Tomb tributes bridge gap between centuries

In her hotel room in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, 21-year-old Wu Yutong opened an online map and realized she was sleeping just a few hundred meters from the grave of a woman she had admired since middle school.

The woman was Qiu Jin, the revolutionary and feminist executed by Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) authorities in 1907 at the age of 31.

The next morning, Wu, a university student from Dalian, Liaoning province, went to find Qiu's grave.

On a bright morning on Jan 21, Wu walked through Gushan Hill on the shores of Hangzhou's West Lake. She passed crowds of tourists and souvenir sellers. The path led her to a quiet clearing ringed by pine and camphor trees where a white marble statue of a woman holding a sword stood.

Wu had brought two offerings: a bunch of chrysanthemums and a red silk scarf. The flowers were chosen for Qiu's poem about them. The red scarf symbolized the blood the revolutionary had shed for her beliefs. "The fire in her heart never went out," Wu said.

For an hour, Wu stood quietly before the statue. When passersby mistook Qiu for other figures — for instance the legendary snake spirit Bai Suzhen from Chinese folklore, or Communist martyr Jiang Zhujun — Wu told them the real story.

"I felt I had finally completed a conversation across time with the heroine that I had read about so many times," she said.

Wu first encountered Qiu in middle school, where she was reduced to a few lines in a textbook: a revolutionary martyr and a patriot.

It was only after reading Qiu's poetry and her essays in the Chinese Women's Journal, which the revolutionary founded in 1907, that Wu began to see her as a different person.

"I no longer saw just a name but a girl trapped by her era, one who fought desperately to break free," she said.

When Wu posted about her visit on the lifestyle platform RedNote, or Xiaohongshu, the response surprised her. The post has since received more than 35,000 likes. In the comments, she found a community.

Some asked where the statue is located. One painted a New Year's picture of Qiu with mountains and rivers on her robes — a symbol of the nation Qiu died for, while trying to change it for the better.

For Wu, Qiu is a mirror for her own life. "I remind myself to stand tall like her, to be the master of my own fate.

Of her hobby, she said: "I don't see it as chasing celebrities, but rather drawing strength from history. When we face challenges or feel lost in our own lives, thinking about the spirit of historical figures gives us courage to move forward."

"In the quiet of an ancient tomb, we can find in history the direction and confidence to keep going," she added.