Society

In 'red' refuge, spirits live, cadres dance

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-06-20 16:45

YAN'AN, Shaanxi - When they wave red silk ribbons and swing their bodies to music played by drums and trumpets in this hinterland city, communist cadres, mostly in mid-life and some with bulging bellies, are told to re-experience through dance the spirit of a bygone era.

They are cadre trainees at China Executive Leadership Academy, Yan'an, a key training school established by Communist Party of China (CPC) six years ago. The Yangge dance they learn to perform, together with morale-raising revolutionary songs and Mao Zedong's wartime articles, are part of the school's curriculum dubbed "passion education", designed to rekindle their revolutionary spirits and proletarian principles in Yan'an, a red base of Chinese communism.

"Yangge dance strikes me with its passion and energy, something we can apply to our future work," trainee Chen Zhixue said, a bit out of breath from the dance the CPC adopted as a means to rally public support in the 1940s. "It is especially inspiring to look back at the revolutionary days in the lead-up to the 90th founding anniversary of CPC," Chen added. The Party will celebrate the anniversary on July 1.

Chen, President of China Tourism Newspaper, is receiving training with hundreds of officials, executives and military officers to enhance the their capabilities as party cadres. The school has trained more than 28,000 people since its founding in 2005.

Staying in 10-square-meter rooms and eating simple meals, cadres are required by school regulations to study without the help of secretaries and write their essays by themselves. More importantly, they are asked to "purify their souls" and "find mind-changing revelations" during their study in the place where Chinese communists persevered for 13 years despite significant hardship.

In 1935, communist troops ended their Long March near Yan'an. The northwestern town, with its distinctive cave homes and yellow loess hills, was used as the main revolutionary base until 1948. From here, top Communist leaders including Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Liu Shaoqi and Zhu De - residing in caves and eating millet - gained public support and led their guerrilla force to victory over the Japanese and Kuomintang army. The communists considered Yan'an their spiritual home and stories of hardship, idealism and good governance were told and retold from generation to generation.