The Long March, a great feat in human history, forged the great Long March spirit and left behind revolutionary cultural relics as brilliant as the stars.
Returning to the Long March 90 years later, a pen, a slogan, and an X-ray "pathological machine", these cultural relics that retain the memory of the war, silently tell the glorious past of the Red Army soldiers.
In March 2021, General Secretary Xi Jinping issued important instructions on the work of revolutionary cultural relics, requiring "effective protection, management, and use of revolutionary cultural relics." In June of the same year, during the 31st collective study session of the Political Bureau of the 19th CPC Central Committee, the General Secretary emphasized: "Red resources are non-renewable and irreplaceable precious resources, and protection is the primary task."
From Ruijin to Zunyi and then to Yan'an, from strengthening the scientific protection of red relics to building the Long March National Cultural Park, following the direction guided by General Secretary Xi Jinping, red heirlooms have been carefully protected in various places. batches of cultural relics and historical materials have been in-depth research, interpretation and revitalization. The memories of the magnificent mountains and rivers have become more immersed in people's hearts. The spirit of the great Long March continues to glow with the brilliance of the new era.
Take responsibility and protect valuable wealth
The Yan'an Revolution Memorial Hall is the first stop for many visitors to learn about Yan'an and appreciate the red history.
In the first unit of the exhibition, "The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Foothold of the Red Army's Long March," a well-preserved fountain pen lies on the display cabinet. Its owner is Liu Jinshan, one of the 22 warriors who flew to capture Luding Bridge. This pen was the reward given to him by the Central Revolutionary Military Commission after that bloody battle.
In May this year, the family members sent the old hero's life collection back to Yan'an. When solemnly receiving the cultural relics, Liu Ni, director of the Yan'an Revolution Memorial Hall, bowed deeply with a solemn expression.
"What I took over was a heavy responsibility." Liu Ni said, which is a true portrayal of the heroic spirit of "risking one's own life and charging forward."
Archiving the pens and conducting disease detection; launching cloud exhibitions to interpret the revolutionary ideals behind the cultural relics... Today, Liu Jinshan's fountain pen is one of the most watched cultural relics in the Yan'an Revolution Memorial Hall, and has also become a footnote to Yan'an's protection of Long March cultural relics.
"Revolutionary cultural relics carry the glorious history of the heroic struggle of the party and the people, record the great course and touching deeds of the Chinese revolution, and are precious treasures of the party and the country." In 2021, General Secretary Xi Jinping issued important instructions on the work of revolutionary cultural relics, emphasizing that "strengthening the protection and utilization of revolutionary cultural relics, promoting revolutionary culture, and inheriting the red gene are the common responsibilities of the entire party and society."
To shoulder this responsibility, various places along the Long March will have an in-depth understanding of the red family background and plan and protect it according to local conditions.
Weixin County, Yunnan, located at the junction of Yunnan, Sichuan and Guizhou provinces, is remembered by the world for the Tashi Conference. An X-ray machine is displayed in the center of the Tashi Conference Memorial Hall. Although it has been eroded by the years, the English on the nameplate of the machine is still clearly legible.
"It helped medical staff accurately determine the location of shrapnel in the wounded body, and was affectionately called the 'pathological machine' by Red Army soldiers," said Zhuo Jiayong, director of the Tashi Conference Memorial Hall. In February 1935, due to the streamlined march, the Red Army reluctantly left it behind and entrusted it to Yang Baohe, a villager in Yangjiazhai. The Yang family took the risk and hid the machine, and offered it to the country after the founding of New China. This X-ray machine was rated as a national second-class cultural relic and became the treasure of the Tashi Conference Memorial Hall.
The close friendship behind the X-ray machine has long become a familiar memory of home and country for local people. In recent years, Weixin County has completed renovation projects on 29 major revolutionary sites, and used digital means such as high-definition photography and three-dimensional data collection to leave detailed records of the red mark.
Protecting Long March cultural relics is a race against time. How to solve the pain points of aging heritage sites? How to determine the right balance between repairing and restoring the old? These questions test the wisdom of cultural conservation workers.
In Wuyi Village, Rucheng County, Hunan, the local old houses were renovated and restored according to their original appearance, and a red cultural experience center was built. Wang Hanwei, assistant to the village party secretary, said that the museum panoramically restored the scene of the Red Army mobilizing the masses here. Since its opening at the end of 2024, it has received more than 100,000 visitors. Retaining the old appearance also retains the true "wrinkles" of history.
About 400 kilometers away, at the former site of the Fourth Red Army Hospital in Chentang, Shibi Town, Ninghua County, Fujian, detachable acrylic panels protect 26 Red Army slogans from erosion, and the text and graphics are restored on the transparent panels to make it easier for visitors to understand the content of the slogans.
"Long March cultural relics are non-renewable and can only be protected with embroidery skills." Zhang Hebin, director of the Shibi Town Cultural Station who has been engaged in cultural preservation work for a long time, felt deeply.
Living inheritance and good use of vivid teaching materials
During the National Day holiday, "re-walking the Long March" has become a conscious choice for the masses to remember the martyrs and realize their original aspirations. In Ganquan County, Shaanxi Province, the Long March Historical Trail, which is 11.8 kilometers long and connects 11 revolutionary sites including the former site of the Snow Speech and Mao Zedong’s former residence in Xiasi Bay, has attracted many young people to come and visit.
The trail is exactly the march route of the Red Army in Ganquan. It retains the dirt road in the mountains, winding and rugged, with uphill slopes and ridges. "It is not easy to walk this road again today. Our hearts are filled with admiration for the Red Army." said Ms. Mu from Yan'an who brought her daughter to experience it.
As a landmark project of the Long March National Cultural Park (Shaanxi Section), the trail has received a total of more than 50,000 cadre training and research teams in the two years since it was put into use. "The Party School of the County Party Committee has designed teaching modules such as 'seeing, hearing, singing, and experiencing' to carry out immersive revolutionary traditional education for researchers." Guo Yi, director of the Ganquan County Culture and Tourism Bureau, said that the construction of the Long March National Cultural Park connects the old site with the village, history and reality, allowing the masses to walk, see and feel.
In July 2019, General Secretary Xi Jinping presided over the ninth meeting of the Central Comprehensive Deepening Reform Committee, which reviewed and approved the "Construction Plan for the Great Wall, Grand Canal, and Long March National Cultural Park." In October 2024, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized during his inspection in Fujian that red culture should be inherited and carried forward, the Changting and Ninghua Long March National Cultural Parks should be built, and the research and interpretation of revolutionary historical materials and revolutionary cultural relics should be deepened.
During the Central Soviet Area period, Changting was once known as "Little Red Shanghai". Today, it is a memorial hall without walls: the Songmaoling Battle Site Group, the Guanshou Temple, the starting point of the Long March of the Ninth Red Army, and other revolutionary sites are carefully protected. 108 118 revolutionary cultural relics and 54 67 Long March cultural relics are scattered throughout the countryside.
Autumn is getting stronger, and Sidu Town, Changting, the first stop of the Red Army's entry into Fujian, is even more graceful, surrounded by mountains and rivers. Along the Yangmei River, a red trail connects many revolutionary sites such as the Fujian Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Tingxi County Committee of the Communist Party of China, the former site of the County Soviet, and Xiehe Store, the former site of the Fourth Red Army meeting, forming a complete line of research and study. The trail stretches along the waterfront, with red landscape pieces at every other section.
In June this year, the Red Army entered the Fujian Memorial Hall for the first time to complete the digital upgrade, comprehensively displaying the revolutionary process of the Western Fujian Soviet Area. The "Red Four Cities" mini program developed simultaneously included the introduction of research projects, the promotion of special agricultural products and other functions. “It is through this digital platform that foreign universities have proactively contacted us to customize study plans,” said Cao Jingcai, Secretary of the Party Committee of Sidu Town.
Li Jingsheng, director of Changting County Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau, said that thanks to the construction of the Long March National Cultural Park, 22 projects in Changting have been included in provincial planning, and the scattered red sites are like a chain. In the first nine months of this year, the Changting County Museum received 830,000 visitors, making it a popular red attraction in western Fujian.
From static display to activation, history becomes flesh and blood: in Chengkou Town, Renhua County, Guangdong, with the help of artistic scenery and film language, the historical scene of the Red Army's "rest at the city entrance" is "reproduced"; in Yunnan, the red ballads of the year are still sung in the Wumeng Mountains, and a new musical is "Tashi Changge" has been performed in six cities for multiple rounds; during this summer vacation, more than 10,000 college students came to Yan'an Wu Qi Revolutionary Memorial Hall, and some people have already "second brushed" and "third brushed" the Long March route... Various places along the Long March have inherited it in a living form, making the spirit of the great Long March deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.
Let’s pass on the torch and walk the Long March today
The spirit of the great Long March lives on in the family tradition of words and deeds——
In 1935, in Huize, Yunnan, the Ninth Red Army Corps had expanded to more than 1,500 people, and Huang Xingshun was one of them. Seeing that the Red Army had strict discipline, did not take advantage of the masses, and sincerely sought a way out for the poor people, he resolutely followed the large army on the Long March.
After Huang Xingshun left, his wife often told his descendants about her gratitude for the Red Army and her concern for her relatives. Today, Huang Xingshun's granddaughter Huang Yan, a teacher at the Party School of Huize County Party Committee, is deeply involved in red propaganda, turning the story of the Red Army into a narration that touches people's hearts.
The spirit of the great Long March echoes in the songs sung from generation to generation——
In the Red Army Town of Xunyang in southern Shaanxi, where the 25th Red Army passed, a song "Red Army Song for Ten Thousands" was circulated. The people used the touching melody to express their gratitude to the Red Army for protecting the side. They also commemorated the Red Army soldiers who were buried here and expressed their concern for the Red Army.
Years have passed, but the singing has never gone away. In this place named after the Red Army, cadres spontaneously formed a "Red Power" propaganda team to tell the story of "where we come from." Wang Dengxia, director of the Red Army Memorial Hall in Red Army Town, said that this song has been sung from generation to generation, integrating the spirit of the great Long March into their blood.
Every generation has its own Long March, and every generation must walk its own Long March. Since the new era, General Secretary Xi Jinping has visited important points and sections along the Long March such as Zunyi in Guizhou, Xiji in Ningxia, Yudu in Jiangxi, Rucheng in Hunan, and Quanzhou in Guangxi, and has always been concerned about carrying forward the spirit of the great Long March.
Entrust Yin Yin, the spring breeze turns into rain. Along the Long March, the spiritual monuments forged by the revolutionary ancestors with their blood and lives are still inspiring and enlightening people today.
In the golden autumn, when I walked into the Yunling Fresh Organic Vegetable Base in Jiaopingdu Town, Luquan County, Yunnan, I saw that the greenhouse was full of life and the bright green lettuce was growing happily. There are three to five hundred people working in the base every day, and the monthly per capita income can reach more than 4,000 yuan.
"My husband and I have been working here for three or four years. Our home is in the immigrant village opposite, which is very convenient!" Villager Zhang Fugang said that his great-grandfather and grandfather were boatmen who helped the Red Army cross the Jinsha River. "The Red Army risked their lives to let the people live a good life. Now we grow good vegetables, and we pass on this spirit and make the days more prosperous."
"The energy of people in our old communities must never be let go!" In Wuqi, Shaanxi Province, where the Central Red Army's Long March ended in victory, Lei Zhenchuan, a returning entrepreneurial college student, used his professional knowledge to promote medium-ripened compost technology in the Mawan Group of Jinfoping Village to help the masses improve soil and increase yields. 79 cantaloupe greenhouses were built in the village, and "Mawan Cantaloupe" became famous.
The "red ribbon" of the Long March connects the suffering and glory of yesterday at one end, and unfolds the happy picture of today at the other. Xia Cao Village, Ninghua, Fujian, is one of the garrison areas behind the 9th Red Army. The red ruins and traditional houses complement each other, and red and antique colors complement each other; in Renhua County, Shaoguan, Guangdong, on the Red Army Street opposite the Red Army Long March Memorial Hall in Northern Guangdong, red-themed cafes, B&Bs, cultural and creative stores and other new cultural and tourism formats are emerging one after another...
The mountain roads trodden by the Red Army are now the path for people to follow the footsteps of the martyrs. The village where they were stationed back then has become a beautiful countryside where "you can see the mountains, see the water, and remember the nostalgia."
The long march is lofty, and the fire shines on the new journey. Those historical marks engraved on the mountains and rivers continue to gather the strength for progress, allowing the great Long March spirit to continue to be passed on in the new era.
