114 flags are shining

Zhao Yuguang's body leaned against the display case, caressing the glass with his hand, and searching with all his might. "Found it! Got it! "At the age of 90, his eyes suddenly lit up. The direction of his finger was a pennant, and the bright red satin ink book was a densely packed character, one of which was his name.

These characters contain more than 10 ethnic scripts such as Chinese, Tibetan, and Yi, and are the names of all graduates of the "First Phase" judicial class of Southwest University for Nationalities. Glorious as a new pennant, each name "hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder", forming a huge five-pointed star.

"Near graduation, everyone saves a little living expenses every day, buys the best satin to make a pennant, and embroiders the party flag and national emblem with gold and silver thread, so as to express the most sincere and strong gratitude of students of all nationalities to the party, the country, and their alma mater." At the "Splendid Chapter, Flag Welcoming The Birthday" pennant exhibition held by Southwest University for Nationalities to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC, Zhao Yuguang recalled the past 70 years ago, just like yesterday.

70 years later, the "school treasure" is heavy

"Well, this is 'baby'!" In 2015, during the country's first census of movable cultural relics, Fan Xiangrui, a cultural and cultural museum member of the Museum of Ethnology of Southwest University for Nationalities, found two large broken wooden boxes on the top of the standing cabinet of the cultural relics warehouse.

Brushing away the dust and carefully peeling off the brown silk wrapped around the wooden box, Fan Xiangrui found a series of red silk and gold characters, and the well-made pennants were layered on top of each other, lying quietly in the box.

"All fraternal nationalities are closely united under the banner of Chairman Mao and are fighting for the construction of the great motherland!" "Strive for the development of national culture and education!" "We grew up under the education of the Party and Chairman Mao!" ...... Unfolding the pennant, or embroidering or writing in ink, made Fan Xiangrui even more excited.

"'School treasure' heavy light, 'school treasure' heavy light!" Fan Xiangrui's hands began to tremble, and more than 20 years of experience in the arts told him that this batch of pennants was "not simple", and he tried to keep his composure and carefully clean it up with his colleagues. After counting, the two wooden boxes contain a total of 114 pennants, most of which were donated by party committees and governments at all levels, military region troops, democratic parties, social organizations and sister colleges and universities at all levels when the Southwest Institute for Nationalities, the predecessor of Southwest University for Nationalities, was established in 1951, and some of them were given to their alma mater by early students.

"These pennants are based on silk, ask famous artists to inscription, and then embroider in gold, although after 70 years of wind and rain, they are still golden and brilliant." In the following years, led by Fan Xiangrui, the ethnographic museum of the school conducted in-depth research on the material composition, inscription content and educational elements of these pennants.

A warm pennant exhibition

In June last year, Wang Jianhua, director of the school's Museum of Ethnology, received a curatorial task to plan a theme exhibition to welcome the centenary of the Communist Party of China, "The significance of this exhibition is extraordinary, to select a series of cultural relics from the existing collection of more than 8,000 pieces, which can not only reflect the party's ethnic education policy and the development and change of ethnic education, but also give full play to the educational role of cultural relics exhibition." ”

When seeing the graduates of 70 years ago spelling out five-pointed stars with their own names, the eyes of the staff of the Ethnographic Museum were moistened, "You can truly appreciate what is the 'close unity of brothers of all nationalities'", and finally everyone unanimously decided to hold a "pennant exhibition".

What is the value and significance of these pennants? What message was conveyed? Why should graduates give pennants to their alma mater? Ethnographic Museum staff began visiting the surviving alumni, consulting archives from more than 70 years ago and tracing the story behind the pennant.

At the beginning of the founding of New China, most of the ethnic minority areas in the southwest lagged behind in development, in order to publicize the party's ethnic policy, cultivate ethnic minority talents and cadres, and establish and consolidate the democratic power in ethnic minority areas, on June 1, 1951, the Southwest Institute for Nationalities was formally established in Chengdu.

In February 1951, before the establishment of the college, more than 500 students from 24 nationalities and districts selected by various provinces and regions have been enrolled in the college, forming the "first phase" of the college. Most of these students are the children of farmers and herdsmen, and the party's ethnic education policy has changed the trajectory of their lives.

Zhao Yuguang was one of them. "Pei Wenzhong, Li Anzhai, Wu Zelin, Xia Kangnong, and a large number of other well-known experts taught us, and everyone studied with hunger and thirst, afraid of falling one step behind." Zhao Yuguang recalled that on April 15, 1952, the "first batch" of students graduated, and the students raised their own expenses to make a pennant for their alma mater.

"Let us strive to meet the upcoming economic and cultural construction of the motherland!" Zhao Yuguang and his classmates wrote their gratitude to the party on the pennant, and at the same time practiced the Zhengzheng oath of building the motherland with youth and enthusiasm. According to statistics, 325 of the 518 graduates of the "first phase" returned to their hometowns and dedicated their lives to the construction and development of ethnic minority areas.

On June 2 this year, the exhibition officially opened. Silver-haired old alumni and young students walked through the pennants, some carefully studied the text, some took photos with the pennants, and students of different eras found resonance here, admiration and emotion overflowed the exhibition hall.

The red bloodline will continue to be passed on forever

In front of the pennant presented by the Central Condolence Group, Zhang Wenjing, a sophomore student, stopped and stared for a long time.

"Cheer up, cheer up!" An indescribable sense of solemnity sprang up from her heart. "In the midst of it, it is easy to associate yourself with the grand vocabulary of the country and the nation, and you are deeply proud of your motherland."

Like Zhang Wenjing, many teachers and students, while gaining pride, also raised a question: "How are so many pennants preserved?" ”

Fan Xiangrui found in his research that such pennants are often not regarded as cultural relics and are easily scattered in historical changes. The preservation of these pennants of Southwest Minzu University benefits from the good tradition of educating people in the school museum. 70 years ago, after the establishment of the Southwest Institute for Nationalities, Wu Zelin, the first curator of the school's cultural relics museum (the predecessor of the museum) and an ethnologist, recognized the value and significance of these pennants and won them for preservation in the cultural relics museum.

In Southwest University for Nationalities, ideological and political education, the annual education of new students, and the museum are important positions. "For example, our National Costume Museum exhibits the traditional costumes of dozens of ethnic groups throughout the ages. Today, we will tell students about forging a solid sense of the Chinese national community, and students can intuitively see from the production process, techniques and aesthetics of clothing how various nationalities have been closely linked for thousands of years. ”

"The characteristic and significance of the school museum is that it is mainly aimed at teachers and students, and it is necessary to serve the education of people." Yang Min, secretary of the Party Committee of Southwest Minzu University, said that the school will further increase research and curation efforts, explore the resources of educating people in the history of the red school, let teachers and students relive the source of the school's rejuvenation, recall the difficulties of the predecessors, inherit and carry forward the fine traditions, and let the red gene be passed on from generation to generation.

China Education News, October 27, 2021, 3rd edition

Author: Lu Lei, a reporter of this newspaper