Long March legacy passes down across generations in China's sacred revolutionary site

This photo taken on Aug. 21, 2026 shows a portrait of Kong Xia in Zunyi, southwest China's Guizhou Province. (Xinhua/Liu Jinhai)

ZUNYI, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- Decades after the victory of the Long March by the Red Army under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, a little-known chapter of the Long March's legacy unfolds through two generations in Zunyi of southwest China's Guizhou Province, the city where the historic 1935 Zunyi Meeting took place. 

Kong Xianquan, a Long March veteran severely wounded in the 1935 battle of Loushan Pass, was left behind by the marching troops. He spent years living as an ordinary bricklayer in local towns, never publicizing his wartime experiences to others. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, he reconnected with his former comrades, and was appointed the first curator of the Zunyi Meeting Memorial Hall. For decades, he poured all his energy into renovating the historic site, collecting scattered Red Army cultural relics, and overseeing the publication of "The Red Army's Long March in Guizhou" in 1960, a rare systematic record of its kind in China.

His granddaughter Kong Xia only learned his full story after reading American journalist Harrison Salisbury's book "The Long March: The Untold Story," long after Kong Xianquan's death in 1988. Her grandfather's lifelong commitment to safeguarding revolutionary history left a deep, lasting mark on her.

In 1993, Kong Xia obtained a tour guide certificate and soon volunteered to give free explanations for visitors to the memorial hall. In 2013, she compiled her grandfather's life story into a handmade "grandpa's photo album", and spent years visiting historic sites, reviewing official archives and consulting historians to reconstruct the full picture of his Long March experience. 

She later launched revolutionary history classes in local schools and trained teams of young student narrators. Over 30 years, she has delivered more than 1,200 lectures, reaching over 50,000 people. 

Kong Xia holds the book "The Long march: The Untold Story" in Zunyi, southwest China's Guizhou Province,  Aug. 21, 2026. (Xinhua/Liu Jinhai)

Kong Xia holds a photo of her grandfather Kong Xianquan in Zunyi, southwest China's Guizhou Province, Aug. 20, 2026. (Xinhua/Liu Xu)