Heihe Educated Youth Museum

Heihe Educated Youth Museum

The Educated Youth Museum is situated in Aihui Town, Heihe City. The ruins of the ancient Aihui City are a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit and a provincial scenic area. The nearby Aihui Historical Exhibition Hall is one of the top ten national premium museums from the fifth batch and one of China’s hundred patriotic education bases. The site sees high foot traffic and offers good economic returns. Heihe City, where Aihui is located, was one of the areas in the province that received the largest number of educated youth during that time. They came from major cities and provinces such as Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Harbin, and Zhejiang, and were sent to production brigades, farms, forestry farms, and rural areas—making their representation highly diverse.

During those special years in the 1950s and 1960s, the Heihe region hosted tens of thousands of educated youth from across the country. Together with local farm workers and farmers, they participated in the construction of Heilongjiang's production efforts. It was here that role models among the educated youth, such as Jin Xunhua and Chen Jian, were cultivated, as well as notable figures like Nie Weiping, Xiao Fuxing, Liang Xiaosheng, Jiang Kun, Jiang Daming, and Pu Cunxin. To commemorate this important chapter of educated youth going up to the mountains and down to the countryside, and to present and preserve this history through museum exhibitions for audiences and future generations, to promote the Spirit of Beidahuang and Beidahuang culture, and to honor the educated youth who dedicated their youth to the black soil, our city began constructing the Educated Youth Museum in Aihui Town, Heihe City, starting in 2005.

The exhibits in the Educated Youth Museum are divided into six sections: Journey to Beidahuang, Shining Youth, Phoenix from the Fire, Bitter Memories, The Tide Recedes, and Bonds Across Two Places. In addition to text panels and photographs, the main forms of exhibition include paintings, dioramas, sculptures, and cultural relics.

This museum is the largest comprehensive Educated Youth Museum in the country, representing educated youth from various provinces and cities including Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Harbin, Zhejiang, and Sichuan, reflecting the experiences of 1.85 million educated youth across Heilongjiang Province at the time. The museum covers a total area of 90,000 square meters, with a total project investment of 37.9 million yuan.

The main feature of the Educated Youth Museum's exhibitions is their focus on real people and real events. The materials used are derived from publicly published texts, mostly memoirs written by the educated youth themselves. The exhibition targets mainly two groups: the first includes young voluntary reclamation teams from Beijing, Tianjin, Shandong, Harbin, and other places in the 1950s after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, up to the organized and planned educated youth movements before the Cultural Revolution; the second and more emphasized group consists of educated youth who went to Heilongjiang during the ten years of the Cultural Revolution. Each section of the exhibition appropriately considers the proportion of educated youth from different regions while serving the overall thematic needs.

The theme of the exhibition reflects how a generation of passionate youth, when called upon by the Party and the nation, unhesitatingly and resolutely shouldered historical responsibilities. They struggled against nature, the elements, and ultra-leftist policies, dedicating their youth and achieving indelible accomplishments, while also enduring great hardships. The educated youth formed deep bonds of solidarity and shared adversity with the vast number of rural cadres and masses. After returning to the cities, they embarked on a second venture driven by the fighting, striving, and unyielding spirit they had forged in Beidahuang.

Further Reading:

· National Second-Class Museum of China