Photographer documents final days of centenarian war heroes

Born on Sept 22, 1916, Tian Yunyu lived beside the No 1 High School of Yunxi, in Yueyang, Hunan province. She decided to join the army after the July 7 Incident, also known as the Lugou Bridge Incident, which occurred in 1937 and marked the beginning of China's whole-nation resistance against Japanese aggression. She studied at the Huangpu Military Academy. During the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45), she served as an instructor in an officer training regiment. After the war, she returned to her hometown to teach and later worked at Yuelu Hospital (the predecessor of the Fourth Hospital of Changsha) until retirement. Her former coach, Huang Ling, traveled from Wuhan, Hubei province, to attend her 100th birthday celebration. Tian passed away in September 2022.