XINHUA

Students offering flowers in front of the Monument to the People’s Heroes, Beijing 

 

Chinese leaders together with representatives of all sectors of the capital offered flower baskets at the Monument to the People’s Heroes in Beijing’s Tian’anmen Square on Sept. 30 while grand memorial events to honor mar­tyrs were held across China on the nation’s first Martyrs’ Day.

 

Having already designated Sept. 3 as Victory Day of the Chi­nese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and Dec. 13 as a national memorial day for the victims of the Nanjing Massacre, the Standing Com­mittee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s top legislative body, approved a draft on Aug. 31 to name Sept. 30 Martyrs’ Day, and the nation will hold public memorial services to commemorate heroic martyrs from this year on.

 

Great spirit breeds a great nation

 “Honoring martyrs is neces­sary to strengthen national co­hesion and enhance the national sense of responsibility,” Rong Weimu, senior editor at Social Science in China Press said. Historical memory is of vital im­portance to national growth and only when everyone remembers what the country has been through can the nation continue to grow.

 

On Sept. 30, 65 years ago, the First Plenary Session of the Chi­nese People’s Political Consulta­tive Conference passed a resolu­tion to build the Monument to the People’s Heroes in Beijing.

 

“This is a reminder for Chinese people to bear in mind that the birth of New China was made possible with the blood of the martyrs,” Rong said.

 

Wu Xiangping, deputy direc­tor of the Institute of Japanese Studies at the Jilin Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, said regardless of whether a nation has material abundance, if it for­gets its own history, it is doomed to be trapped in spiritual poverty.

 

“A great cause breeds great spirit, and in return great spirit promotes a great cause,” said Pan Xun, professor of the History Department at Southwest Uni­versity. Marking Martyrs’ Day is to commemorate martyrs in the national collective memory and more importantly, the sacrifice of martyrs shall inspire the drive to realize the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation, he said.

 

After setting Martyrs’ Day, the Ministry of Civil Affairs announced a list of 300 mar­tyrs and heroic groups who sacrificed their lives during the Japanese invasion of China on Sept. 1, including members of the People’s Liberation Army, officers and soldiers from the Kuomintang troops, and some renowned representatives of Chinese patriotic personages as well as foreigners who sup­ported China and died in the war, Rong said.

 

Heritage to young generation

 Any country’s progress and national revival shall have two requirements, namely national unity of will and national cohe­sion. And the formation of this kind of unity and cohesion relies heavily on general educa­tion in addition to the high con­vergence of state and individual interests as well as the interests of the nation and its members.

 

“Setting a national memorial day is the best way to educate people, especially the young generation,” Rong said.

 

At the Sept. 30 Martyrs’ Day commemoration sponsored by the Nanjing Normal University, Song Yongzhong, secretary of the Party committee of Nanjing Normal University, said that young people are the future of the country, the nation’s hope. They need to inherit the mar­tyrs’ will and carry forward the glorious traditions before they bravely take on people’s great trust as well as the historical mission of realizing the great re­juvenation of the Chinese nation, he said.

 

Raise the bar for historical research

 The establishment of the mar­tyr memorial day puts forward additional higher requirements for historical research. Pan said every single martyr who sacri­ficed his or her life for national independence, national pros­perity and people’s happiness should not be forgotten. For the sake of better commemoration, accurate details are a must. There are too many historical areas that require further re­search: one is to delve into the significant contribution people made for national indepen­dence and liberation; second is to further identify countless unknown soldiers.

 

“Countless people sacrificed themselves since modern times, but for a long time, there is no consensus on the concept and scope of martyrs, which requires history researchers to carry on further study and make it clear,” said Zhang Lian­hong, director of the Center of Nanjing Massacre Studies, Nan­jing Normal University.

 

Because of the harsh condi­tions during war, some martyrs’ names were not recorded in time. It is said that there have been more than 20 million mar­tyrs in modern times, but there is only a record of 1.93 million people, so it is our responsibil­ity to speed up the identification process of martyrs, he added.

 

In addition, Zhang said, “We need to make full use of the mar­tyr monuments, memorial halls and other memorial sites all over the country to create a cultural atmosphere of honoring and respecting martyrs.”

 

The Chinese version appeared in Chinese Social Sciences Today, No. 651, Sept.26, 2014      

The Chinese link is: http://www.cssn.cn/zx/bwyc/201410/t20141009_1354119.shtml

 

Translated by Yang Xue