Nearly 60 years old, riddled with injuries, and leaning on a cane, she followed in her father’s footsteps to retrace the Long March. Shanghai history teacher Deng Yuping has been shortlisted for the “China Good People List”! Today, reporters learned from the Pudong New Area Civilization Office that among the monthly selections of the “China Good People List,” Deng Yuping’s moving story of retracing the Red Army’s Long March has left a deep impression.
Embodying the Long March in person
Experiencing history firsthand
“My father, Deng Zhiyun, joined the Long March when he was just 12. As my three siblings and I were growing up, what he talked about the most was the Long March.” During the summer vacation of 2004, Deng Yuping made up her mind: “I’ve studied and taught history all my life. Why not experience it myself and show my students firsthand what the Long March was really like?”
Despite knowing she suffered from severe kidney disease and serious hypertension, her family gave her their full support: her mother packed her bags, and her brother even accompanied her for a week during her first Long March. “If we can’t move forward ten or even one meter at a time, we’ll push ahead one centimeter at a time.”
Beside the road, under trees, halfway up the mountain
Lie the Red Army soldiers who rest in peace
Over the course of 12 years, she retraced the Long March routes of the First Front Army, Second Front Army, Fourth Front Army, Twenty-Fifth Army, and the Red Army’s Northern Expedition Advance Team nine times, covering over 100,000 kilometers. In July 2012, she set out on her ninth Long March, walking across grasslands at an altitude of 3,700 meters. She said: “I finally understood what my father meant when he said, ‘The brothers who rested their backs against each other one day wouldn’t get up the next.’”
Deng Yuping emotionally recalled the more than 30,000 Red Army graves she has visited: there are countless Red Army graves along the Long March—beside roads, under trees, halfway up mountains, and at mountaintops… The largest cemetery is the Chuanxia Red Army Martyrs’ Cemetery in Tongjiang, Sichuan, which was once a Red Army hospital and now holds the remains of 25,048 Red Army soldiers. Deng Yuping said: “They were all young people in their teens or twenties, who sacrificed their young lives for our today!”
Deng Yuping told reporters that this summer, she will embark on her tenth Long March, setting out from Shanghai into the Dabie Mountains to retrace the route taken by the Fourth Front Army as they entered Sichuan.
Background information
The “China Good People List” is an activity hosted by the Central Civilization Office and organized by China Civilization Network, under the initiative “I Recommend, I Evaluate Good People Around Me.” It is divided into five categories: “Helpfulness,” “Bravery,” “Honesty and Trustworthiness,” “Dedication,” and “Filial Piety and Love.” After online voting from the 6th to the 25th of each month, the selected list is announced on the last day of the month or early the following month.