76 years later, hero is brought home
Print Edition
HAILED as the “father of mine warfare,” Xiong Dazhen (1913-39) finally has a resting place in Shanghai — his hometown — 76 years after being wrongly executed as a spy.
Xiong studied physics at Tsinghua University in Beijing and was the first person in China to produce infrared photographs. He started teaching at the university after graduating in 1935. Two years later, the Japanese launched a full-scale invasion of China and Xiong gave up his plans of studying abroad and signed up to fight.
His talent in science and technology proved extremely valuable to the Communist forces in North China, known as the Eighth Route Army. He was soon promoted as chief of ammunition supplies. He led the research and manufacture of explosives, detonators and radio transmitters. His mine-making know-how gave nightmares to the Japanese invaders.
Xiong was arrested in 1939 on suspicion of being a secret agent of the Kuomintang government. He was executed at the age of 26. Xiong’s rehabilitation came in 1986 after many people testified to prove he was wronged but he never had a grave or a memorial.
As China marked the 70th anniversary of its victory against Japanese aggression this year, Liu Shen, the author of Xiong’s biography and a documentary producer, contacted the Shanghai cemetery where Xiong’s mentor, Ye Qisun (1898-1977), is buried and a decision was taken by the cemetery and the two families to put Xiong’s cenotaph next to the grave of his Tsinghua professor Ye.
Ye was known as the founder of modern physics in China. His students included two Nobel Prize winners Chen-Ning Yang and Tsung-Dao Lee and 13 key scientists who developed China’s atomic bombs and the first satellite in the 1960s. Despite his achievements, he was implicated in Xiong’s case and was persecuted during the “cultural revolution (1966-76).”
A ceremony was held yesterday to unveil Xiong’s cenotaph at the city’s Fushouyuan Haigang Cemetery in Pudong. Xiong and Ye’s relatives laid flowers at the monuments of the two men who are united again after 76 years. A documentary on the life of Xiong Dazhen will be released soon.
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