{"id":161,"date":"2011-07-26T17:51:12","date_gmt":"2011-07-26T17:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pieterblog.rdeman.nl\/?p=161"},"modified":"2020-01-19T15:42:23","modified_gmt":"2020-01-19T15:42:23","slug":"jinpings-war-cemetery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pieterblog.rdeman.nl\/?p=161","title":{"rendered":"Jinping’s War Cemetery"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This second time, under the watchful eye of the camera, we aren\u2019t as \nreverent. We mostly wonder what we will look like, even though the \ncamera woman has told us we will feature for just three seconds in her \nwebsite documentary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We had come earlier in the day, the gardener had unlocked the gate. \nWe had climbed the stairs through the ranks of the fallen in the 1979 \nwar with neighbouring Vietnam. Higher up on the hill, in the oldest part\n of the cemetery where those who died in the revolutionary war lay \nburied, mister Li had approached us. He pointed out the tombstones from \n1950. Mao had declared this country the People\u2019s Republic of China \nin1949, and the war had been won 99 per cent. But in these far-off parts\n the Kuomintang still resisted. He told us about the 18 year young girl \nfrom a nearby village. She was beaten, raped by 20 men and killed. Every\n war produces its own horror stories. He said he still couldn\u2019t relate \nthis without being moved. There was nothing trite about him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dead are commemorated once a year. Not on a day that marks the end of a war, not with pomp and circumstance. But on Qingming, the day in April when the Chinese traditionally commemorate their deceased family members, clean their graves, clear the weeds. Many still come. Mister Li administers a fund that refunds travel expenses to those who have trouble covering their own \u2013 some come from as far away as the Northeast, 5.000 kilometres from Jinping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

It is called, somewhat belligerent and heroic, Jinping\u2019s Cemetery of \nthe Martyrs. But it is a peaceful place, shaded by trees, the gardener \nsweeps leaves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just back in the hotel they contact us. The management invites us for\n dinner. And they would like to shoot some video of us. That will become\n those three seconds that introduce as \u2018visitors from far and wide\u2019.*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They have put a long table in an empty space of the cemetery. Dishes \nare being served. There is beer. Mister Li soon is inebriated and more \ncheerful than in the afternoon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We get the official numbers and stories. 768 men lay buried here. In \n1979 the Chinese entered Vietnam no more than 70 kilometres. Once the \nVietnamese pulled back one of their armies from Cambodia, China withdrew\n from Vietnam. The Chinese had attacked Vietnam in response to Vietnam\u2019s\n invasion of Cambodia that toppled the Khmer Rouge regime.**<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But then our camera woman, who is doing the briefing, changes course.\n She stresses that the Chinese and the Vietnamese people are friends. \nThese days in Jinping county they walk across each other\u2019s border. It \nwas a conflict at government level. Just as the current tensions between\n China and Vietnam over islands in the South China Sea that both \ncountries claim are a problem between governments, not between the \npeople.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No unpleasant traces of nationalism run among the people who run this place. Their focus is on the human cost of war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

* The cemetery\u2019s website is www.jplsly.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

** For a complete and objective overview of these events see Nayan Chanda, Brother Enemy, The War After the War<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This second time, under the watchful eye of the camera, we aren\u2019t as reverent. We mostly wonder what we will look like, even though the camera woman has told us we will feature for just three seconds in her website documentary. We had come earlier in the day, the gardener had unlocked the gate. We … Continue reading “Jinping’s War Cemetery”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chin-eng"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pieterblog.rdeman.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pieterblog.rdeman.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pieterblog.rdeman.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pieterblog.rdeman.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pieterblog.rdeman.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=161"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pieterblog.rdeman.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":188,"href":"https:\/\/pieterblog.rdeman.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161\/revisions\/188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pieterblog.rdeman.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pieterblog.rdeman.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pieterblog.rdeman.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}