From the Japan-occupied Manchuria period till today, Li Lianju, a 83-year-old
man of Tieling city, northeast China's Liaoning
Province recorded 66 Spring
Festivals he spent in diaries, which not only record his uncommon
experience, but also China's social changes in the 66 years.
Li Lianju was born in Yangqiao village, Shulan County, Jilin
Province in 1924. He began to keep diary when he was 16, and recorded his
experience during the 66 Spring Festivals in his diary.
During the Japan-occupied Manchuria period, farmers had to surrender their
rice to Japanese soldiers. If villagers were found eating rice, they would be
punished as economic criminals, said the old man.
On the 1941's Spring Festival, he wrote in his diary "January 26 is the eve
of the lunar year. We children should say Happy New Year to elders. Although I
am a college student, I also need to kowtow
to seniors. What made me happier is my family bought some polished round-grained
rice.I ate some without being seen by others".
Recalling the past, he said they had to hide the residues in order to escape
the supervision by Japanese and police. His mother worried about this for
several days.
When the war became fiercer, food and other materials were in shortage. Li
wrote on his diary on February 3, 1945 "We do not have adequate food and
materials this Spring Festival; things are very expensive, even if we pay higher
price, we cannot get things because those materials have been sent to the front
for the army".
After China declared victory over Japan, Li Lianju joined the army in March,
1946. Ever joining the Liaoning-Shenyang
Campaign, Pingjin Military Campaign, the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid
Korea, he spent nine Spring Festivals on the battlefield since then.
In 1951, he was sent to west Hunan
Province to fight against bandits and on that year's Spring Festival, he
wrote "So far, I have spent five Spring Festivals in the army. Although I have
been accustomed to such life, I know my parents and wife must miss me very much,
especially I am the only child in my family, but as a soldier, I may lose life
at any time. I wish my parents good health and long life".
On the Spring Festival of 1953 when Li Lianju was on the battlefield of the
War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea, he wrote on the day "on the morning
of February 14, this year's Spring Festival, enemy soldiers fired more
cannonballs. They are like fireworks".
In 1954, Li Lianju's soldier life was over. After that, he served as
secretary of family planning committee of his county and retired in 1984.
After retirement, his kept writing his diary.
"On February 16, 1984, on the eve of the Spring Festival, I applaud for the
song My Chinese Heart broadcasted on the Spring Festival Party held by China's
Central Television Station because the song mirrors Hong
Kong and Taiwan
compatriots' love for the motherland", he wrote.
In mid 1990s he had a new goal-to do a good thing each Spring Festival. He
wrote a poem in his diary in 2001 "Although seventy years old, my road ahead is
not ended. Being a kind person, smile will accompany me forever".
Old Li said he will continue writing his diary.
Editor: Joey
