URUMQI, July 7 (Xinhua) — A soldier’s diary, a pale crimson flag from wartime, the compartment of a cell communications automobile from the Nineteen Sixties — these are only a few of the 30,000-plus objects housed at Liu Yongpeng’s personal museum in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
The low-key museum — consisting of a single corridor measuring round 1,200 sq. meters — was constructed up by Liu 5 years in the past. At first, solely buddies and kinfolk visited, however now it attracts over 100 guests day by day.
Most of the displays symbolize important moments in historical past. The pale crimson flag is from the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression; the communications automobile was utilized by a nuclear analysis heart in Xinjiang within the Nineteen Sixties; and the soldier’s diary is from the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea.
Over the previous 17 years, Liu has spent thousands and thousands of yuan amassing, preserving and sustaining these things, which he obtained from numerous personal people, and are relics of the lives they’ve lived.
SPIRIT OF THE TIMES
Liu, 43, has constructed this assortment to showcase the immense adjustments which have taken place in Xinjiang over the a long time. In the meantime, he goals to protect and cross on the spirit of the older generations’ virtues to the youthful generations, together with diligence, simplicity and frugality.
“Despite our blissful life today, we must not forget the hardships our predecessors endured,” mentioned Liu, who works as curator and interpreter on the museum.
In his childhood, Liu typically listened to his father telling the life-story of his grandfather, who was a serf in Qinghai. As a baby, his grandfather was pressured to do laborious labor on a farm, residing a depressing life. He was 15 when he gained freedom after the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.
Liu’s father joined the navy at a younger age and have become a member of the Communist Party of China (CPC). After he retired from the military, he moved the entire household to Xinjiang and took half within the financial growth of this inland area. Liu was born in Xinjiang in 1980.
He typically heard his father say, “Without the CPC, there would be no freedom or happy life for people of all ethnic groups.”
Recalling their early days in Xinjiang, Liu remembers residing in a makeshift cave often known as a “diwozi.” These particular dwellings have been primarily in-built desert areas by digging holes into the bottom and protecting them with reeds.
IMPROVED CONDITIONS
During the Nineties, Liu labored on development websites, and his diligence introduced him many alternatives. He then took on small tasks and established his personal firm, main an improved high quality of life.
“My grandfather witnessed the liberation of the people, my father saw their living conditions improved, and my generation shares the fruits as the country becomes richer and stronger,” mentioned Liu.
Meanwhile, super growth and transformation have taken place in Xinjiang, he added. “People from all ethnic groups in Xinjiang enjoy peace and contentment at work and in life, and their lives have significantly improved.”
“Policies to promote large-scale development in the western region have injected new vitality into the economic and social development of Xinjiang, and the region has seen a rapid development in urbanization,” Liu mentioned, including his assortment began at the moment.
His firm took half in numerous urbanization tasks, such because the demolition of outdated buildings and the renovation of run-down city areas. This enabled him to gather outdated objects that had been deserted, together with enamel jars, kerosene lamps and ration coupons for meals.
“These precious vintage items will become scarce in the future, so the idea of opening a small museum came to my mind,” Liu defined.
Since 2006, he has traveled throughout the huge area and even to different provinces, amassing folks objects, particularly these associated to the historical past of the CPC.
He has spared no expense in constructing his assortment, even promoting the 5 excavators owned by his firm.
NEW GENERATIONS
At first, Liu’s spouse Zhao Yanling could not perceive her husband’s dedication to the museum challenge. “Almost all of our earnings and savings were used to support his collections,” mentioned Zhao.
Her emotions modified when her daughter’s college organized for college students to go to the museum, and so they gave constructive suggestions to Liu and Zhao.
“Our daughter became passionate about history then and became a young interpreter at the museum. So did I, telling visitors the touching stories behind each item,” mentioned Zhao.
For Liu, some of the spectacular objects in his assortment is a diary of a soldier who fought within the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea.
“He wrote down in his diary, ‘I would rather die on the brutal and merciless frontlines than allow my motherland and the people to suffer under the yoke of fascism.’ His pride and excitement upon joining the CPC, written down in red characters, also moved me to tears,” Liu mentioned.
Liu firmly believes that these things have the facility to cross on to future generations the spirit of self-reliance and ease that characterised the older technology in the course of the revolutionary interval. “The spirit is far more precious than material wealth,” he mentioned.
Although Liu’s museum struggles to make ends meet, regardless of authorities subsidies, he’s extra involved with its social impacts. “As more and more people have come here and gained inspiration, I have decided to carry on,” he mentioned.