Lianda and the Long March
This article recounts the 1938 'Long March' of students and faculty from three elite Chinese universities who relocated to the mountains to escape the Japanese invasion. It explores the historical significance of this journey, comparing it to other mass movements and highlighting the role of early 20th-century infrastructure.
Why it matters
It provides a historical perspective on Chinese academic resilience and the intersection of wartime survival with cultural and social development.
In 2018 , former journalist Yang Xiao walked 1,000 miles from Changsha to Kunming. He was following a trek taken by hundreds students and a few adventurous faculty of three elite Chinese universities in 1938. In the face of the Japanese invasion, they united into one school (Lianda, 臨大, a shorthand for Provisional University) and moved their campus deep into the mountains of southern China.
The content is a historical narrative focused on academic and social history without political bias.
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