Background
Nothing is known about his background.
Nothing is known about his background.
He was educated locally.
Sometime during the latter part of the Sino- Japanese War Teng was transferred from Chin- Ch'a-Chi to Chungking where he worked on the Party paper in that city, the Hsin-hua jih-pao (New China daily). When the cease-fire agreement between the KMT and the CCP completely collapsed in early 1947, this newspaper was, of course, closed down and all personnel were evacuated to Yenan or other areas held by the Communists. Although no details are available, it is evident that Teng continued in journalism in the late 1940’s because in July 1949 he was named to the Preparatory Committee of the AllChina Journalists' Association (ACJA). Five years later, when the ACJA was organized on a permanent basis (September 1954),Teng replaced Party propagandist Hu Ch'iao-mu, who had headed the Preparatory Committee.
Another post that Teng assumed in mid-1949 was membership on the Higher Education Committee of the North China Peopled Government, the temporary governmental body that ruled the Communist-held portions of north China from its formation in August 1948 until October 1949, when its functions were assumed by the central government. One of the Party founders, Tung Pi-wu, headed this government and he also chaired the Higher Education Committee, which was formed in June 1949. This post in the field of education was the first of several that Teng To would hold in the years ahead.
By 1950 he was serving as deputy managing director of the JMJP, and then in 1952 he assumed the concurrent post of editor-in-chief. Also in 1950 Teng became a regular contributor to Hsueh-hsi (Study), the most important Party theoretical journal until it was supplanted by Hung-ch'i (Red flag) in 1958. While Hsueh-hsi existed and particularly in the 1950-51 period, Teng was one of the most regular contributors.
He assumed a variety of other positions in the early and mid-1950’s. From 1951 to 1953 he served as head of the Propaganda Department of the Peking CCP Committee and was particularly active, while holding this post, in the campaign to promote the ideological “reformation” of inteilectuals in Peking and Tientsin. From its formation in May 1952 (to the present), Teng has served on the Standing Committee of the China-India Friendship Association, and in 1953-54 he served as a member of the national committee to implement the Marriage Law. In 1954 he was named to the Board of Directors of the Chinese People’s Association for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, a position he probably still retains. Also in 1954 Teng was elected as a Shantung deputy to the First NPC (1954-1959), he was re-elected to the Second NPC (1959-1964) but was switched to the Peking constituency for the Third NPC, which held its first session in December 1964-January 1965. When the Academy of Sciences established four specialized departments in May-June 1955, Teng was named to membership in the Department of Philosophy and Social Sciences, headed by academician Kuo Mo-jo. He was also selected for membership on the Central Committee for Popularizing the Common Spoken Language (p’u-t’ung-hua) a special committee set up under the chairmanship of Ch’en I in February 1956.
Besides being a member of the China-India Friendship Association, Teng serves on three other similar organizations. When the Sino- Soviet FA held its second conference in December 1954, he was elected to the second Executive Board and was then re-elected to the third Board in April 1959. Similarly, he was elected a Board of Directors member of the China-United Arab Republic FA from its formation in February 1958, and when the China-Poland FA was set up in September of the same year, he was named as a vice-president. He has also served as a Standing Committee member of the rather important China Peace Committee from its reorganization in July 1958.
Although it is evident that Teng has had a less direct hand in Party journalistic endeavors since the late 1950’s, it is equally clear that he has retained an active interest in the general field of culture and education. In addition to his change from the editorship of the JMJP to posts on both the Peking Party Committee and the North China Party Bureau, two examples serve to illustrate his continuing work in cultural and educational affairs. For the February 1961 issue of the important journal Li-shih yen-chiu (Historical research) Teng wrote an article on the “science of history,” presenting what might be considered a standard statement of the Chinese Communist viewpoint. Of particular interest is the fact that this article indicated a rather wide knowledge of Western historiography and Western writings about China. Second, in February 1965 Teng was a major speaker at a large “festival of plays and operas,” held in Peking, emphasizing that the “revolutionization” of drama workers was the prerequisite for the revolutionizing of drama work. His speech came amidst a major propaganda drive to replace traditional themes in the operas with more contemporary ideas stressing struggle.
In September 1949, Teng attended the first session of the CPPCC as a representative of the Journalists’ Association, although he was not named to the permanent National Committee of the CPPCC. In October 1949 he became a member of the Peking branch of the Si no-Soviet Friendship Association. However, these activities were clearly peripheral to Teng's major assignment as a journalist.