They race against time and leave these special Memories of Chongqing
People's Daily Chongqing, January 6- They are business practitioners who began to work in the 20s and 30s of the last century, and have experienced arduous entrepreneurship and resistance against japanese aggression;
They are returned overseas Chinese who returned to China many years ago and dedicated their youth and blood to the land of Chongqing;
Behind each of them, there is a vivid and moving story...
At 2:30 p.m. on January 5, the launch and donation ceremony of the series of books "Chongqing Mother City Architecture Oral History" and "Chongqing Mother City Overseas Chinese Oral History" was held at Chongqing Library, and the stories of these returned old overseas Chinese from "Chongqing Mother City" were re-promoted to the front of the stage.
The scene of the event. Courtesy of the Yuzhong District CPPCC Committee
Race against time
Leave a historical memory of Chongqing
Hou Hanqin's book "My Father Gave Up His Family to Save the Country and Affected My Life" wrote that in 1934, his father Hou Zeliang went to Thailand to seek a livelihood, when the motherland was in danger, his father secretly engaged in the anti-Japanese salvation movement while working, and together with a group of enthusiastic young people, he spontaneously carried out anti-Japanese fundraising activities in Thailand, constantly transported money back to China, and supported the War of Resistance... In 1939, with the help of the Thai Chinese Chamber of Commerce, his father returned to China with Luo Daorang, Zhou Jiewen and Zhang Rui, threw themselves into the War of Resistance, and gave up his family to save the country... When they returned to China and arrived at the Chongqing office of the Eighth Route Army, they were received by Ye Jianying and Dong Biwu, proletarian revolutionaries of the older generation, and in April 1941, their father joined the Communist Party of China.
Wu Xiaoguang's book "Returning from Overseas Chinese Studies in Japan and Devoting Himself to the Construction of New China" mentions that his father, Wu Bannong, graduated from the Department of Economics of Tsinghua University in 1929 and entered the Department of Economics of Columbia University in 1934. After the family followed the Institute of Social Studies of the Academia Sinica to Chongqing, we lived in Haitang Creek on the south bank, when Japanese planes came to bomb, and as soon as we raised the alarm, we ran to the air raid shelter on the mountainside of Nanshan... After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in 1945, my father went to Japan as the chief representative of the Compensation and Restitution Delegation of the Headquarters of the Chinese Army in the Allied Forces... After graduating from high school, I entered Chiba University, which was divided into four subjects: "Medicine, Engineering, Arts, and Science", and later I chose the mechanical major of the Faculty of Engineering. Why? Because of the founding of New China, I think that the major related to machinery, the country just needs ...
Open the "Oral History of Overseas Chinese in Chongqing Mother City", these historical stories from the older generation of overseas Chinese are vivid and true.
"The extraordinary achievements of Chongqing's economic and social development include the selfless dedication of the elderly returned overseas Chinese and their families. It's not easy to document this history." Referring to the creative process, Dai Ling, as the editor-in-chief of the series of books, deeply sighed: "Oral history is a race against time, leaving a memory that is about to disappear. ”
Dai Ling recalled that at that time, there were only about twenty old returned overseas Chinese who had lived and worked in Chongqing, and they themselves or their relatives who knew about them had been in trouble for many years. When the editorial work is carried out, Dai Ling often feels that the brain is "impacted", or the "urging" of time: "Many old people are already more than 80 years old or even more than 90 years old, if you don't record, maybe those people, those things will quietly sink in the sea of time, and there will be no trace from now on." ”
Dai Ling regretfully introduced that he had participated in the editing of the literary and historical materials of "Industry and Commerce Yuzhong" from 2017 to 2018, and in less than a year before and after, half of the former industrialists and businessmen interviewed and their widows or children died one after another. This is a very sad thing. ”
"In 2021, the Oral History of Old Overseas Chinese in Chongqing Mother City was compiled, and the book took this group as the protagonist to tell the past of this group of old returned overseas Chinese in Chongqing." Dai Ling said that he hopes that many years later, when future generations read the pages of the times, through these records, they can truly understand the stories of that time and read about those ups and downs of life through story products.
Chongqing Mother City Architectural Oral Narrative Series
Feel the thickness of Chongqing's historical context
In an exchange with Liu Jianye, a well-known architect in Chongqing, he recounted his dream of making an exhibition and a book for Chongqing architecture and architects. With touch, curiosity, emotion and longing, we began to touch the characteristic architecture of the mother city of Yuzhong, so there was the publication of the "Chongqing Mother City Architecture Oral Narrative Series". ”
Dai Ling introduced that the "Chongqing Mother City Architecture Oral Narrative Series" is divided into three series, including "Classic Yue Millennium - Telling the Landmark of Chongqing", "Famous Cities Have Relics - Iteration of Chongqing Architecture", and "Yuzhou Panliuhui - The Future of Chongqing City". "In order to compile books, we went to photograph the wall tiles of the ruins of the Chongqing Prefectural Government Office of the Southern Song Dynasty more than 800 years ago, recorded the great wall arrow stacks carved on the inner wall of the Liberation Monument, climbed through the arc dome of the People's Auditorium, got lost in the labyrinth-like white elephant residence building, and tried to find the disappeared mountain city wide-screen cinema."
"In the process of compilation, what moved us was that many designers, architects, historians, and writers and artists took out their manuscripts, drawings, and historical materials that they had treasured for many years, and gave us enthusiastic help and great guidance without reservation." Dai Ling introduced that engineer Chen Ronghua, historian Zhou Yong, designer Zhang Congzheng, and Jing Quan, dean of the Architectural Professional Institute of the China Academy of Architectural Design and Research, have all made professional guidance for this book, "As editors, we hope that by recording and presenting these stories, the life and temperature of the building body will jump on the pictures and manuscripts." ”
"Yuzhong Series" literary and historical materials
13 series have been compiled and published
It is understood that since the beginning of 2013, the Yuzhong District CPPCC Committee has publicly published a total of 13 series of literary and historical materials such as "Mother City Yuzhong", "Commerce and Trade Yuzhong", "Streets and Alleys Yuzhong", "Resistance Yuzhong", "Culture Yuzhong", "Industry and Commerce Yuzhong", "Chongqing Ancient City Yuzhong", "Chongqing Old Business Number - Baoyuantong Oral History", "Chongqing Mother City Architectural Oral History Series", "Chongqing Mother City Overseas Chinese Oral History" and other 13 series of literary and historical materials, so that the urban culture of Chongqing Mother City is more in-depth.
"We videotaped the interview process, using images and sounds to make the memory more abundant and the oral history more valuable." Dai Ling said that he will continue to pay attention to the culture of the mother city and compile and publish a series of literary and historical materials, "hoping to collect more historical memories, see the extraordinary with the ordinary, and make the humanistic feelings of Chongqing's mother city warm up a few degrees." (Hu Hong, Yao Yu)