Wikipedia

Song Zhenzhong

In thisChinese name,thefamily nameisSong.

Song Zhenzhong(Chinese:Tống chấn trung;pinyin:Sòng Zhènzhōng;15 March 1941 – 6 September 1949), popularly known asLittle Radish Head(Tiểu la bặc đầu;Xiǎo Luóbo Tóu), was the son ofChinese Communist PartymembersSong QiyunandXu Linxia.Held by theKuomintangfor the majority of his life, he was executed together with his parents as part of a mass killing of detainees. He has been identified as "China's youngest martyr",[1]and featured extensively in film and literature. He has also been commemorated with multiple monuments.

Song Zhenzhong
Tống chấn trung
Song, 1941
Born(1941-03-15)15 March 1941
Xi'an,Shaanxi,China
Died6 September 1949(1949-09-06)(aged 8)
Chongqing,China
Parents
Chinese name
ChineseTốngChấnTrung
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinSòng Zhènzhōng
Wade–GilesSung4Chen4chung1

Biography

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Song was born on 15 March 1941 inXi'an,Shaanxi,toSong QiyunandXu Linxia,[2]two members of theChinese Communist Party(CCP) who had married in 1928.[3]A former journalist reporting to GeneralYang Hucheng,Song Qiyun had edited theNorthwest Cultural Dailyand spoken against the direction of theKuomintang(KMT) government underGeneralissimoChiang Kai-shek.Xu Linxia, meanwhile, had led the women's branch of the CCP inPi County, Jiangsu.[4]Amidst the tensions remaining from theChinese Civil Warand the ongoingSino-Japanese War,the family had sent two daughters to live with family in Pi, while Xu and the other five children moved to Puyang Village outside Xi'an.[3]

After two months without communication from Song Qiyun, in November 1941 Xu Linxia took the eight-month old Song Zhenzhong toChongqingafter hearing that he was awaiting them in the city.[5]There, the two were captured by the KMT. Over the next seven years, mother and son moved between internment camps.[3]At theXifeng concentration campinXifeng County, Guizhou,they reconnected with Song Qiyun; he had also been captured, and DirectorZhou Yanghao[zh]had been petitioned to allow the family contact by the secret CCP cell underLuo Shiwen.[6]Hunger strikeslater allowed for an education for Song, withHuang Xiansheng[zh]acting as teacher.[3]

As he aged, Song was nicknamed "Little Radish Head" due to his large head andemaciatedframe.[7]The Xifeng concentration camp was closed in 1946, and Song was transferred with his family to Chongqing. There, due to his youth, he was allowed high levels of mobility. Consequently, fellow inmate Mei Hanzhang recalled that he was often entrusted with passing messages between prisoners.[3]In his memoirs,Han Zidong[zh]wrote that Song had brought him bags and clothes sewn by Xu, which Han subsequently used during his escape.[4]

In an interview with theChina News Service,Song Zhenzhong's eldest brother Zhenhua recalled that the siblings' first correspondence with their incarcerated family was a letter received in 1947, at which point the Songs had been moved toCiqikou, Chongqing.Correspondence continued until theLunar New Yearof 1949, with one letter including the words "brother" and "sister" written by Song Zhenzhong. In her last letter, Xu Linxia indicated that Song Qiyun and Yang Hucheng had travelled toGuiyang,and that she and the youngest Song would be following.[3]

With the Chinese Civil War approaching its end, Song Qiyun, Wu Linxia, and Song Zhenzhong were executed by the KMT inGeleshanon 6 September 1949; this was announced by theCentral Committee of the CCPin a letter of condolence published in newspapers two months later.[3]In 1950, they were reinterred at the General Yang Hucheng Cemetery inChang'an District, Xi'an.[8]Their graves occupy three spots on the bottom of this two-storey site; the top level is occupied by the graves of Yang Hucheng, his wife Xie Baozhen and their daughter Yang Zhenggui (buried together), and their son Yang Zhengzhong.[9]

Legacy

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A statue of Song inShangzhuang, Beijing

Song has been identified as the youngestmartyrof the CCP. He is one of several youths given the title of martyr. Others includedLiu Hulan,who inspiredMao Zedong's slogan "A great life, a glorious death";[a]Liu Wenxue[zh],who was killed by a landlord whom he caught stealing crops;[1]andWang Erxiao[zh],acowherdwho detained advancing Japanese troops long enough for his peers to escape.[10]

Song's story was incorporated into Luo Guangbin and Yang Yiyan's 1961 novelRed Crag,[1]in which he is depicted as a cute and spry child who yearns to live freely after being raised in prison.[11]In subsequent years, "Little Radish Head" became a household name.[1]His surviving sister Song Zhensu published a story,My Brother, Little Radish Head(Ngã đích đệ đệ "Tiểu la bặc đầu"), in 1964. Presenting Song as a child intent on learning communist values from other inmates, it portrays him as learning to hate the KMT and desire their eradication.[11]Also that year, the novelRed Cragwas adapted to film asEternity in Flames(Liệt hỏa trung vĩnh sinh); Song was portrayed by the child actressFang Shu,who remained identified with the role into the 1990s.[12]

Li Linying's novelLittle Radish Head(Tiểu la bặc đầu) and Zhou Mi's film scriptLittle Radish Fantasy Poem(Tiểu la bặc đầu huyễn tưởng thi,1984) both present Song as an innocent child trapped by his repressive internment.[11]In 1996, Xue Jiatai published a biography of Song targeted at younger readers. Intended as a means ofpolitical education,the book presents its depiction of Song's suffering and death as a dark moment before the dawn of thePeople's Republic of China.A dramatic stage adaptation by Liu Qinglai, drawing fromRed CragandMy Brother, Little Radish Head,was produced later that decade.[11]TheYunnan Arts Institutemade a musical based on Song's life in 2019.[13]A three-part documentary on Song's life was screened byCCTV-4on 30 May 2018 to commemorateNational Children's Day.[14]

Song is commemorated with his father and mother with the Xiaoluotou Memorial Hall inPizhou,Xuzhou,Jiangsu.[15]Constructed between 2003 and 2005, this hall is used forpolitical education,with students asked to compare their lives with that of Song Zhenzhong.[16]It covers 2,160 square metres (23,300 sq ft), with exhibitions including photographs as well as artefacts belonging to the family.[7]The General Yang Hucheng Cemetery, a tourist attraction that has received arating of 3A,is regularly visited by schoolchildren who clean the tombs. In front of Song's tomb is a largepomegranatetree, planted by his sister Song Zhenping in 1984, upon which children drape theirred scarvesafter doing aYoung Pioneerssalute; the state-publishedPeople's Dailydescribes it as "a link between future generations and the martyrs."[b][8]Statues of the Song family have been erected at their execution site, with that of Song Zhenzhong often draped in red scarves.[3]

Explanatory notes

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  1. ^Original:｢ sinh đích vĩ đại, tử đích quang vinh ｣.
  2. ^Original:｢ liễu hậu nhân dữ liệt sĩ tương liên đích nữu đái ｣.

References

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  1. ^abcdKauffman 2020,p. 292.
  2. ^Dong 1994,p. 2263.
  3. ^abcdefghZhang 2019.
  4. ^abJiang, Hu & Huang n.d.
  5. ^Dong 1994,p. 2263;Zhang 2019
  6. ^Xifeng Concentration Camp 2021.
  7. ^abGovernment of China 2005.
  8. ^abPeople's Daily 2014.
  9. ^Du 2020.
  10. ^Kauffman 2020,p. 269.
  11. ^abcdLu 2021,p. 49.
  12. ^Chinese Movie Stars 1990,p. 34.
  13. ^Gao 2019;Lu 2021,p. 49
  14. ^Zhang 2018.
  15. ^Qiu 2019.
  16. ^Guangming Daily 2019.

Works cited

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  • Trung quốc điện ảnh minh tinh lục[Chinese Movie Stars] (in Chinese). Xueyuan Publishing House. 1990.ISBN978-7-5077-0260-6.
  • Dong Xianji ( đổng hiến cát ) (1994).Từ châu thị chí[Xuzhou City Annals] (in Chinese). Vol. 2. Zhonghua Book Company.ISBN978-7-101-01288-0.
  • Du Rong ( đỗ vinh ), ed. (26 March 2020).Dương hổ thành tương quân lăng viên[General Yang Hucheng Cemetery] (in Chinese). Xi'an Municipal Government. Archived fromthe originalon 16 October 2024.Retrieved15 October2024.
  • Gao Yimeng ( cao nghệ manh ) (30 September 2019).Âm nhạc kịch 《 tiểu la bặc đầu 》 tại côn thủ diễn[The Musical "Little Radish Head" Premieres in Kunming to Celebrate the 70th Anniversary of the Founding of New China] (in Chinese). Yunnan Municipal Government. Archived fromthe originalon 26 October 2021.Retrieved19 October2021.
  • Dương hổ thành tương quân lăng viên: Trọng ôn "Hồng lĩnh cân thụ" đích cố sự[General Yang Hucheng Cemetery: Revisiting the Story of the "Red Scarf Tree" ].People's Daily(in Chinese). 29 September 2014. Archived fromthe originalon 16 October 2024.Retrieved15 October2024.
  • Jiang Shan ( giang sơn ), Hu Minxin ( hồ dân tân ) Huang Chaozhang ( hoàng triều chương ) (n.d.).Tống khỉ vân[Song Qiyun] (in Chinese). Shaanxi Provincial Government. Archived fromthe originalon 15 October 2024.Retrieved15 October2024.
  • Kauffman, Andrew (2020). "Imagining the New Socialist Child: The Cultural Afterlife of the Child Martyr Wang Erxiao".Cross-Currents: East Asian History and Culture Review.9:269–296.doi:10.1353/ach.2020.0006.
  • Lu Jieyu ( lữ khiết vũ ) (2021)."Tiểu la bặc đầu" văn học hình tượng đích truyện bá dữ thời đại giới trị đích hoằng dương[The Dissemination of the Literary Image of "Little Radish Head" and the Promotion of Contemporary Values].Journal of Qujing Normal University(in Chinese).40(4): 49.
  • "Tiểu la bặc đầu" tống chấn trung đích kỷ niệm quán tại giang tô bi châu thị kiến thành[Memorial Hall for "Little Radish Head" Song Zhenzhong Completed in Pizhou, Jiangsu] (in Chinese). Government of China. 28 December 2005. Archived fromthe originalon 26 October 2021.Retrieved19 October2021.
  • Qiu Bingqing ( khâu băng thanh ) (13 June 2019).Tống khỉ vân từ lâm hiệp: Ngục trung 8 niên bất đê đầu[Song Qiyun and Xu Linxia: Not Bowing Down after 8 Years in Prison].People's Daily(in Chinese). p. 16. Archived fromthe originalon 15 October 2024.Retrieved15 October2024.
  • Tống khỉ vân, từ lâm hiệp: Cách mệnh bạn lữ cộng phổ tán ca[Song Qiyun and Xu Linxia: Revolutionary Partners who Composed Hymns Together].Guangming Daily(in Chinese). 24 May 2019. Archived fromthe originalon 15 October 2024.Retrieved15 October2024.
  • Tống khỉ vân tại tức phong tập trung doanh đích thiết song tuế nguyệt[Song Qiyun's Years Behind Bars in Xifeng Concentration Camp]. Xifeng Concentration Camp Revolutionary History Memorial Hall. 25 February 2021. Archived fromthe originalon 15 October 2024.Retrieved15 October2024– via Xifeng County Government.
  • Zhang Jingshu ( trương tĩnh xu ) (24 May 2019).Tống khỉ vân, từ lâm hiệp: Cách mệnh bạn lữ cộng phổ tán ca[The Short but Brilliant Eight-Year Life of "Little Radish Head" Song Zhenzhong].Beijing News(in Chinese).China News Service.Archived fromthe originalon 15 October 2024.Retrieved15 October2024.
  • Zhang Nan ( trương nam ) (31 May 2018).Lục nhất nhi đồng tiết chi tế nam ảnh hán kỷ lục phiến 《 tiểu la bặc đầu 》 đăng lục ương thị[On the Occasion of Children's Day, the Documentary "Little Radish Head" by the Nanjing Film Studio was Released on CCTV] (in Chinese). Nhân dân võng. Archived fromthe originalon 22 October 2021.Retrieved19 October2021.
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