The Long March remains a powerful source of inspiration for China as it pursues national rejuvenation, Brazilian scholar and Chinese Government Friendship Award recipient Rafael Zerbetto said, adding the spirit behind the historic journey embodies hope and perseverance in the face of seemingly impossible challenges.
The Long March was an epic military trek from 1934 to 1936, during which the Communist Party of China (CPC)-led Red Army broke through the encirclements by Kuomintang forces. Red Army soldiers braved raging rivers, snow-covered mountains and treacherous grasslands to complete the 12,500-kilometer odyssey.
This year, Zerbetto, a Brazilian expert at China International Publishing Group, retraced the route of the Long March, and visited preserved historical sites of the trek in northwest China's Gansu Province, to mark the 90th anniversary of the victory of the expedition.
Zerbetto visited Lazikou, which is known for the life-and-death Battle of Lazikou during the Long March.
In Diebu County, towering, sheer cliffs flank Lazikou Pass, leaving only a narrow gorge through the rugged mountains. In 1935, the Red Army took this perilous natural barrier, breaking open a vital northward passage and keeping the Long March alive.
The heroism of the Battle of Lazikou has long been documented in classic works on the Long March. Zerbetto first learned of the battle from American journalist Edgar Snow's renowned work "Red Star Over China" and the American journalist Harrison Salisbury's book "The Long March: The Untold Story."
"Many years ago, I read the book 'The Red Star over China,' and this year I read Salisbury's book about the Long March, and in both books they mentioned the Lazikou Battle. So when I went to that prefecture the first time and I saw those mountains, the cliffs, I realized its geography is really much different than what I had in my mind and understood why it was so hard for the soldiers to climb the mountain to go to the top, to attack from the top," Zerbetto said.
His understanding of the Long March was deepened by seeing the terrain firsthand and by observing the region's economic development.
"It's important that I could see not only the history, I visited many historical sites, they are preserved. But at the same time I also noticed the economic development of Gansu. You see, there are roads, highways, high speed train. And also agriculture is more developed, as I remember, for example, in the Minxian County, they have the Danggui (or angelica) industry. They cultivate the Danggui there for a very long time. People there used to live in poverty before and nowadays they've improved infrastructure, they developed the whole chain. The local people are living better now," Zerbetto said.
For Zerbetto, the significance of the Long March is not confined to history. Hope and perseverance are the spirits China draws on today to confront difficult challenges.
"Imagine it with many battles on the way, with many hardships, it's even much harder, but still they always went ahead. So it's about hope. It's about facing challenges, no matter how hard they are. And I think the Chinese people cultivates this spirit. After 1949 when the New China (the People's Republic of China) was founded, it was time to reconstruct the country, it was time to build the future, and you cannot do that without hard work. And nowadays, China is preparing for the national rejuvenation. It's a hard work to reach the new goals to further develop the country. And the long match is a great inspiration for that," he said.
Long March spirit inspires China's pursuit of national rejuvenation: Brazilian scholar
Long March spirit inspires China's pursuit of national rejuvenation: Brazilian scholar
