Oil Painting: Study for the Rise of China

Due to his poor family, Zhou Enlai was asked by Zhou Yigeng, his father's elder brother, to study in Northeast China when he was 12 years old. His uncle Zhou Yigeng raised him when he attended primary and middle schools. In 1910, Zhou Enlai went to Tieling and Shenyang in Northeast China with his uncle to attend primary schools. In the three years in Northeast China, he came into contact with new learning and began to change in his thinking and life. The times and the then environments awoke his patriotic sentiments. When he studies in the exemplary primary school in Fengtian (today's Shenyan), a teacher once asked:"What do you study for?" He said with determination, "I study for the rise of China." "The aim of both teaching and learning is to foster talents for the country so as to build a prosperous and strong country," he said in his composition. The painting shows Zhou Enlai's great ambition and strong sense of mission.