Martyrs’ Day honors heroes who gave their lives for China
Print Edition
CHINA honored its national heroes yesterday on the occasion of the country’s first Martyrs’ Day.
Ahead of today’s National Day, President Xi Jinping and other Chinese leaders joined crowds gathered at the Monument to the People’s Heroes in Beijing’s Tian’anmen Square.
The marble tablet, the foundations of which were laid on September 30, 1949, stood tall against the gray sky of an early Beijing autumn.
People held chrysanthemums while schoolchildren wore white shirts and red scarves, the uniform of China’s Young Pioneers organization. The dark suits or army uniforms of older members of the crowd marked them out as the family and friends of martyrs. Some wore their medals.
Following a patriotic song by the children and a silent tribute where everyone bowed their heads, nine baskets of lilies were laid in front of the monument. Taller than a man, each basket of flowers was carried by two soldiers.
Xi led a group of senior officials on a walk around the monument, tidying a red ribbon on one of the baskets.
The solemnity of the occasion was in stark contrast to the bright and colorful square decorated with red national flags and a towering golden and scarlet floral basket to celebrate today’s 65th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China.
Facing the Tian’anmen Gate Tower and with its back to the Memorial Hall of late Chinese leader Mao Zedong, the monument is often visited by state leaders on National Day.
Inscribed with the words “People’s heroes are immortal,” it was erected to remember those who lost their lives fighting for national independence and people’s liberation.
Yesterday it became a symbol of the new national memorial day, after China’s top legislature’s decision to designate September 30 as Martyrs’ Day.
Martyrs, as defined by the government, are “people who sacrificed their lives for national independence and prosperity, as well as the welfare of the people in modern times, or after the First Opium War (1840-1842).”
It is estimated that China has about 20 million martyrs. However, only 1.93 million of them have been named in the government’s directory, while the rest could not be identified.
The number has been increasing by about 300 annually in recent years.
Among them, many were soldiers, revolutionaries and early communist leaders. But there were also many ordinary Chinese who sacrificed their lives for the common good.
While a grand ceremony was held in Beijing, a much smaller but no less intense ritual went on in the courtyard of a hospital in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou. Doctors and nurses laid chrysanthemums at the foot of a statue of Ye Xin, a nurse who contracted SARS while taking care of patients and later died.
An example and inspiration
The SARS outbreak in 2003 claimed more than 340 people on the Chinese mainland, and a third of them were medical workers.
“She is an example for us and always inspires me,” said Deng Liyan, Ye’s colleague for many years. “I am glad there is an occasion where she is so honored and remembered, not only by friends and family but also those who did not know her.”
At Kunlun Mountain Pass, some 4,700 meters above sea level, there is a monument for Sonam Daje, a Tibetan official killed by poachers hunting antelopes about 20 years ago.
Truck drivers sounded their horns when passing the monument and blessing papers were seen scattered at the site, a Tibetan tradition.
The list of martyrs ranges from Li Dazhao, a Party founder killed in 1927 by a warlord, to Wang Ce, a young volunteer killed by landslide while delivering medicine to earthquake victims last year.
Pilots from the United States and Soviet Union who fought in China during World War II are also remembered at a memorial in Nanjing. Their names and deeds are carved alongside those of Chinese pilots.
“Time has changed. Who can be honored a martyr also changes. Those who die defending the country in wars are heroes. Those who die saving a child’s life in times of peace are heroes too,” said Ji Zhengju, an official from the Party’s Central Compilation and Translation Bureau.
On Monday, the central government announced an increase in the allowances given to the families of martyrs.
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