Those who gave lives remembered

FOUR-hundred people including Gan Lin, secretary of the CPC municipal Party Committee and chairman of the Standing Committee of the Municipal People’s Congress; and Mayor Zhong Shijian attended the ritual to honour revolutionary fighters at Martyrs’ Cemetery on Thursday, a day before Tomb-Sweeping Festival that falls on April 4.

Gan and Mayor Zhong, on behalf of the Party Committee and government; Political Commissar Ma Biqiang and Vice Commander Zhang Wenyu of the Zhuhai Garrison Command; and middle school students Ding Weixuan and He Fangzi representing local people, placed wreaths at the tombs. Everyone stood in silent tribute for three minutes.

Gan said Zhuhai has been rich in patriotic and revolutionary tradition, which is represented by outstanding martyrs such as Yang Pao’an, an early CPC theorist and revolutionary; Su Zhaozheng, leader of the early Communist Party of China; and Lin Weimin, spearhead of the Workers’ Movement. He spoke of the Communist Party White Horse Brigade during the War against Japan and the struggle against the Kuomintang reactionary government with Fenghuang Mountain as their base.

Nearly 200 veterans of the former Zhujiang River Guerrillas in their 70s or 80s from Zhuhai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhongshan, Foshan, Hong Kong and Macao gathered at the Fenghuang Mountain Revolutionary Martyrs’ Cemetery on Thursday, paying tribute to the 142 comrades who died fighting Japanese invaders over 60 years ago.

“I took part in a lot of battles and it really hurt when you see your buddies die on the battlefield,” an elderly man surnamed Huang said. “Everybody has the fear of death, but as a soldier, he has to ignore it,” he added. Every year, the surviving guerrillas come back to sweep the tombs of their brothers in arms, he explained.

The veterans had advocated building a monument for their fallen comrades when they met at the 50th Anniversary of Anti-Fascist Victory in 1995 and the cemetery was built in 2007 out of their own donations and with support from authorities and local residents. A memorial with the names of 142 martyrs was also erected.

Meanwhile, officers from the Public Security Bureau, along with teachers and students from middle and primary schools, paid tribute to the revolutionary martyrs at Xiangzhou Revolutionary and Heluo Hill cemeteries.

The number of veterans taking part in the tribute is decreasing each year, according to Liang Zhenxing, a cultural and historical researcher of the CPPCC Zhuhai Municipal Committee. “We should learn more from them about the Anti-Japanese War while they're still alive, as they are precious resources for this history,” he stressed.

On the other hand, ordinary people paid tribute to their late beloved ones during the festival. More than 70,000 border crossings were registered at Gongbei Checkpoint on Friday -- Tomb-Sweeping (Qing Ming) Festival. The passenger flow started at 7:50am and peaked at 11am and lasted till 2pm. A total 76 inspection gates, including all self-service ones where border crossers run a card through the machine, were opened to expedite the flow.

Hong Kong and Macao residents made up the overwhelming majority of border crossers who came to the city to pay ancestral offerings to their late relatives at Heluo Hill and Xianfeng Hill cemeteries.

Sacrifices include flowers, fruit, roast piglets, roast geese or steamed cakes. Updated items such as three-storey artificial villas, bracelets, necklaces and paper air conditioners, TV sets, heaters and refrigerators also cater to the worshippers. However, most popular is the white-and-yellow chrysanthemum, which is considered the best flower to express mourning.

Hundreds of people are setting websites in memory of their departed relatives. Virtual ancestral offerings are conducted by presenting flowers, burning joss sticks, and pouring tea or wine to the cups on the Internet. One can also choose a cemetery background or monument for the deceased.

(ZD News)