As dynasties have traditionally used historical figures for their own political purposes, so too has the Chinese Communist Party used famous figures for its political purposes. Perhaps, more than any other person in the 20th century, the Party has used the prestige of China's pre-eminent modern writer Lu Xun for a wide variety of political, ideological, and factional purposes. Since his death in October 1936, his life and work have been interpreted in different periods to conform to the latest mutation in party policy. And when the Party became factionalized after the Great Leap Forward, different political factions used Lu Xun to represent their conflicting political positions.

China's third national census, taken as of 00:00 hours 1 July 1982, presumably counted more than one billion people. This census is of enormous importance not only for Chinese statistics but for world demography, because it may resolve at last the perennial doubts about the size of China's population. It will also provide many kinds of demographic data not now available from any other source in China and add greatly to the national stock of statistics. The data will support a tremendous upsurge in demographic analysis and serve as a base for future sample surveys. They will have many immediate practical applications in planning and administration. Assuming that the central instructions have been generally observed, the census will do much to enhance China's statistical credibility throughout the world.

The Draft Constitution of the People's Republic of China (PRC), released on 27 April 1982, appears to be the most comprehensive, detailed (if somewhat wordy) and reasonable (as opposed to revolutionary, erratic) since 1949. Unlike its predecessors of 1975 and 1978, it is, no doubt, a product of more careful, more balanced efforts, involving the participation of scholars and legal professionals as well as politicians and Party cadres. Barring unforseen developments, this document will be adopted in more or less its present form later this year. The Constitution of the Communist Party of China (CPC) will also be revised, probably at the same time or a little later. Significantly, the State Constitution will probably set the tone for the Party Constitution to follow rather than the other way round. In this respect as in its fundamental conception, style, and contents, the 1982 Draft resembles the Constitution of 1954 and differs from those of 1975 and 1978. Perhaps this is why the new Draft has been described as “the Second Constitution”-to-be by Hu Sheng, a deputy secretary-general of the Committee for the Revision of the Constitution.

Because Lu Xun as a man, not just as a writer, loomed so large in the consciousness of his age, his death was both an event of great public importance and a bitter loss to many. Of the hundreds of millions of deaths in China during the 38 years of the Republic none made a bigger impact, with the possible exception of that of Sun Yatsen, which though perhaps less deeply felt had a more immediate political effect. To this day, educated Chinese who were old enough in October 1936 to be aware of what was happening in the world remember how and where they heard the news, just as Europeans of the same generation remember learning of the outbreak of the Second World War.