Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and New Zealand Prime Minister Bill English Tuesday visited an exhibition marking the 120th anniversary of the birth of Rewi Alley, an old friend of the Chinese people, in Auckland, New Zealand, March 28, 2017.

Rewi Alley made important contributions to the Chinese people's fight against the fascist invasion, the economic development of the new China, and friendship between China and New Zealand.

This year also marks the 90th anniversary of his arrival in China and the 30th anniversary of his death.

When speaking to Patrick Alley, a nephew of Rewi Alley, after viewing pictures recalling Alley's 60 years of work and life in China, Li expressed the hope that the two countries would continue to carry forward Alley's spirit and continuously promote the friendship between the two countries.

The Gung Ho movement in China

A proud history – A lasting legacy

Few international non-governmental organizations in China can trace their origins as far back as ICCIC and the Gung Ho Movement.

In 1937, Rewi Alley, Edgar and Helen Foster Snow, and patriots in China initiated the Gung Ho Movement. They organized laid-off workers and refugees displaced by the Japanese invasion to set up manufacturing cooperatives in aid of China’s resistance effort. This soon became a nation-wide civil movement of some 3,000 cooperatives..

To seek international support and promote the Gung Ho movement, Mme. Soong Ching Ling initiated the founding of the ICCIC in 1939, and was elected honorary chair. British Bishop of Hong Kong, R. D. Hall, was its chair. By the end of 1945, the ICCIC had raised some (USD) $10 Million in cash and materials from the United States, Britain, Canada, New Zealand, the Philippines, and Singapore -- gifts highly praised by senior leaders of the CPC, including Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and Ye Ting.

Gung Ho was originally the abbreviation of Industrial Cooperative, meaning to “work hard, and work together.” Evans F. Carlson, the then Military Attaché at the American Embassy in China made the phrase “Gung Ho” the slogan of the Carlson Commandos of the U.S. Marine Corps and its usage soon spread far and wide. The phrase was subsequently listed in English dictionaries to mean enthusiastic, quick to take action.

In 1937, a Briton named George Hogg came to China where he met Rewi Alley and devoted himself to Gung Ho. In 1941, Hogg became the principal of the Beili School, in Shuangshipu (Shaanxi), and then served as head of the Shandan Beili School (Gansu) where he died in 1945.

ICCIC suspended services in 1952 then resumed them in 1987 with China’s opening up to the world. Today, the spirit of the original Gung Ho Movement and its devotion to people owned and managed cooperative enterprise continues to benefit communities across China through the work of the ICCIC International Secretariat Office in Beijing.