Chen Guixiang. March 5, 2024. The news leaked to the news port in the evening, and the society mourned. People paused in regret and silence. Some people even used words too fiercely and were a little out of control. Some people just put down their phones silently and thought of other things. At the age of 99, people say this number very well, as if longevity has become a comfort. But the facts can't cover up her once witness of the Nanjing Massacre. How do you describe someone like her? Witness? But the life she lived was different from ours, and the people who crawled out of the quagmire of war were a little different.
Nanjing. December 1937. The outline of the city is still preserved in the depths of memory, but are those memories Chen Guixiang’s own? It is difficult to explain clearly at this moment. According to the information, she is just an ordinary person, with a small population in her family and her parents are there, but she is not particularly rich. When the Japanese army invaded the city, the situation had already lost control, and the streets and alleys were in chaos. Some people choose to escape, while others choose to hide, but few people dodge. Smoke emerged from the edge of the city, and many people couldn't escape. Chen Guixiang said that she didn't dare to shout at that time. Someone was lying in the mud, motionless, the house was demolished, the door panels were stolen, and it was useless to shout for help. How many people died? No one can accurately count. Data from the world shows that it may be as much as 300,000, or even less, but everyone's pain cannot be included in the numbers!
The rest of the people. Chen Guixiang is the group of undead people. She said she had just escaped by chance. After the war, she often recalled those days, some intermittently and some extremely clear. For example, she said: There is a pot of porridge at home, and everyone will eat it in the end. The Japanese army came in, pointed a gun at the head, and demanded that the man be handed over, but the woman did not escape in the end. She had seen the pile of corpses, and some people said it was fake. She wanted to refute it, but she was powerless. Rather than accusation, she was just protecting herself. Those memories are too heavy and it is difficult for the world to understand them all. Does anyone think she is exaggerating? In fact, many survivors are self-doubted, but the common thing is that they are all alive and tell about indigestion.
She survived and tried to make herself live like someone else. For decades, Chen Guixiang raised children, cooked and chatted with her old neighbors. The reporter found her and only asked how she survived that winter. She recalls many clips, but sometimes her voice trembles, some problems avoid, and some wounds cannot be revealed. After aging, Chen Guixiang chose to oral the story for the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall and recorded her own experience. Those recordings are still there, some people are willing to listen to them, while others feel that they are too long and too heavy. But whenever she heard someone ask, she gritted her teeth and continued to talk. Are these stories useful? Not everyone seems to care.
The identity of the survivor. Chen Guixiang actually did not deliberately emphasize her greatness. Instead, the connection between her and history in the eyes of others has been exaggerated to the extreme. She herself said that she didn't want to be asked about these things all the time. Can she change the topic? But some people think that her choice to speak is a responsibility. Is that right? It's hard to say. Her children and neighbors all have their own versions, sometimes they don’t match each other, and sometimes they can be put together. No one can guarantee 100% true. Authoritative data tells about the statistics of the Nanjing Massacre, the oral dependence of experienced people, the review of official information layer by layer, removing doubts, how much truth is left? Sometimes, the truth is just an echo!
The concerns from all walks of life are repeating every year, but people's emotional fluctuations are always sporadic. News of Chen Guixiang's death spread in 2024, and there were constant messages in the comment area, some hated the invaders, and some just wanted to mourn the elderly. The official memorial hall issued an announcement, which many people forwarded, and even many overseas Chinese re-mentioned the Nanjing incident. But after mourning, most people quickly return to their lives, which is actually quite realistic, right? Some people think that remembering history must be remembered, but in fact, most of the details must be left behind.
Chen Guixiang's life. Resistance is not her only label. She is her mother, a neighbor, a witness, but she is lucky enough to survive that catastrophe. She did not intend to be a core figure in history, nor did she say that she could influence the overall situation. Her understanding of peace is very simple, "no war." Someone asked her what she thought about the current society, and she said "it's OK". If you say too much, you are afraid of being misunderstood. You often take back your words when you say them. Once she said, "Those years were really hard." Later, she said, "It's not easy now." Her thoughts were inconsistent. Sometimes she felt that everyone was too persistent. Sometimes, she hoped that everyone could remember and not forget.
Some people think that commemoration adds new scars to the pain, while others think that is the only way to relieve it. On the anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre, the media interviews survivors, and Chen Guixiang is mentioned almost every year. Her story is constantly expanded, beautified, and even transformed. She has appeared on the Internet with her distorted "hero" image, which she personally does not recognize. She just told her own experience, but she was unwilling to be deified. The staff of the memorial hall said that Chen Guixiang was approachable, the reporter felt that she had a sense of distance, while young people sometimes felt that she was too far away from everyone else, but this was all the feelings of others.
History has never been truly objective, but only leaves traces in selective memory. The disaster in Nanjing not only caused death, but also left trauma. International media reported on the massacre, and some Japanese academic circles have been controversial in recent years, but authoritative data such as the United Nations still insist on the authenticity of details. There are more than 2,000 official archives of the Nanjing Massacre. Chen Guixiang’s story is just a tiny link. Most of the survivors have passed away, and the gap in history is getting bigger and bigger! In recent years, the data update of Nanjing Memorial Hall has been slow, and the database has been occasionally corrected, and some people have questioned the official statement.
How to commemorate it? Some people say that more education should be done, while others say that the pain should be downplayed. Chen Guixiang herself seems not very concerned about the "memorial". She just wants to explain clearly what kind of life she lived. "Just finish speaking," she said. Some netizens disagree and believe that survivors should continue to speak out. In fact, she also complained that too many commemorations only add to the burden on the world. Her psychological change curve is not absolute here, but it has a taste - she wants to be heard and occasionally longs to be forgotten.
The reality is that Chen Guixiang is gone. The 99-year-old body finally stopped, and people turned their attention to her experience, and all walks of life posted articles to commemorate her tenacity. An authoritative media released a long report, using her oral clips, which were supported by data and also had background explanations. Some readers noticed that the article did not deliberately raise her heroic image, but only presented her trivial life. She once publicly said that she was not a warrior, but an ordinary woman. But future generations will still give her more symbolic meaning, right?
There are always gaps in life. Chen Guixiang's generation witnesses left, and people say that they should "remember history", how much do they actually do? Whenever the popularity of this topic increases, it drops sharply the next day. This is actually very difficult to demand. The society is changing too fast, and young people even have no specific feelings about that history, and will only sigh a few words when the deceased dies. Memorial ceremonies in Nanjing are also common every year, sometimes in large scenes, sometimes only a few people attend. Should we all forget it occasionally?
Maybe the real "remembering" is not as simple as shouting slogans, nor is it constantly mourning. Those survivors - ordinary people like Chen Guixiang, recorded an important historical trajectory in their own way. There is no halo of big names, no sensational storyline. In today's society, such narratives will always be far or near. Her life has inspired some people and has also made others resist. In fact, there is no need to pursue perfect symmetry of meaning, right?
Chen Guixiang left, and people sighed. There are hot discussions in cyberspace, some people have put forward more commemorative suggestions, and some professional historical personnel have added archive content. Official data confirm that most of the details in Chen Guixiang's oral descriptions are completely consistent with the exact history, and some are inconsistent with the public's perception. Documentary edits her voice, sociologists "label" but most ordinary people are silent.
Those real history may not necessarily need to be restored. Her story remains. Chen Guixiang is one of the broken shadows in Nanjing. People remember her, but her memory will fade.
Everything is changing, and her name will occasionally be rapped - but do you think anyone really understands it now? The story stops here, but reality will continue.
