Revolutionary spirit lives on in a new generation

A pair of scissors snips carefully through a sheet of red paper. With a few precise cuts, the silhouette of a Red Army soldier takes shape. It is a tactile echo of a journey that took place some 90 years ago.

In Huining, in Northwest China's Gansu province, history is never a distant abstraction. It is woven into the daily rhythm of soldiers like Xin Kaixuan, an officer in the Baiyin detachment of the People's Armed Police Force who leads a paper-cutting group with his comrades. For Xin, crafting figures of revolutionary veterans isn't just about preserving folk art; it is a way to bridge the gap between past endurance and present duty.

Xin, who has loved paper-cutting since childhood, began creating works depicting Red Army soldiers and scenes from the Long March after joining his unit eight years ago.

"Through paper-cutting, we can learn about the history of the Long March while passing on traditional culture in Huining," he said. "We also have calligraphy and reading groups, which give us more opportunities to learn about our history and culture."

Ninety years ago in October 1936, the First, Second and Fourth Front armies of the Red Army converged right here in Huining, sealing the victory of the Long March. Today, a new generation of soldiers faces a different kind of march: not across freezing snow mountains, but through the quiet, demanding grind of modern service, community building and safeguarding a changing land.

Passing on stories

For Zhang Shuai, military life initially clashed with the gloss of recruitment videos. Born in 2003, Zhang had worked for several years after college before enlisting. But strict schedules and grueling daily training quickly wore him down. When fatigue hit during exhausting 5-kilometer armed runs, doubt crept in.

However, everything shifted during a visit to the Red Army Long March Victory Memorial. Standing before genuine relics of the 12,500-kilometer trek — frayed straw sandals, threadbare clothing and actual specimens of the grass roots that Red Army soldiers ate during times of extreme hunger — the abstract history turned painfully real.

"For the first time, I really felt what the Long March was like," he said.

After returning to his unit, he began talking with his squad leader and looking at his own training differently.

The 5-km armed run became a particular test.

"At first, it is about physical strength," he said. "But as you get closer to the end, it becomes about whether you have the determination to keep going."

When fatigue set in, he thought of the Red Army soldiers who crossed snow-covered mountains in straw sandals and thin clothes, and those who crossed the grasslands with little food and no guarantee that they would survive.

"Compared with what they went through, this little bit of hardship and fatigue is nothing," said Zhang.

Gradually, the recruit who once felt confused began to find purpose in his daily training.

He eventually became a Red history guide, sharing stories like that of an illiterate local woman who guarded a lost Communist Party of China registration form at the risk of her own life — a testament to an enduring civilian-military bond.

To Zhang, the story said something about more than revolutionary history. "It shows the bond between the soldiers and the people," he said.

For him, the spirit of the Long March means not fearing hardship or fatigue, being willing to make sacrifices, and thinking of comrades and the people.

His generation, he believes, has its own Long March. "The era is different, but the responsibility we carry is the same," said Zhang.

"Ninety years ago, our revolutionary predecessors overcame countless hardships and made the victorious rendezvous through sacrifice, winning the peace we enjoy today," he said. "Ninety years later, it is our turn to protect this peace, safeguard these peaceful years and protect this Red land."

For soldiers like Zhang, learning about the Long March does not take them back to the past. Instead, it gives new meaning to their lives in the present.

For Li Senyu, this understanding has led to another step: telling the stories to others.

Like Zhang, Li was once a young recruit learning about the history and traditions of the unit. Through regular education, visits to revolutionary sites and listening to stories passed down by veterans and fellow soldiers, his understanding gradually deepened.

He eventually became a Red history guide.

The role changed more than the way he spoke about history. It changed the way he looked at his own responsibilities.

As he tells the stories of the Long March to new recruits and visitors, he also reflects on his own training and conduct. What he once regarded as difficult or tiring becomes easier to put into perspective.

By helping new recruits understand the history of the place where they serve, Li has become part of a chain of transmission, from those who experienced the revolution, to those who remember it, and then to those who will carry it forward.

The Long March, in this sense, becomes a standard against which a new generation measures itself.

Cultivating land and trust

That same bond drives the work happening in the rugged loess hills of Shuangmiao village, where soldiers have spent years working on poverty alleviation and rural vitalization.

When Sergeant Sun Xun first arrived in 2015, the landscape was dominated by stark yellow earth, unpaved tracks and winter isolation. The mission wasn't just about pouring concrete; it was about building a sustainable future. Over the years, soldiers helped pave roads, bring in running water, build greenhouses, schools and cultural facilities, and introduce medicinal herb cultivation and livestock breeding.

"The fine tradition of the military serving the people and the people supporting the military has long become part of life in Huining and is deeply rooted in the family traditions of its people, passed down from generation to generation," Sun said.

The aim was not simply to build infrastructure, but to help create a more sustainable way for villagers to make a living.

Sheep manure, for example, could be used to improve the nutrient-poor loess soil, while livestock breeding and crop cultivation could support each other.

But for Sun, the most meaningful evidence of change is found in people.

Nine years ago, many working-age villagers had left for jobs elsewhere because farming and sheep raising could barely support their families. The village was largely home to elderly people and young children.

Today, some young people are returning as livestock breeding and greenhouse farming create new opportunities.

Sun remembers an elderly couple in particular.

The wife had hypoglycemia and had difficulty getting out of bed. Her husband, already in his 80s, continued planting potatoes and corn. Eventually, he became too old to manage the harvest himself.

When the village Party secretary contacted the unit, Sun and his comrades came to help dig the potatoes and plant corn.

For Sun, it was a simple task, but one that stayed with him.

The couple live under the same roof with four generations of their family. Their children work in neighboring cities, including Baiyin and Dingxi. In the past, heavy snow could cut off the village for almost a month each winter. Now, improved roads have made it easier for them to return home.

The changes have also been felt in unexpected moments.

During a patrol near the Huining Assembly Memorial Site, a boy of about 4 or 5 years old knocked on their vehicle, crying because he could not find his mother. Sun picked him up and comforted him.

Using the vehicle's loudspeaker, the soldiers called for the boy's mother and eventually contacted police, who helped locate her.

When the mother arrived, she thanked the soldiers repeatedly.

For Sun, the child's instinctive trust was perhaps the clearest expression of the bond between the military and the people.

"We are in the place where the Red Army achieved its victorious rendezvous, and the spirit of our revolutionary predecessors is still with us," Sun said. "We should carry that spirit into our posts and actions, follow their example, and put our commitment into practice through hard work. For us, that means using our youth and dedication to protect this Red land."

His own Long March, therefore, is not a journey across snow mountains or grasslands.

It is doing his duty well, remaining ready when people need help and helping villagers build better lives.

Journey continues

The same sense of responsibility can also be seen when emergencies strike.

During the 2023 Jishishan earthquake, Armed Police soldiers joined rescue and relief efforts in the freezing conditions. In Huining, soldiers have also rushed to help people in danger, including saving a woman who was hanging from a bridge.

Such moments rarely make history books.

But they reveal the same instinct that has been passed down for generations: when people need help, step forward.

Ninety years ago, local people in Huining gave the Red Army their food, clothing and even sent their children to join the Red Army. The soldiers, in turn, treated the people as family.

Today, that relationship continues in different forms.

Villagers bring watermelons to the unit during hot summer days. Local cultural workers perform stories about the Long March for soldiers. Intangible cultural heritage practitioners share shadow puppetry and paper-cutting. Residents cheer when soldiers pass by on training routes.

The exchanges may seem ordinary. That is precisely what makes them meaningful.

The Long March reached its victorious conclusion in Huining in 1936. Ninety years later, its stories remain part of daily life for the soldiers stationed here, in training, in service and in the way they pass them on to others.

The Long March belongs to history. How its legacy is carried forward, however, is being decided in the everyday lives of a new generation.

Hu Yumeng contributed to this story.