Luo Zhi was born Luo Changsheng in Yuangang Village, Yanghe Township in what is today
Gaoming District of
Foshan City in
Guangdong Province in 1915. In 1924, he accompanied his uncle to
Manchuria to pursue studies in
Changchun. After the
Mukden Incident, he changed his name to Luo Zhi and joined the
Northeast Anti-Japanese National Salvation Army to fight against Japanese rule. In the winter of 1932, he retreated to the
Soviet Union. In 1933, he re-entered China and went to Dihua (now
Urumqi). In 1935, he studied at
Tashkent in the Soviet Union before continuing his studies in the politico-economy department of the Xinjiang Academy, where he was exposed to
Marxist-Leninist theories. From 1939 to 1942, he taught at a teacher’s college and middle school in northern Xinjiang and was twice arrested for activism against
Chinese Nationalist rule. == Activism in Xinjiang ==