For three decades, Duan Shengkui has devoted himself to building a collection of artifacts that tell the story of Yunnan in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression
Over the past 30 years, Duan Shengkui has accumulated more than 100,000 items relevant to the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45), in a bid to raise awareness of a part of history that he believes deserves more attention.
Duan, a 53-year-old native of Tengchong, in the western part of Yunnan province, started his longtime collection with 200 pieces that he originally used as props while playing at being soldiers with his childhood friends.
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An oil painting depicting a war scene in 1944, when the Chinese army successfully took back Tengchong from Japanese occupation. |
“It was easy for us to find game props and costumes. There were real guns, helmets and military uniforms left over from the war period. Almost every household in our village kept some,” Duan says, adding that it was a popular pastime for rural children to play the “game of war” back then.
Duan’s hometown was one of the battlefields during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. His uncle, Duan Yueren, was a member of the Kuomintang party and headed one of the three famous anti-Japanese guerrilla units in Tengchong during the conflict.
From both his father and his grandfather, Duan learned about the heinous crimes committed by the Japanese army.
“I heard a lot of tragic stories about the villagers being brutally treated by the aggressors,” says Duan. In the early 1940s, more than 200 people from the local area were killed by Japanese troops after one of their officers was shot dead by the guerrillas, he says.
“It has always been my dream to ensure that more people know about the crimes committed by the Japanese aggressors in western Yunnan and the unwavering resistance of the Chinese people.”
While in high school, Duan was inspired by magazine articles about hobbies such as stamp collecting and decided that he would start collecting items related to the War of Resistance. Starting with the “game props” he already had, he began searching for all kinds of war relics.
At first, he exchanged items to get ones he wanted, while some people offered him artifacts for free, but eventually he started to spend money on his growing collection.
It was when Duan was in college that he started to research history behind items in his collection and was surprised to discover that his hometown’s part in the War of Resistance was not as widely known or as frequently recorded in historical materials as events that took place elsewhere.
“Few people, such as my classmates, were aware of it, which was a sharp contrast to the stories I heard,” Duan says.
Gradually, Duan had the idea to narrow his focus and collect more relevant items with a view to one day establishing a themed museum.
In the beginning, Duan primarily sought out military items used by the Japanese troops during the war, before he gradually realized that it was important to collect things used by the Chinese army and its international allies, such as the US “Flying Tigers”, to comprehensively and accurately reflect the war.
Duan started working for the local branch of Agricultural Bank of China in the mid-1980s, and he has used a large portion of his income to build his collection of war relics.
As well as extensively traveling through villages and towns in Tengchong to look for artifacts left over from the war period, he has even traveled to Japan, the United States, Myanmar and India to attend auctions in his bid to find suitable items to expand his collection.
Duan would carefully search for and verify each item before he’d decide whether to acquire it, and years of study and extensive reading have made him an expert. He can easily tell the difference between types of weapons and uniforms, among other things, and can accurately identify the factories and the year in which the items were produced.
In the eyes of Duan’s friend Ge Shuya, a local expert on the War of Resistance in western Yunnan, Duan’s limited income in the early years forms a sharp contrast with his rich collection now.
“He had to live a frugal life back then, but he didn’t balk at paying for relics he believed were important,” Ge says.
Spending almost all of his salary on his collection, Duan had to apply for loans in order to support his family. Later, Duan started collecting more valuable antique pieces that he could sell to repay his loans.
Duan estimates that, over the course of his 30 years of collecting, he has spent more than 30 million yuan ($4.3 million; 3.8 million euros; ￡3.4 million) collecting relics and items related to the War of Resistance in western Yunnan.
Despite the misunderstanding and doubts of others – and even being called “crazy” by people, including members of his own family – Duan says he doesn’t regret devoting himself to his collection.
“It’s about Tengchong’s history; it’s very important,” he says.
Eventually, after gathering enough items to exhibit, Duan was able to realize his dream in 2005 and establish a museum in Heshun, an ancient town in Tengchong. It opened with about 7,000 items on display, each carefully arranged according to Duan’s own ideas.
When someone asked Duan if he was trying to stir up hatred through his exhibition, Duan replied: “Hatred should be resolved, but memory and history must be preserved forever. A nation without awareness of its history and struggle is dangerous. I spent half of my life doing this to alert every citizen.”
In addition to continuing his search for relics, Duan is eager to record the stories of old soldiers who fought in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. According Duan, while the relics are physical evidence, the surviving soldiers’ narrations are more vivid and a valuable historical record. Unfortunately, he notes, they are a rapidly diminishing resource and are far more difficult to collect.
Li Yingqing in Kunming contributed to this story.
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Duan Shengkui says, a nation without awareness of its history and struggle is dangerous. He has spent half of his life doing this to alert every citizen. Photos by Liu Xiangrui / China Daily |
(China Daily European Weekly 12/07/2018 page20)