Youth discover Long March legacy

Before visiting China, 23-year-old Vietnamese student Ma Thi Diem Huong knew the Long March (1934-36) mainly as a phrase from history books. She understood little of what its spirit meant. But after experiencing an immersive performance in Guizhou province, a chapter of Chinese history seemed to move from the page into something she could feel and understand.

"If I had only known it through words, I would never have felt the Long March so close to my heart," Ma said.

Ma was among more than 40 young people, experts and media representatives from China and Vietnam who took part in the 2026 China-Vietnam Youth International Communication Event, held in Guizhou from Sept 17 to 21.

The five-day program took participants to sites associated with the Long March while also offering a look at contemporary China through visits focused on technology, industry and rural development.

For Ma, the journey into Chinese history began at the Guizhou Long March Culture Digital Art Museum, known as the "Red Banderole", a Red culture-themed immersive venue in Guiyang, Guizhou.

There, holographic projections brought the faces of Red Army soldiers who took part in the Long March into view. As Ma tried to make out the images more clearly, actors portraying Red Army soldiers quietly appeared beside her.

Some crawled across the ground to recreate the harsh conditions faced during the Long March, while others unfurled a flag symbolizing victory and passed it over the heads of Ma and other audience members.

One scene in particular transformed Ma's curiosity into a deeper emotional understanding of the Long March.

In a re-creation of the Battle of the Xiangjiang River, one of the bloodiest and most costly battles of the Long March, Ma watched young Red Army soldiers — some her age or even younger — press forward as comrades fell around them.

For Ma, their decision to keep moving despite the danger gave concrete meaning to a spirit she had previously encountered only in books.

"Now I can finally understand why the Long March is called the journey of greatness," she said.

The experience also led Ma to think about how new forms of storytelling can make distant history more accessible to people from different cultural backgrounds.

Through immersive technology, live performance and historical re-creation, she said, a story that had once felt abstract became immediate and memorable.

"An immersive Long March story is really like a hook, sparking curiosity about Chinese history in people from different cultural backgrounds," she said.