This year has seen the passing of three literary giants associated with the 1919 May 4th student movement - writers Bing Xin and Qian Zhongshu and translator Xiao Qian.
The heir of one is continuing the fight in her own way, hoping to propagate science and democracy just as her mother did 80 years ago in the movement which pushed mainland politics toward nationalism and socialism.
She is Wu Qing, youngest daughter of Bing, China's most famous woman writer, who died in February aged 99.
Professor Wu described her sense of mission during a visit to Hong Kong, a role inspired by family memories.
Visiting the SAR to promote a memorial collection of her mother's works, Professor Wu said: 'She was a good mother and my umbrella of protection, although as her children we suffered during the Cultural Revolution because of our parents' intellectual background.' The 62-year-old professor of English at Beijing Foreign Studies University has been an activist on international and domestic women's issues for two decades.
She is a voluntary consultant at a home for young female factory workers in Beijing, and founded a vocational training school for village women.