Peking University, April 9, 2017: On April 4th, 2017, the day of the Qingming Festival, a ceremony of mourning for revolutionary martyrs was held at Peking University. Qingming, one of Chinese traditional festivals with a long history, was set up for descendants to remember their ancestors. At 9:00am, more than 200 representatives of teachers and students of PKU assembled in front of the Monument for Revolutionary Martyrs in Jingyuan, well prepared for the ceremony. Hao Ping, chairman of the School Council, and Lin Jianhua, president of PKU, both attended the ceremony.
As the ceremony began, the representatives were organized to mourn in silence to show their sincere respect for those revolutionary martyrs, who dedicated their lives to national independence and the liberation of the people during the democratic revolution in China about 100 years ago. The Monument for Revolutionary Martyrs was finished on May 4th, 1993, the Youth Day, in order to remember the 96 alumnus of PKU (including National Southwest Associated University and Yenching University) who sacrificed themselves between the May 4th Movement in 1917 and the Korea War in the early 1950s. Among these revolutionary martyrs, Li Dazhao is widely acknowledged as the greatest.
This year is the 90th anniversaryof the death of Li Dazhao, a trail blazer of Communism in China. Li was employed first as library director and then professor of Economics by PKU from 1917 to 1927. During his time at PKU, Li endeavored to disseminate Communism and Marxism on campus by setting up the first association of Marxist studies in the country. On October 28th, 2009, Xi Jinping, the current Chinese president, emphasized during the symposium celebrating the 120th anniversary of Li that Li devoted his life to contributing to the revolution of China, which made him an eternal example for communists.
After mourning in silence, student representatives from different departments recited the poem Hymn for Pine, originally written by PKU students, and excerpts from Pain of Candle Fire, a famous poem in commemoration of Li Dazhao.
Afterwards, Hao Ping and Lin Jianhua laid wreaths for revolutionary martyrs on behalf of Peking University. All the representatives faced the monument and bowed for three times, and then laid their chrysanthemums in turn and surrounded the monument .
In the last part of the ceremony, representatives walked towards the statues of Li Dazhao and former President Cai Yuanpei, who was contemporary with Li and also dedicated to the high-level education at that time, to lay chrysanthemums.
The ceremony of mourning on Qingming Festival is an annual patriotic activity organized by the Youth League of PKU for the commemoration of revolutionary martyrs. The ceremony arouses the patriotic feelings in teachers and students at PKU and encourages them to further develop the revolutionary spiritual traditions as well as implement the core values of socialism in their daily life.
Written by: Zheng Yuan
Edited by: Xu Liangdi
Source: PKU News (in Chinese)
