Finding the Party’s birthplace

Almost 90 years ago, in the spring of 1930, the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) was born, an event of great historical significance and opening a new page for the nation. Many historical documents show that the Party was established in Hong Kong (China), but at which specific address has remained a mystery for many years.

The conference discussing the founding of the Communist Party of Vietnam in 1930. (Photo: Phan Ke An)
The conference discussing the founding of the Communist Party of Vietnam in 1930. (Photo: Phan Ke An)

Tracing the historical evidence

In his report sent to the Communist International on the establishment of the CPV (the Indochinese Communist Party), on December 18, 1930, Nguyen Ai Quoc (i.e. President Ho Chi Minh) wrote: “I convene the representatives of two groups (the Communist Party of Indochina and the Communist Party of Annam). We met on January 6. As an envoy of the Communist International with full authority to decide all matters related to the revolutionary movement in Indochina, I told them what they were wrong and what they had to do. They agreed to unite in one party ... Delegates returned to Annam on February 8.”

History recorded that, in a single month, the Party Unification Conference took place in many different places in Hong Kong, such as one day in a disadvantaged worker's house, where delegates pretended to be a bunch of mah-jong players to hide from the police raids, or another day they pretended to watch a football match, even gathering on a hill near the airport and the harbour. Many documents also mentioned Kowloon City...

In 2007, a delegation from the Ho Chi Minh Museum had a field-trip to Hong Kong to collect documents about the period when President Ho Chi Minh was in Hong Kong. The delegation consisted of experienced researchers and collectors, with the participation of Mrs. Lady Borton, an American writer and journalist, who has collected thousands of pages of documents from the English archives on Nguyen Ai Quoc - Ho Chi Minh’s arrest in Hong Kong in 1931. With the dedicated assistance and cooperation from Hong Kong’s Library and Archives as well as University of Hong Kong, the Vietnamese delegation collected a number of documents. The most important achievement was identifying a number of sites related to Nguyen Ai Quoc's activities in Hong Kong in the 1930s.

Based on the documents found and field surveys, the delegation determined that the area of Sung Wong Toi in Kowloon City District, Kowloon Peninsula, converges the factors mentioned in the memoirs about the location where the CPV was established, such as having a vestige of the Sung King monument, an airport, a seaside stadium, and a house at No. 186 Tam Kung Street in a poor workers' neighbourhood.

According to the division of the Hong Kong government, until 1982, Hong Kong had 18 districts. The Kowloon Peninsula had five districts, including Kowloon City, Kwun Tong, Sham Shui Po, Wong Tai Sin and Yau Tsim Mong.

Sung Wong Toi, is an area in Kowloon City District. In the area, there is a hill which is not too high, with a Sung King Temple on its top and a Monkey King Temple nearby.

Around the foothills of Sung Wong Toi is the residential area, with two large roads intersecting each other, namely Tam Kung and Sung Wong Toi. This area has a small stadium, often hosting football matches. When the Vietnamese delegation went there to research, Sung Wong Toi no longer existed, but instead was an Olympic Stadium. Opposite the stadium, across the Olympic Avenue is Sung Wong Toi Garden. In the park, there is a large stone with three Chinese characters engraved "Sung Wong Toi” (English transliteration) and there is also a stone tablet engraved in two languages, Chinese and English, about Sung Wong Toi’s history.

Thanks to the Hong Kong maps of 1926, 1935, 1945, 1967, 1970 and today, which are stored in the library, and information found in the archives, the delegation learned that in the 1920s, the two merchants named Ho Kai and Au Tak built Kai Tak airport on one side of Sung Wong Toi’s hill. In 1941, Japanese troops entered Hong Kong, using explosives to destroy the hill. The rock with Chinese characters "Sung Wong Toi” was broken into three, but the part with three words displaying the Chinese name of the stone, "Sung Wong Toi", was not broken. After 1945, the Hong Kong government built a park and moved the stone with the intact words "Sung Wong Toi" to place it in the park, nearly 100 metres southwest of its former position.

The valuable vestige

In 2012, the Ho Chi Minh Museum found the memoir of a member of the Communist Party of China, who was sent by the Guangdong Party Committee and the Communist Party of China to congratulate the Communist Party of Indochina’s first plenum, held in October 1930 in Kowloon, Hong Kong. The memoir recounted: "The conference opening was held in Sung Wong Toi on the beach opposite to the Kowloon Monkey King Temple, in order to take advantage of the crowded and bustling anniversary of the Monkey King’s birthday. The contents of the memoir match those previously collected by the Ho Chi Minh Museum.

Thus, the survey team identified the special place that relates to the activities of Nguyen Ai Quoc in Hong Kong in the 1930s, the region covering Sung Wong Toi, where three major events were witnessed: the establishment of CPV in February 1930, the venue for the CPV’s first plenum in October 1930, and where Nguyen Ai Quoc was arrested in Hong Kong on June 6, 1931.

In 2010, based on the documents published by the Ho Chi Minh Museum and other documents, the Guangdong People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, the Guangdong Museum of Revolutionary History, the Guangxi Academy of Social Sciences and the China World Knowledge Publishing House cooperated to publish a photo book on the theme of Ho Chi Minh with Guangdong - Hong Kong, which determined that the conference to establish the CPV in 1930 was held in the Sung Wong Toi area, including the house at No. 186, Tam Kung Road, Kowloon.

Currently, the relics related to the establishment of the CPV have all changed, except for the stone which has been moved from the hill with the Sung King Temple and is now located in Sung Wong Toi Garden. A number of scientists and friends in Hong Kong who love Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh have initiatives to erect stelae to mark the sites dedicated to Ho Chi Minh in Hong Kong, including Sung Wong Toi. If the idea is realised, it will help increase the historical value for Sung Wong Toi, and at the same time, further strengthen the relationship between the people of Vietnam and China, for which President Ho Chi Minh laid the foundation and strived to nurture.

Secret records and articles from T. Lan all stated that the place where Sung Man Cho (i.e. Nguyen Ai Quoc - Ho Chi Minh) was arrested on June 6, 1931, was at house No. 186 Tam Kung Road. At present, Tam Kung Road still remains in Hong Kong, but the numbering of the houses only reaches No. 148 at the highest. By comparing the Hong Kong maps of past years, the Vietnamese survey team found that in 1969, the Hong Kong government demolished the section of Tam Kung Road from house No. 150 onwards to open Olympic Avenue. Thus, the house No. 186 Tam Kung Road of the past was located inside the current Olympic Avenue.

Đảng chín mươi xuân,

qua sóng gió,

trí tuệ vươn cao,

dẫn dắt non sông đổi mới

Nước mấy nghìn năm,

trải phong ba,

vững nền độc lập,

sức mạnh dân tộc trường tồn

Ninety springs - the age of the Party,

passing through ups and downs,

wisdom elaborating,

leading the country into innovation

The country passing thousands of years,

struggling over hardship,

keeping solid independence,

for national strength lasting forever!

NGUYEN VU MINH

By Dr. Chu Duc Tinh