Martyrs remembered in daily life

BEIJING - Every morning, when it's fine, Zhang Dingguo, 63, shadowboxes in a small square in the Martyrs Cemetery of Ya'an, Southwest China's Sichuan province.

Zhang, who's retired, chooses that place because it is downtown and close to markets and the cultural center, which he often visits after his morning exercise.

The cemetery, one of 4,151 martyr memorials in China, is quiet and full of trees. It is the final resting place of 342 Chinese Red Army and People's Liberation Army soldiers. They are like silent friends to Zhang, who sometimes sweeps fallen leaves and dirt from the graves. "Maybe the martyrs know I come here every day...," he says.

Other elderly men play Chinese chess in a pavilion or fish at a lotus pond in the cemetery, while their grandchildren play in the square. In the evening, fan dancers move to soft, slow music in the square. "We try to dance without disturbing those buried here, " says one.

In many Chinese cities, martyrs cemeteries incorporate squares, exhibition halls and trees. They are not just memorials for past heroes, but places for the living. Local people relax in them - quietly.

For decades, local governments asked public institutions and schools to organize traditional "tomb-sweeping" ceremonies in martyrs cemeteries every year, mostly ahead of the Qingming Festival or National Day. The event in Ya'an Martyrs Cemetery is much smaller than the grand ceremony at the Monument of the People's Heroes in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, but it's just as moving.

For Zhang's 32-year-old daughter Zhang Xiaojia, the ceremony means white paper flowers followed by some fun.

As a girl at a local primary school, she prepared paper flowers to wear for the ceremony. All the girls always tried to make the flowers more vivid and it became a contest of skill. Some used nylon or silk to stand out. Boys usually made a mess of it and often asked the girls for one.

At the ceremony, the students would stand in line in front of the monument in the center of cemetery. A representative would deliver a speech to express their gratitude for the martyrs, and promise to cherish the hard-won peace and prosperity of the country.

After that, a teacher would lead them in saying, "May all martyrs rest in peace and be forever remembered". Then they had a silent tribute.

Finally, they would put white flowers on the graves or hang them on trees. In China, white is the dominant color in funerals or tomb-sweeping ceremonies.

After the ceremony came the "free activity", when the children would play in the cemetery for the rest of the day. Roller skating in the square, hide-and-seek...all the fun of a holiday as long as they kept away from the tombs.

Snack vendors would gather at the cemetery gates, but most of the students would eat home-made treats at the lunchtime picnic. Before the end of the day, they were expected to finish a composition on the theme of "A day to be remembered" or "Reflections on tomb-sweeping".

Zhang Xiaojia recently began going to the cemetery again to bring her father an umbrella or a coat if the weather changed. She found the exhibition hall had been refurbished with more war details and relics.

"Only as an adult have I really understood how great those martyrs are," she says.

One day this year, she strolled across the cemetery and took photos of the tombs and pavilions and posted them on the Wechat social media account of her primary school group, sparking a discussion among former classmates.

"The tombs look much better and cleaner than before. I thought they would have been buried by weeds," said a man now living in Sydney.

The classmates are planning a reunion next Spring Festival, including a visit to the cemetery, almost 20 years after their graduation from primary school.

The local government now has a cemetery website for virtual tomb-sweeping tributes. However, old habits die hard, and local people still prefer to go there in person.

Zhang Xiaojia is now making white paper flowers for her niece, a primary student.

"Maybe the best way to remember the martyrs," she says, "is to live the kind of life they fought for."