Museum in central France to honor Chinese revolutionaries

A memorial museum for Chinese students in Montargis, a town outside Paris, will open during the Culture of Hunan in France, a promotional event for Hunan culture to be staged later this month.

About 100 kilometers south of Paris, Montargis is a small city in the Loiret region in central France. In the 1920s, it hosted more than 300 Chinese students.

Some of those students - including Deng Xiaoping, Cai Hesen, Xiang Jingyu and Li Weihan - later founded and led the Communist Party of China.

The building that will house the museum was an apartment block that offered lodging to students from Hunan. The Huatian Group, a company based in Hunan, bought the property, and has turned it into a museum.

Decision to buy the property was made when a delegation led by Hunan Governor Du Jiahao visited the city in November 2014. Huatian executives were part of the delegation.

Local overseas Chinese showed the delegation the former apartment building and spoke about the Hunan students, who studied there while supporting themselves with part-time work.

The overseas Chinese expressed their hopes that a museum could be established there to honor the forefathers of the Chinese revolution, and the delegation approved of the idea.

Huatian bought the building in December 2014 for about 320,000 euros ($360,000).

The local Chinese-French friendship association runs the museum which, after a year's preparation, will open later this month.

A documentary titled A Dreamy Tour of Montargis will premiere at the opening ceremony. It tells the story of how revolutionaries lived and studied in the city, their quest to revitalize China, as well as the deepening Sino-French friendship over the past 50 years.

Governor Du said the museum will be a new bridge for exchanges between Hunan and France and will pass on the stories of China and Hunan to the world.

He said the site will also be a new tourist attraction in this French city, attracting many visitors from China.

He said some businesspeople from Hunan are planning to open Chinese restaurants there, to be ready to embrace the increasing number of Chinese tourists.

fengzhiwei@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily European Weekly 08/26/2016 page17)