Born in 1921, Jiang Xue, the former director of the Art Department of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and a returned overseas Chinese from Malaysia, also ushered in his own year of rejuvenation. The Opening of the Sixth Plenary Session of the Nineteenth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China is imminent, and for several days, the elderly have sat in front of the TELEVISION set every day to watch current political programs such as news broadcasts, looking forward to getting more news related to the meeting.
Jiang Xue (Source: Courtesy of the interviewee)
"My mother has become a 'TV enthusiast' every time she comes to a major national event," her daughter Jiang Xiaomei told "political affairs", although she is 100 years old, Jiang Xue has always maintained the habit of reading newspapers and watching CCTV's "News Network". Especially before the two sessions of the National People's Congress and the important meeting of the party and the state were convened, the old man locked the TV channel a few hours in advance, "especially concerned about the major events of the country, I heard that where there was a natural disaster, I was very anxious, let us help her donate." Every month,000, she would save up, keep paying party fees, donations. In her conception, her income is given by the party and the state, so it should be left to the party and the state, and it has nothing to do with our children."
"Witnessing the truest face of the Chinese revolution"
Jiang Xue was born in January 1921 in Anshunbu, Pirzha State, Malaysia, a former British colony. When he returned to Guangdong with his mother at the age of 15 to visit his sick grandmother, he set foot on the land of the motherland for the first time. After her grandmother died, she persuaded her mother not to return to Malaysia, and left her uncle's house alone to study at Huaxian Middle School in Guangdong.
Jiang Xue recalled to "political affairs" that during her studies, she read books and magazines published by Zou Taofen and other patriotic progressives, sowing the seeds of revolution ideologically. In 1937, when the "July 7 Incident" broke out and the country was in danger, countless progressive students consciously threw themselves into the anti-Japanese salvation movement, and she participated in the "Anti-Japanese National Salvation Propaganda Team" led by the "Guangdong Youth Anti-Japanese Pioneer Team" to carry out propaganda performances on anti-Japanese national salvation in the countryside and towns of Huaxian County.
At that time, Yan'an, which was far away in the northwest, was a sacred place in the hearts of patriotic young people, and Jiang Xue also wanted to go to Yan'an. She told her uncle that she was going back to Malaysia to escape the fighting. After getting the travel fee from his uncle, Jiang Xue packed up a few clothes, and quietly boarded the train going north, traveling to Wuhan and Xi'an, and finally came to the Shaanxi North Public School.
Shaanbei Public School is the predecessor of Chinese Min University, and is the first university with the nature of national education and social education established by the Party Central Committee in Yan'an in 1937. Jiang Xue said that at the Shaanxi North Public School, two major events that affected her life occurred: in September 1938, she finally passed the inspection of the party organization and became a communist party member, and since then she has found a strong support in organization and ideology; the school has formed a choir, and with a song "On the Songhua River", she was accepted as a member of the troupe, began to participate in various performance activities organized by the troupe, and started her literary and artistic career.
In April 1938, the Lu Xun Art Institute was established in Yan'an, and Jiang Xue and ten of her choir classmates were recruited as the first batch of students. In March of the following year, she was sent to the Luyi Experimental Theater Troupe to the anti-Japanese front and performed at the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army and the 129th Division in southeastern Jin.
The Beijing Municipal Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese once issued an article saying: "On the battlefield filled with gun smoke, the performances of literary and art workers are a great comfort to the military and civilians at the frontline. Despite the wind and rain along the way, wading through mountains and rivers, Jiang Xue still maintained an optimistic revolutionary mentality and a fearless spirit. In General Chen Geng's army, they ate and lived with the soldiers, taught them to sing and paint, and witnessed the truest face of the Chinese revolution in the process."
"Never be proud of oneself, always modest and cautious, open-minded"
After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Jiang Xue successively worked in Zhangjiakou Middle School, Jin-Cha-Ji United Middle School, United Chinese Labor Troupe and other units, mainly engaged in music education and literary and artistic performances. She has led the members of the cultural and labor troupe to the countryside many times to offer condolences, publicize the land reform policy, and mobilize young people to join the army.
After the founding of New China, Jiang Xue worked at the Beiping Normal University Women's Affiliated High School, and then was admitted to the Central Marxist-Leninist College (now the Central Party School) to study theoretical knowledge of party affairs. After that, he successively served in the Theoretical Education Department, the Literature and Art Department of the Propaganda Department of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee, and the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture, and organized many large-scale national literary and art celebrations.
Jiang Xue has won the commemorative medal of "Celebrating the 70th Anniversary of the Founding of the People's Republic of China" and the commemorative medal of "50 Years of Glory in the Party". The Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism once issued an evaluation: From the anti-Japanese flames to the liberation war, from the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China to the reform and opening up, for more than 80 years, Comrade Jiang Xue has interpreted the original intention and persistence of an old Communist Party member with her full enthusiasm for the party's literary and artistic undertakings and her infinite loyalty to the people. After retiring in 1983, she led by example and still enthusiastically devoted herself to various work, participating in the compilation of the cultural and artistic parts of "Beijing in Contemporary China", and completing the compilation and revision of 7 books, including "Selected Cultural Materials in Beijing", "The First and Second Series of the Socialist Construction Period", and "The History of the Beijing Drama Society". As a veteran party member who participated in the revolution during the Yan'an period, Comrade Jiang Xue never took credit for himself, always was modest and prudent, open-minded, positive and optimistic in life, optimistic and cheerful, and set an excellent model for young party members and cadres in work and life.
"She has a particularly deep affection for the party, and she really joined the party one day and followed her all her life."
On November 5 this year, when Jiang Xue was interviewed by telephone with "Political Affairs", his voice was full of anger. Recalling her life in Yan'an more than 80 years ago, she still clearly remembers participating in the performance of the opera "The White-Haired Girl" in Yan'an, where she studied conducting and composing music at school, but during the performance, she was assigned to play percussion instruments. ”
Jiang Xue (first row left) participated in the opera "White Haired Girl" (source: Beijing Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese official website)
Jiang Xue said that his time in Yan'an was not long, but he benefited for life. She was most impressed by the Yan'an New Yangge Movement. In 1942, Mao Zedong's speech at the Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art introduced the thinking of literary and art workers to a new realm. Literary and art workers began to combine with the masses to do propaganda work and publicize the ideas of the War of Resistance. At the moment of national peril, everyone must rise up and not be afraid of sacrifice. At that time, we made up our minds to go to the front line of the War of Resistance. It can be said that the Yangge Movement played an important role in mobilizing the people of northern Shaanxi. We, the young students, have experienced the rectification movement and the Yangge movement, and everyone is united and very firm, and our ideological consciousness has been greatly enhanced, and we realize that we must go to the grass-roots level and go to the masses, and we should not just stay in the school and talk. ”
Jiang Xue held that the Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art clearly pointed out the direction in which literature and art serve the masses of the people and, first of all, the workers, peasants, and soldiers. At the symposium on literary and art work presided over by General Secretary Xi Jinping on October 15, 2014, he also stressed that literary and artistic work should adhere to the people-centered creative orientation. "Taking the people as the center is the fundamental observance of literary and artistic work." I regret that I have not done much since the age of 80, and now my memory is not as good as before, and my reaction is slower than before, there is no way, this is the rule of nature. I will work hard, I hope that my body can be better, and I can do something for literary and artistic work again. I am more looking forward to the fact that young people can shoulder the heavy responsibility of prospering literature and art, create better and more literary and artistic masterpieces, and promote the great development and prosperity of culture."
Jiang Xue's daughter said that at present, the old man has some ear backs, but his health is good, and he makes his own breakfast every day. Because I read the newspaper and watch the news every day, the old man is familiar with major events at home and abroad, "Two days ago, she suddenly asked me, how are the 15 elephants who ran away? Any new news? I told her that Yunnan was going to build an Asian elephant national park, and she was relieved. ”
Jiang Xue often said that it was the party that educated and cultivated her, and without the party, there would be no her now. "She has a particularly deep affection for the party, and she really joined the party one day and followed her all her life." So she is very strict with herself and our children, thinking that our ideological consciousness does not meet the requirements. She often tests us, such as what does 'four consciousnesses' and 'four self-confidence' refer to? As long as the shell is stuck once, it will not pass. Seeing that some relatives and friends are Dink families, she will also worry, if they do not have children, what will the party and the state do? How to cultivate successors? Jiang Xue's daughter said that her mother rarely gave interviews, "she felt that she was just an ordinary Communist Party member, just doing her own work, and did not make major contributions to the party and the country, so there was no need to publicize her in particular."
"Political Affairs" (xjbzse) written / Wang Shu Proofreader Zhao Lin