In September 1947, the National Government banned commercial dance halls to "practice economy to suppress the Communist rebellion and build up the country". In Shanghai, where there were 29 registered commercial dance halls employing some 20,000 dancing girls, musicians and waiters, rallies were held to protest against the ban. The Shanghai Bureau of Social Affairs, however, ordered the dance halls closed down, group by group, through the drawing of lots. The first closures – of the Paramount Hall and 13 other major dance halls - took place on January 31st.

When dancing girls and other former employees of the dance halls flocked to the Bureau of Social Affairs. Jack Birns, a photographer with the American magazine "Life", reported that a messy conflict broke out when demonstrators and police exchanged blows, and that demonstrators, numbering in the thousands, created a massive disturbance at the Bureau (of Social Affairs). Broken glass flew in all directions and furniture was thrown out of windows.

At 5 o'clock, the chief constable arrived with policemen and armored vehicles, following which more than 400 demonstrators were arrested.

Public opinion was with the dancing girls who had demonstrated at the Bureau of Social Affairs, and a few months later, most of the arrested demonstrators were released and the ban on dance halls was abandoned.

Two days after the dancing girls demonstrated at the Bureau of Social Affairs, Jack Birns took photos of policemen searching and detaining women workers of the Shenxin No. 9 Cotton Mill. In this incident, three people were killed, dozens of others were injured and more than 200 were arrested. In Shanghai, before Chinese New Year, two similar incidents took place in the space of three days.

Jack Birns, who had come to China to cover the civil war for LIFE magazine, took an American transport plane and landed at cities besieged by forces led by the Communist Party. At the end of January, he arrived in Shenyang, where, with the help of an American major, he took (a) photo(s) of Kuomintang troops being transferred to other centers. The caption(s) accompanying the photo(s) noted that these soldiers, once trained by General Joseph Stilwell in Burma's jungles, were fighting to save a few Kuomintang military strongholds in Manchuria.

From mid December onwards, people from across Peiping would converge on the Chaoyangmen Gate early every morning. Since fresh vegetables were arriving from the suburbs in smaller and smaller quantities, both sides in the war had agreed to open a vegetable market by the Chaoyangmen Gate. It took less than an hour for all the vegetables to be sold, so people had to get there very early, if they wanted to buy some.

On December the 15th, 1948, Peking University celebrated its 50th anniversary. On that day, gunfire was heard from the city suburbs. However, Hu Shi, President of Peking University, was not there to hear it, having departed for Nanjing. He left behind a note for his colleagues, which read: "I received telegrams from the government this morning and at noon, ordering me to go south immediately. So I have gone without any preparation."

Chiang Kai-shek had a premonition that Peiping and Tianjin would fall. So he instructed Fu Sinian, President of the Academia Sinica, to bring the leading academics in Peiping to Nanjing. Mei Yiqi, President of Tsinghua University and Yuan Tongli, President of Peking Normal University, were among several other academics who took the plane to Nanjing. Waiting at the airport in Nanjing to greet them were several officials from the Ministry of Education. However, when the academics disembarked, it was discovered that most of those on the "to be rescued" list were absent.

Despite President Mei Yiqi's departure, classes carried on as normal at Tsinghua University in the Peiping suburbs. On December the 16th, Kuomintang forces were withdrawn into the city proper. A few days later, the Liberation Army entered the Haidian district, and set up a sentry post outside Tsinghua University.
Hu Shi and Fu Sinian spent the last moments of the year 1948, together.

After returning from the United States in August, Fu Sinian had been appointed President of Taiwan University by Zhu Jiahua, Minister of Education. On the advice of some friends, he had accepted the appointment. But he never took up his duties. Hu Shi and Fu Sinian, as they drank together, gave vent to their sense of gloom by reciting a verse by Tao Yuanming, a poet of the Eastern Jin Dynasty some 1,600 years ago.

On the same day, Chiang Kai-shek hosted an informal dinner at his official residence in Nanjing. He read his "New Year Proclamation", which would be published the next day. Facing internal and external pressure, Chiang was ready to announce that he would step down.

That same night, people heard over the radio an editorial written by Mao Zedong for Xinhua News Agency. In "Carry the Revolution Through to the End", Mao declared that "The Chinese people will win final victory in the great War of Liberation. Even our enemy no longer doubts the outcome."

China was on the threshold of a new era. The theme of that era would be Carry the revolution through to the end.