Heritage for the whole humanity

    When American journalist Edgar Snow commended his 1937 book Red Star Over China to readers, he hoped they would get a sense of the spirit, power and enthusiasm that made the Red Army soldiers unconquerable.

    These, he said, were the essence of human history and could not have been fabricated by any writer.

    "In the Long March, the Red Army demonstrated a spirit that burst the limits of time and space to become the common heritage of the human race," said Xu Zhanquan, a specialist on Long March studies at the Military Academy of Sciences of the Chinese People's Liberation Army.

    Wang Shuzeng spent six years on "the Long March", a nonfiction work of 670,000 Chinese characters published last month. He tried to interview surviving Red Army men, but very few of them could articulate their Long March stories at the age of 90.

    "But almost every one can still heartily hum the songs they sang along the route," he said.

    A veteran soldier simply told him "Our commander was a nice guy-- we had meals together."

    An elderly villager along the route said the Red Army was good because "they gave my grandpa a horse".

    So the Long March, Wang said, represents a spirit, without which human beings could not have achieved what they have today. "We must carry forward this spirit."

    Long March history specialist Chen Yu was shocked when a college student asked him why the Red Army men had not brought enough instant noodles. "Don't you think they were stupid?" the boy said.

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5]