. In the end of the speech, everyone was infected by Wen Yiduo and clapped for long time, and he frightened secret agents, also he was murdered after five hours because of his speech.

    This speech is also a text in my middle school Chinese class. Every times I read it, I will be inspired by Wen’s spirit and his integrity. It is very hard to imagine that how brave a person could face such a dangerous situation but still speak up for people and fight for democratic at that time. This speech is considered as one of the most successful speeches in Chinese modern history, and the speaker----- Wen Yiduo’s statue still stands at Tsinghua University , is memorized by Chinese students and tourists whom from all over the country.