Young footsteps echo the Long March

Standing before a display case at a museum in Yudu county, Jiangxi province, 23-year-old Zeng Yan read a letter written by a Red Army soldier nearly a century ago.

The letter's writer, Liu Xingfa, was just 19. In the letter, he repeatedly reassured his family that he was safe and well, concealing the hardships he was enduring amid the fighting at the time.

After reading it, Zeng wrote a reply from the perspective of a young person today. She told Liu that China had changed profoundly, that people now lived in peace and that his sacrifice had not been forgotten.

"The letter was not only meant to comfort a fallen soldier," Zeng said. "It also reminded me that I cannot simply be moved by his story and leave it at that."

The exchange across time was part of a five-day journey undertaken by 11 students from the School of Marxism at Jinggangshan University. From July 2 to 6, they traveled through Ningdu, Yudu, Shicheng and Guangchang in Jiangxi province, as well as Jianning in Fujian province, retracing the footsteps of young Red Army soldiers before and during the Long March (1934-36).

According to Li Qiong, the team's instructor and a teacher at the university, the journey was intended to create a dialogue between young people from two different eras.

"The young soldiers were about the same age as my students," Li said.

"I hoped the students could experience history in a more personal way by reflecting on their own choices and responsibilities," she added.

The year 2026 marks the 90th anniversary of the victory of the Long March. In October 1934, the Central Red Army began a strategic transfer to break through Kuomintang's encirclement.

The university program focused on the Young Communist International Division, a special Red Army unit established in Bosheng county (present-day Ningdu county) in 1933. Composed mainly of young soldiers, the division had an average age of just 18.

During the Long March, it carried out missions including protecting the main force and serving as the rear guard. The unit suffered heavy casualties during the Battle of the Xiangjiang River in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region in 1934, and its remaining troops were later incorporated into other Red Army units.

He Xin, 24, who led the student team, was born in Ningdu but had never visited the historical sites associated with the division.

Standing on a former racecourse where the unit was established, she found herself looking back 93 years.

"Many people that age today are sitting in classrooms, while those young soldiers had to take up arms to defend their homeland," He said.

"We share the same youth. Standing there, I suddenly felt that the distance between history and the present had disappeared," she continued.