About 25,000 people joined the 1927 International Women’s Day march in Guangzhou.
The demonstrators included women and male supporters, making the event one of the largest early International Women’s Day observances in China. Participants reportedly came from several parts of Guangzhou’s political and social life, including the Kuomintang, the Young Women’s Christian Association, and labour organisations.
The march took place during a period when International Women’s Day was spreading through communist and socialist movements worldwide. Chinese communists had begun observing the occasion in 1922, but it soon attracted support beyond the communist movement. Guangzhou’s 1927 demonstration therefore reflected both international socialist connections and China’s own political ferment.
A common mix-up is confusing this peaceful mass march with the Guangzhou Uprising later that year, an armed communist revolt in December 1927. They were separate events, although both occurred in the same city during a turbulent period in Chinese history. The following decades brought official recognition: after the People’s Republic of China was founded in 1949, March 8 became an official holiday for women, with a half-day off.