In the northeast of Dongping County, there is a thousand-year-old village, and it is said that Emperor Zhenzong of the Northern Song Dynasty, Zhao Heng, once stopped at the car when he sealed Mount Zen, hence the name Ofu Driving Village. Not only that, but the village is also famous for its red village.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the revolutionaries of the older generation, such as Wan Li, Luo Ronghuan, Chen Guang, Cui Yiping, Liu Zhongyu, and Zhang Jingtao, lived and commanded battles here, and a number of heroes of the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression emerged, interpreting one story after another of the War of Resistance.
The old office sites of dongping three districts and the villages and townships in the war years have been well preserved. In addition, there are more than 50 buildings from the Ming and Qing dynasties and the Republic of China in the village, including ancient trees, ancient wells, stone bridges, old stone houses, and earthen embryo houses, which is like a folk museum.
In 2009, Xu Hongsheng, the person in charge of the Dongping Longquan Red Memory Museum, invested nearly 1.2 million yuan at his own expense and personally designed and built the Red Memory Museum. After the completion of the memory hall, the memory hall is lined with trees, birds and flowers, surrounded by water systems, and the exhibition is rich, attracting many visitors.
Walking into the exhibition room of the Memory Museum, the first thing that catches your eye is a large number of physical objects, texts and pictures of historical materials. The exhibition room is divided into four parts: "Dongyuan Beacon", "Zhengrong Years", "Heroic Genealogy of Martyrs" and "Red Driving Village", which respectively introduce the revolutionary work struggle in the county during the war period, as well as the revolutionary martyrs and heroes who emerged in the three districts of Dongping at that time.
With the increasing number of visitors, Xu Hongsheng has successively built and restored the ancient city wall, the theater stage, the arsenal, the Yongsheng Gate, the Triumphal Arch and other places, purchased film and television props and performance costumes, and mobilized the surrounding masses to participate in the filming of video stories such as "The Sound of Birds in Dongping Lake", "Dongyuan Beacon", "Dongping Battle", "Dongping Veterans", "Red Hometown" and so on, further enhancing the influence and popularity of the Red Memory Museum.
Dongping is an old revolutionary area, and there are many red stories that can be sung and wept. In order to let more people understand the history of red, in recent years, Xu Hongsheng has actively carried out the collection and collation of red stories. He often went to the history department and archives to check the materials, and sometimes in order to seek verification, he even ran to the home of the relatives of the protagonist of the story to understand the situation.
In less than two years, he collected and created 35 red stories such as "The Eighth Route Army's Eastward Detachment in Dongping", "The Battle of Dongping", "The "Highway Breaking" Battle of Dongping Soldiers and Civilians during the War of Resistance Against Japan", "The Three Sisters of the Yu Family Went to Yan'an Through Hardships" and so on. Among them, the "Red Memory" TV feature film album published by Qilu Electronic Publishing House was broadcast on Tai'an TV Station, Dongping Rong Media Center and website.
Every holiday, Xu Hongsheng volunteered as a docent in the Memory Hall, telling the red story to the people who came to visit. Up to now, it has received more than 160 visiting teams from Shanghai, Jinan, Tai'an, Dongping government units and villages, and received 45,000 people.
"The Red Memory Museum helps us inherit the red spirit, retain the roots of history and culture, and keep the soul of the nation." Xu Hongsheng said that he will further improve the construction of the memory museum, systematically excavate and sort out more red historical stories, and contribute to continuously telling red stories and inheriting red genes. It is understood that since the completion of the memory museum, it has won the unanimous recognition and support of the relevant local departments, and has been rated as the "Party History Learning and Education Base" and "Caring for the Next Generation Education Base" in Dongping County. (Reporting by Dazhong Newspaper, Cao Rufeng, client reporter, and Su Benshan, correspondent)