YUDU, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- This year marks the 90th anniversary of the victory of the Long March. As one of its important starting points, Yudu County in east China's Jiangxi Province, a place best known as the starting point of the Long March by the Central Red Army, the historic military maneuver in modern Chinese history, has become more than a place of remembrance.
It was from Yudu that more than 80,000 Red Army soldiers crossed the Yudu River and began the Long March in 1934, the roughly 12,500-kilometer trek later described by American journalist Harrison Salisbury as "a great human epic." After two years of hardship, the troops reached northern China, completing a strategic shift that would help shape China's modern history.
On the stone tablet in front of the memorial museum of the Central Red Army's departure for the Long March here in Yudu, three Chinese characters meaning "Long March Origin" are engraved. The "Long March Origin" not only indicates that this place was the starting point of the important strategic transfer of the Red Army at that time, but also carries the profound understanding of the Long March spirit by the people of Yudu to this day.
You can see the words "Long March Origin" frequently in Yudu, and the Long March Origin choir is a prominent presence.
In this red revolutionary land of Yudu, almost everyone can share family stories connected to the Red Army's Long March. The Long March Origin choir, established in 2010, is composed of over 100 descendants of Red Army soldiers from all walks of life in the county. Over these years, they have not only performed the "Suite of Songs on the Long March" in Yudu and across Jiangxi in their spare time, but also carried forward the spirit of the Long March along the Long March route with their songs.
The choir's first performance was staged on June 30, 2011, which was dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China. So far the choir has performed over 730 charity performances. "We hope that the choir will complete 1,000 performances by the 100th anniversary of the victory of the Long March," said Zou Weimin, the artistic director of the choir.
Liu Ying, born in 1959, is one of the first batch of members in the Long March Origin choir. Her grandfather joined the Red Army in 1933 and set off for the Long March in the following October, leaving merely a message to the family saying that he would be back home soon. At that time, Liu Ying's father Liu Guangxiang was only six months old. Until Liu Ying's grandma passed away at the age of 76, grandpa was still "out of touch in the north."
In the autumn of 2014, Liu Ying came to Xing'an County in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region along the Long March route with the choir. On the memorial corridor for the martyrs of the Battle of the Xiangjiang River during the Long March, she finally found her grandfather's name among over one thousand names of martyrs from Yudu.
On Sept. 6 this year, Liu Ying boarded the G3998 Fuxing bullet train and set off from Ruijin for Yan'an. Ruijin and Yan'an, serving as the starting point of the Long March and the revolutionary heartland of the Communist Party of China after the Long March, are located in east and northwest China, respectively.
She accomplished for her grandpa the Long March that he didn't finish.
62-year-old Yi Kemei joined the Long March Origin choir in 2015. Since childhood, Yi Kemei had known that her granduncle Yi Guanmei, who joined the Red Army, had sacrificed his life early. However, apart from the four letters Yi Guanmei left to her great-grandmother Zheng Foshou during the wartime, there was no other information about him at home anymore.
One of the important reasons she joined the choir was that she hoped to follow the choir along the Long March route to find the traces of her granduncle. "Thanks to the countless martyrs during the Long March, we could enjoy the peaceful life we have now," She said.
After graduating from the Vocal Music Department of Wuhan Conservatory of Music in the summer of 2023, Lai Feihong returned to his hometown Yudu and began to serve as the vocal art director of the Long March Origin choir. Lai Feihong's grandfather's cousin Lai Guanchang and his three brothers all joined the Red Army.
Now the spirit of the Long March that he understands is just like song lyrics of the "Suite of Songs on the Long March," reading as "The Red Army fears not the trials of the Long March; thousands of rivers and mountains are but trivial." "Although my generation no longer needs to climb snow-capped mountains or cross grasslands, each of us has our own 'Long March' as well, be it a bottleneck in our studies or careers, or some problems in daily life. The spirit of the Long March tells us that as long as we do not give up and take every step steadily, we will always be able to finish our own 'Long March' well," He said.
