Party history shared by Xi: Man engrossed while translating The Communist Manifesto

A postage stamp features Chen Wangdao, who completed the first Chinese-language translation of The Communist Manifesto. [Photo/IC]

'The taste of truth is so sweet'

President Xi Jinping once shared an anecdote about Chen Wangdao, who first translated The Communist Manifesto into Chinese.

In 1920, young Chen started translating the groundbreaking work by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in his home village in East China's Zhejiang province. One day, Chen's mother made him sticky rice dumplings, or zongzi, and suggested he dip them in brown sugar water.

"I did so, and they were very sweet," Chen said. But later his mother found that his mouth was covered with ink – it turned out that Chen was concentrating so hard on translating that he dipped the dumpling in ink rather than brown sugar water.

It was with such dedication that Chen finished the translation and introduced the principles of Marxism into China, which paved the way for the birth of the Communist Party of China.

Xi shared a Chen's quote, saying, "The taste of truth is so sweet".