Across a century of time and space, dialogue with heroic alumni. Shanghai Hand-painted postcards to ming junior high school students to pay tribute to the martyr Mao Liying——
"You are the eternal youth idol in our hearts"
"Your firm political belief and courageous revolutionary spirit are like a beacon shining on the Xiangming campus and guiding the course of our youth." You are the eternal idol of youth in our hearts. On the eve of the New Year, the Shanghai Xiangming Junior High School "Tribute to the Martyr Mao Liying" postcard design competition ended, and the hand-painted works of Feng Weici, a girl in the first (1st) class of the junior high school, stood out. Talking about the competition process and creative experience, she said excitedly.
In 2014, martyr Mao Liying was included in the list of the first batch of famous anti-Japanese heroes of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and studied and taught at Shanghai Qixiu Girls' High School, the predecessor of the Sinan Campus of Xiangming Junior High School. In the 1930s, she organized many charity sales, raised money and materials for anti-Japanese soldiers, and made a vow to "live for the charity sale and die for the charity sale". In December 1939, when she was assassinated by Wang puppet agents, Mao Liying was only 29 years old. The Shanghai Film Studio created the film "July Flowing Fire" based on the martyr Mao Liying.
"As the alma mater of the martyr Mao Liying, over the years, we have always insisted on using Mao Liying's heroic deeds to educate people morally, cultivate students' noble feelings of loving the party and the country, guide students to advocate heroic martyrs, see the wise and think together, and establish lofty ideals in life." Le Fei, director of the school's Political and Educational Office, introduced that as early as 1989, the school built a memorial statue of Mao Liying. Every time a new student enrolls, the school will organize the "Six Ones" activities: read a book "Mao Liying", write a post-reading feeling, watch a movie "July Fire", tell a story of Mao Liying, hold a theme class meeting, and carry out a memorial activity to sweep up heroic martyrs.
Students write New Year's resolutions on postcards. Photo by Song Mei
2021 coincides with the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China. On the basis of the "Six Ones" activity, the school opened two special courses of moral education, "Follow the Trail" and "Taste history, look forward to the future", and with learning and carrying forward the deeds of Mao Liying martyrs as the main line, the classroom expanded to the surrounding red venues such as the first congress site, Yuyangli, Zhou Gongguan, Taofen Memorial Hall, etc., and launched the "Tribute to Mao Liying Martyrs" postcard design competition to guide students to learn heroic deeds and inherit red genes in reviewing the glorious history of the party.
The postcard design competition received a positive response from the students. After class, everyone gathered together to review the life deeds of mao Liying martyr, exchanged feelings after reading "Mao Liying", and shared the movie observations of "July Flowing Fire"...
"The statue of martyr Mao Liying is on campus, and we remember her story well, but we can pick up a paintbrush, but we don't know how to show the short and glorious life of the martyr." Recalling the creative process, Feng Weici said that in order to find a breakthrough, she reread "Mao Liying" over and over again, watched "July Flowing Fire" over and over again, and talked to the martyrs in her heart: If the martyrs lived to this day, what would they want to say to us? What should we learn from Mao Liying? As I deepened my thinking, my creative ideas became clearer.
After many polishing and modifications, the postcard designed by Feng Weici finally met with everyone. In the whole set of 10 postcards, the first 9 are titled "Study, Edification, Choice, Oath, Mandate, Fearlessness, Responsibility, Perseverance, and Fall", reproducing the important moments in the life of Mao Liying's martyrs; the last one is titled "Mission", expressing the strong determination of young students to inherit the legacy of the martyrs and strive to become the red heirs.
"At present, 1,000 copies have been printed, and the whole school has one copy." Le Fei said that this set of postcards will become a new carrier and new content for schools to carry out patriotic education, and enrich them into moral education.
On the eve of New Year's Day, the school organized students to carry out the Young Pioneers Theme Team Day activity in front of the Memorial Statue of Mao Liying Martyrs. Many students took out postcards, faced youth idols, and wrote Down New Year's wishes.
"We are the successors of communism, inheriting the glorious traditions of revolutionary martyrs, loving the motherland and the people..." The loud Young Pioneers song resounded throughout the campus.
At this moment, the gentle sunlight shines on the memorial statue of Mao Liying, white and dazzling; the red scarves on the children's chest flutter in the wind, which is particularly bright. (■ Song Mei, reporter of this newspaper, Guo Hongbin)
Short comments
Let the red seeds take root and sprout
■ Li Guotao
The "Outline for the Implementation of Patriotic Education in the New Era" points out that it is necessary to persist in starting from the dolls, focus on consolidating the foundation and cultivating the yuan, condensing the heart and casting the soul, highlighting the ideological connotation, strengthening ideological guidance, and making things silent.
At present, the environment in which young people are growing up is more complicated than in the past, and to cultivate revolutionary successors who are worthy of the heavy responsibilities of the times, we must regard patriotic education as a compulsory course, cultivate patriotic feelings, and forge ahead with the aspiration of strengthening the country.
It should be combined with national defense education. Through important occasions such as the National Defense Education Day and the Founding Day of the Whole People, national defense education classrooms should be "moved" to military barracks, martyrs' cemeteries, revolutionary sites, and other places, so as to guide young people to revere the army and maintain martial arts, and establish a value orientation and life pursuit of serving the motherland.
It should be combined with the study of heroic models. It is necessary not only to study and educate through party history, to learn from the heroes, martyrs, and exemplary figures that have emerged in different revolutionary periods, but also to explore the advanced models of the local area and around them, guide young people to consciously correct the course of life, establish correct idols in life, and let them learn from examples and catch up with goals.
It should be combined with cultural immersion. Develop patriotic online literature, animation, short videos and other literary and artistic works that meet the characteristics of teenagers, let the red seeds take root in the hearts of teenagers in the process of cultural infiltration, guide them to consciously resist the mentality of "entertainment to death", "rice circle culture" and "lying flat", and use positive cultural forms to help them grow up healthily.
(China National Defense Daily, January 14, 2022, second edition)
Source: China National Defense Daily