The publicity department of Zhejiang province released an animated short film on June 30 to commemorate a local scholar's contribution to the spread of Marxism in China.

Chen Wangdao (1891-1977), born in the city of Yiwu, was a veteran scholar and translator. He is recognized as the first person who translated The Communist Manifesto into Chinese and his translation was the first book on Marxism published in the country, which inspired the very first group of members of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

In 1917, after the October Revolution in the Soviet Union, some progressive youths began to learn about the philosophy of Marxism. However, due to the language barrier, they couldn't fully understand the essence of The Communist Manifesto.

Chen, who came back from Japan in 1919 and had a good command of Japanese, English and Chinese, was assigned the task of translating the manifesto. He began the work in the early spring of 1920 at his hometown Yiwu.

In August of 1920, the first Chinese edition of The Communist Manifesto was published in Shanghai and was seen as a foundation for the founding of the CPC in 1921.

The short film focuses on a small story that happened to Chen. One day, he was so immersed in the translation that he didn't realize he was eating zongzi, a pyramid-shaped dumpling made of glutinous rice, with ink instead of brown sugar. However, Chen said the dumpling was sweet as "the taste of truth is sweet". Thus, "the taste of truth is sweet" became a famous saying and was widely quoted by Chinese revolutionaries.

A screengrab from the short film about Chen Wangdao [Photo/screenshot]