Song Zhenzhong

Song was born on 15 March 1941 in Xi'an, Shaanxi, to Song Qiyun and Xu Linxia,^[2] two members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) who had married in 1928.^[3] A former journalist reporting to General Yang Hucheng, Song Qiyun had edited the Northwest Cultural Daily and spoken against the direction of the Kuomintang (KMT) government under Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. Xu Linxia, meanwhile, had led the women's branch of the CCP in Pi County, Jiangsu.^[4] Amidst the tensions remaining from the Chinese Civil War and the ongoing Sino-Japanese War, the family had sent two daughters to live with family in Pi, while Xu and the other five children moved to Puyang Village outside Xi'an.^[3]

After two months without communication from Song Qiyun, in November 1941 Xu Linxia took the eight-month old Song Zhenzhong to Chongqing after hearing that he was awaiting them in the city.^[5] There, the two were captured by the KMT. Over the next seven years, mother and son moved between internment camps.^[3] At the Xifeng concentration camp in Xifeng County, Guizhou, they reconnected with Song Qiyun; he had also been captured, and Director Zhou Yanghao [zh] had been petitioned to allow the family contact by the secret CCP cell under Luo Shiwen.^[6] Hunger strikes later allowed for an education for Song, with Huang Xiansheng [zh] acting as teacher.^[3]

As he aged, Song was nicknamed "Little Radish Head" due to his large head and emaciated frame.^[7] The Xifeng concentration camp was closed in 1946, and Song was transferred with his family to Chongqing. There, due to his youth, he was allowed high levels of mobility. Consequently, fellow inmate Mei Hanzhang recalled that he was often entrusted with passing messages between prisoners.^[3] In his memoirs, Han Zidong [zh] wrote that Song had brought him bags and clothes sewn by Xu, which Han subsequently used during his escape.^[4]

In an interview with the China News Service, Song Zhenzhong's eldest brother Zhenhua recalled that the siblings' first correspondence with their incarcerated family was a letter received in 1947, at which point the Songs had been moved to Ciqikou, Chongqing. Correspondence continued until the Lunar New Year of 1949, with one letter including the words "brother" and "sister" written by Song Zhenzhong. In her last letter, Xu Linxia indicated that Song Qiyun and Yang Hucheng had travelled to Guiyang, and that she and the youngest Song would be following.^[3]

With the Chinese Civil War approaching its end, Song Qiyun, Wu Linxia, and Song Zhenzhong were executed by the KMT in Geleshan on 6 September 1949; this was announced by the Central Committee of the CCP in a letter of condolence published in newspapers two months later.^[3] In 1950, they were reinterred at the General Yang Hucheng Cemetery in Chang'an District, Xi'an.^[8] Their graves occupy three spots on the bottom of this two-storey site; the top level is occupied by the graves of Yang Hucheng, his wife Xie Baozhen and their daughter Yang Zhenggui (buried together), and their son Yang Zhengzhong.^[9]

Song has been identified as the youngest martyr of the CCP. He is one of several youths given the title of martyr. Others included Liu Hulan, who inspired Mao Zedong's slogan "A great life, a glorious death";^[a] Liu Wenxue [zh], who was killed by a landlord whom he caught stealing crops;^[1] and Wang Erxiao [zh], a cowherd who detained advancing Japanese troops long enough for his peers to escape.^[10]

Song's story was incorporated into Luo Guangbin and Yang Yiyan's 1961 novel Red Crag,^[1] in which he is depicted as a cute and spry child who yearns to live freely after being raised in prison.^[11] In subsequent years, "Little Radish Head" became a household name.^[1] His surviving sister Song Zhensu published a story, My Brother, Little Radish Head (我的弟弟"小萝卜头"), in 1964. Presenting Song as a child intent on learning communist values from other inmates, it portrays him as learning to hate the KMT and desire their eradication.^[11] Also that year, the novel Red Crag was adapted to film as Eternity in Flames (烈火中永生); Song was portrayed by the child actress Fang Shu, who remained identified with the role into the 1990s.^[12]

Li Linying's novel Little Radish Head (小蘿蔔頭) and Zhou Mi's film script Little Radish Fantasy Poem (小萝卜头幻想诗, 1984) both present Song as an innocent child trapped by his repressive internment.^[11] In 1996, Xue Jiatai published a biography of Song targeted at younger readers. Intended as a means of political education, the book presents its depiction of Song's suffering and death as a dark moment before the dawn of the People's Republic of China. A dramatic stage adaptation by Liu Qinglai, drawing from Red Crag and My Brother, Little Radish Head, was produced later that decade.^[11] The Yunnan Arts Institute made a musical based on Song's life in 2019.^[13] A three-part documentary on Song's life was screened by CCTV-4 on 30 May 2018 to commemorate National Children's Day.^[14]

Song is commemorated with his father and mother with the Xiaoluotou Memorial Hall in Pizhou, Xuzhou, Jiangsu.^[15] Constructed between 2003 and 2005, this hall is used for political education, with students asked to compare their lives with that of Song Zhenzhong.^[16] It covers 2,160 square metres (23,300 sq ft), with exhibitions including photographs as well as artefacts belonging to the family.^[7] The General Yang Hucheng Cemetery, a tourist attraction that has received a rating of 3A, is regularly visited by schoolchildren who clean the tombs. In front of Song's tomb is a large pomegranate tree, planted by his sister Song Zhenping in 1984, upon which children drape their red scarves after doing a Young Pioneers salute; the state-published People's Daily describes it as "a link between future generations and the martyrs."^[b][8] Statues of the Song family have been erected at their execution site, with that of Song Zhenzhong often draped in red scarves.^[3]