A grand ceremony to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Diligent Work-Frugal Study Movement was held at the Chinese Cultural Center in Paris on Saturday ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit to France.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Diligent Work-Frugal Study Movement in France was one of the important early activities of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

Nearly 2,000 progressive young Chinese arrived in France, where they worked diligently and lived frugally, seeking truth and ways to transform China. The movement played a pivotal role in helping spread Marxism, establishing the CPC and cultivating a number of a large number of proletarian revolutionaries, statesmen, militarists and educators. They included future leaders of the CPC, including Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping. It also has long promoted the cultural and people-to-people exchanges between China and France.(Photos: Cao Siqi and Zhao Juecheng/GT)