(From "post-90s" to "post-90s", the voice of peace will last forever) Volunteer Kong Peiwen: Youth should face the pain of war and will also meet the warmth of peace
Chinanews.com, Nanjing, December 9th, title: (From "post-90s" to "post-90s, the voice of peace will last forever) Volunteer Kong Peiwen: Youth should face the pain of war and will also meet the warmth of peace
China News Service reporter Shen Ran
"Grandma Xia Shuqin, Grandma Xia Zhiying, Grandpa Li Gaoshan, Grandpa Ge Daorong...every time I have contact with these old people, I always feel distressed. She (them) are very similar to ordinary grandparents but not so much. Those who showed the most serious wounds of the war but showed a warmer side."
Kong Peiwen, who is only 23 years old, has been a volunteer at the Memorial Hall of the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders for 5 years.
In the past five years, it is difficult for her to describe what she has changed, but she clearly feels her own changes in the "face-to-face" and "encounter."
A heart-warming message left by the family of the survivor's grandmother Xia.
Photo courtesy of interviewee
In 2015, as a new undergraduate student of Nanjing Xiaozhuang College, Kong Peiwen learned that the school has a volunteer explanation service team in the memorial hall that has served for more than 20 years.
"I think as a young man born and raised in Nanjing, I also have the responsibility to make some small contributions to the spread of this history."
Based on this original intention, Kong Peiwen joined the volunteer service team for five years. “The work includes the guide and explanation of the location, the fixed-point explanation in the venue, and the fixed-point explanation of the Liji Lane Pavilion."
Kong Peiwen and Grandma Xia's photo.
Photo courtesy of interviewee
"Explanation work is highly repetitive. Over time, young people will inevitably feel that they are wasting time and gaining nothing, and there will be situations where the team members are in a bad state of explanation. However, one thing has changed this situation." Kong Peiwen Say.
“In April 2017, volunteer Ronaldinho met a family during the explanation process and listened very carefully. After the explanation, one of the grandmothers came over and asked the team members for help. Could you find the footprints of her lover? At this time, everyone knew that this family was the family of the old survivor.” Kong Peiwen recalled. With the help of Ronaldinho and other team members, the grandma finally found the footprints of her wife.
"The family left quietly after the visit. Before leaving, the grandmother's daughter wrote a message in a blank space on the explanatory paper."
The warm grandma Xia became the most beautiful encounter in volunteer work, and it became the motivation for the young children to keep going.
Photo courtesy of interviewee
The content of the message is like this: Thank you Ronaldinho for his patience, meticulous, and considerate explanation, care and care.
Ronaldinho has been accompanying 92-year-old grandmother Xia Zhiying and her children to find the footprints of his wife and children, and found the name of his big brother Wang Hualin on the crying wall.
Thank you Ronaldinho for your company along the way.
After seeing this, Kong Peiwen took this message and put it in the volunteer service group. "Some of the team members who were clamoring to leave at that time never mentioned leaving the team. And this message became our volunteer team's 'Heirloom', almost every new player who joins it will be moved after seeing it."
Kong Peiwen as a volunteer to explain.
Photo courtesy of interviewee
There was a warm follow-up to this unintentional encounter, "Later everyone thought about visiting Grandma Xia, but when they left, they didn’t leave any contact information, only a photo beside the footprints of the survivor’s old man. It took me more than an hour to compare the footprints one by one on the bronze road of the memorial hall, and finally confirmed the footprints and found the contact information related to the footprints, only to find that the owner of the footprints, Wang Huazhi, had passed away a few years ago. "Kong Peiwen recalled, "In the several attempts to contact, all because of Grandma Xia's advanced age, her family rejected us."
"Later, when Grandma Xia learned that she was an explanation volunteer at the memorial, she said to her son,'Let them come, they are all good children doing good deeds'." Kong Peiwen always remembered that she went to visit on December 20, 2017 When Grandma Xia said, "Grandma Xia has been holding our hand and saying,'It's better to be at peace, thank you for coming to see me'."
Facing the pain of war, I also met the warmth of peace.
Kong Peiwen's youth has solid roots and splendid flowers.
Photo by Shen Ran
"In fact, it is us who should say thank you. Thank you grandma for letting us know how meaningful our persistence is." Until today, the friends of the volunteer team regard the encounter with Grandma Xia as the most beautiful job in this job. meet.
"It is this and other'meeting' time and time again that made me persist in volunteer work for 5 years." This job has also deeply changed her.
"It was okay when I was in charge of the location explanation. Later, I went to the Liji Lane branch library. Every day I was in the place where the comfort women suffered. I faced the pain of the war and felt very uncomfortable." Kong Peiwen in an event, and the documentary " "22" director Guo Ke talked about this psychological discomfort, "He told me that this section of history should be carefully watched, listened to, told, and overcome all kinds of grief, and then treat the survivors as his relatives. If you get close, you will feel closer to this period of history."
In the constant approach, the young and kind girl changed and grew up.
"The eyes of the old people always make me feel distressed, with stubbornness, sadness, warmth and many complicated and indescribable emotions. In contact with the old people, I feel that I have become more careful, more patient, and more loving. Our country is now. I also truly realize that the trauma caused by war is not limited to the moment of war, but the pain caused to a person, a family, a city, and even a country."
This job also affects Kong Peiwen’s future plans, “I have never known how to describe'peace', but after hearing an international volunteer's words, I think I have found the answer: peace is when firecrackers sound, everyone No longer feel fear. Soon I am going to study in the UK. When I get there, I want to pass this history to more people in the form of exhibitions, documentaries, songs, etc. through my major, and call on everyone to join in. Come to the team that cherishes peace." (End)