The Long March: Lets Honour China Heroes & Heroines in Hong Kong!

I was surprised to read in a book about a teacher working in rural China that he celebrated with his school and adjacent town several days of festivities honouring the memory of thousands of Chinese men and women as they fought for the unity of as new nation, the China of today in which we all live.

You can Google this, The Long March China 1934, and quickly learn this was an epic event, one of great tragedies and losses, one of great strength and courage to endure as a people in the face of crippling adversity.

As Chinese fighters and civilians fled their base camp, under attack from the opposing Chinese force in the Civil War, they were even bombed by German airplanes. They were also under major attack from the invading Japanese. And the British too in an earlier struggle changed the laws of China and also world law, just to capture young Chinese men as they fled for safety, under international protocol, into a Russian Embassy. In China.

So these Chinese, thousands of them, began the long trek, called The Long March, to find another geographical area, thousands of miles away. More died than lived, and under grueling circumstances.

It is sad that this major historical event of the 20th century is not permitted to be celebrated in the schools and the streets and the public places of Hong Kong, as it certainly is, throughout the rest of China. It is also sad to me that I may be even under more harassment just for being the first to "daringly" suggest this idea. It has been as a "Communist" idea entering a "democratic" zone, perhaps, by some. Though I do not understand this, being an artist and an iconoclastic thinker.

The Americans here can openly celebrate the Fourth of July, and many of us join in. My California Aunt had wonderful parties. It is a smaller event but the British have their Guy Fawkes Day, to celebrate people fighting back for their country. It is not the deaths we celebrate, but the courage and strength of our own ancestors.