ABSTRACT
Kunming, well-known as the ‘fortress of democracy’ during the War of Resistance, was another important destination of Chinese intellectuals’ wartime migration besides the wartime capital, Chongqing. The Yunnan governor Long Yun was famous for his sympathy with local democratic movements outside the aegis of the Kuomintang (KMT). Compared with the Chinese communist party and the Democratic League, the KMT had gained a tighter grip over local women’s organisations in Kunming. When the China women’s association (CWA) was established in Chongqing in 1945, Cao Mengjun had asked the Democratic League leader Sa Kongliao, who planned to go to Hong Kong by way of Kunming, to take her letter and the stipulation of the CWA to Li Wenyi. Li Wenyi took a transport plane from Kunming to Chongqing, and after staying at the headquarters of the Democratic League on Guofu Road for about one month, she set off for Nanjing.
