Comment on and Reply to Zhou Dunxiang’s [1] Letter
(3 February 1955)

Forward this letter to the United Front Work Department of the Hunan Provincial Committee to see whether a position can be arranged in the Provincial Counsellors’ Office and the Research Institute of Culture and History.

Mr. Dunxiang:
Mao Zedong
3 February

Your letter has been received. I am most sympathetic to your circumstances. The United Front Work Department of the Hunan Provincial Committee has been asked to give due consideration to finding a way to assist. Whether this can be fulfilled as hoped, you may make contact locally. Should you encounter urgent difficulties, please do inform me.
With wishes for progress,
Mao Zedong
3 February

[1] Zhou Dunxiang, who joined the New People’s Study Society led by Mao Zedong during the May Fourth period, was appointed after April 1955 as a member of the Hunan Provincial Research Institute of Culture and History.
[2] Refers to Zhou Dunxiang’s letter to Mao Zedong dated 10 January 1955. The letter stated that in 1921 she went to Southeast Asia together with Zhang Guoji to run educational programmes, and returned to China in 1935. After the founding of New China, she was unable to find formal employment. She had hoped to study at the North China Revolutionary University, but because the university suspended operations after its fourth term, her studies did not materialise, she could not obtain work, faced economic hardship, and was unable to sustain her personal livelihood. She hoped Mao Zedong could introduce her to a job.