History and spirit will be passed on when traditions are kept. As General Secretary Xi Jinping remarked, “Red is the brightest color of the CPC and the PRC”, Young Chinese at the new era shall take the baton of the red tradition through learning and making full use of red resources. On June 24, 2022, for the publicity of party history and red culture, a team of Party history learning and education making up by students from College of Ireland, Wuxi Institute of Technology volunteered to organize Party history lectures and salons in communities and the Yangtze River Crossing Campaign Memorial Hall. These activities, which integrated Party history learning and voluntary spirit, immersed every resident with red culture.
The Young: Lighting up the Torch of Volunteering
Red resources, which are witnesses of the glorious struggle of the Party, are invaluable fortunes. The Party history education team’s first visit was the publicity department of Zhongnan Community. There, a lecture on Passing on Red Genes was held. The lecture, which centered on red culture and based on rural culture, was of both educational and inspirational significance. Zhou Yu, the lecturer of the team, led the residents along the red route of great revolution and narrated the hundred years of struggle of the Party with simple and clear language. From Baishan Mountain, Heishui River to the shore of South China Sea, from Eastern coastal region to the snowy plateau, trails of martyrs who fought for their ideals with their lives are all around. On the lecture, the spirit of red revolutionists and their heroic and patriotic stories greatly inspired community residents, especially children listeners. Despite their young age, children were touched by the stories and learned that peace they enjoyed now is hard-won and should be valued dearly. By learning Party history, residents and team members were all moved by the untiringly struggle of the Party over the past hundred years and recommitted themselves in loving and following the lead of Party.
In the community library, team members and children read books of red stories, many of them were touched by young heroes in these stories and were encouraged by team members to talk about their heroes, such as Liu Hulan, Hong Xiaoya, Wang Erya, etc. to residents. The residents were moved by the glorious stories of these heroes and their spirit of dedication and self-sacrifice. Red stories are not so much stories as part of the national history which will be passed on despite the lapse of time and children who attended the lecture would become the future “shining stars” that pass on the red spirit.
Spreading the Red Tinder to Bloom the Power of Youth
Young people are the future of the country and the hope of the nation. The education of the revolutionary tradition must start from babies. Inheriting the red gene requires the instillation of knowledge, and more importantly, the exchange and interaction of practical activities. In order to make the red gene more deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, members of the education team invited community residents and children to participate in interactive competitions, combining knowledge education with emotional cultivation, so as to better guide young people to establish a correct world view on life and values. Under the patient guidance of the members, the children changed from being not so daring to express themselves, to proactively communicating with each other with smiling faces. In the end, every child in the community was happy to cooperate with their own friends and team members and gained a slight advantage in a tug of war with the adults. It also made them realize that although they were not as big as adults, in unity they could still be very strong. The game also inspired them to learn the spirit of unity and showed them the infinite possibilities of the future of the Chinese nation.
The history flows endlessly, and the spirit is passed on from generation to generation. The lecture allowed the seeds of the red gene to take root and germinate in the hearts of the children. The red culture helped the children establish a correct world view on life and values for their future. In the future, they will be the pillar of the new era, shoulder the responsibility of the times, take on the historical mission in the new journey of China's construction, and pass on the red culture. In the near future, they will become talents in all walks of life, injecting impetus into the prosperity and development of their motherland.
Inheriting the Red Gene and Raising the Ambition of Youth
In the long history of Chinese civilization, the party has gone through hardships for a hundred years, walked through the green and flowery creeks, and also passed through thousands of miles of dead bones. These red stories showed the hard work and suffering of the party. On the second stop, members of the education team went to the Yangtze River Crossing Campaign Cultural Park in Yangzhong City. On entering into the cultural park, visitors could see sculpture depicting a small boat carrying soldiers of the People's Liberation Army fighting across the river. The soldiers in the front bowed and pointed their guns at the front, while the soldiers behind were ready to land at any time. The red flag fluttered in the wind, and a girl flicked her braids while rowing the boat with both hands, the bottom of the fast-moving boat stirred up waves. Words on the sculpture read I send my families across the river. This vivid scene records the achievements of the past and the continuation of life. The bright red blood of the revolutionary martyrs sprinkled the motherland, on thousands of miles of mountains and rivers, and gathered to forge the tenacious soul of the party, the backbone of the nation, and the guardian of China. Mao Zedong once compared the red power to sparks. Today, every citizen living under the red flag should become a spark of the flame, and hundreds of millions of people come together to inherit the red culture and red gene.
The activities carried out by the party history learning and education team brought red culture to the communities. Team members visited the Yangtze River Crossing Campaign Memorial Hall, carried out party history learning and practice activities, spread and promoted the never-fading spirit of red culture, so as to tap the potential value of the red culture, so that the red culture will stay fresh and updated.
