Yuhua Tai Museum [Nanjing]

Yuhua Tai (meaning Rain Flower Terrace) is a grand memorial complex and forested park located in the south of Nanjing. Although several historic pagodas and ancient tombs lie around the edges of the park, its centerpiece and highlight is a grand and remarkably moving series of memorials to political prisoners executed here in the 1930's and 40's. The entire complex one of the finest examples of Socialist Realist monumental architecture in China. In addition to its unique atmosphere and style, it is very effective in conveying the tragedy and loss of the persecutions of those decades. The area's original name came from the legend of a Buddhist monk who preached so eloquently that the sky rained flowers in appreciation.

However, in the 1930's the Nationalist government turned the area into prison and execution ground for political prisoners. Several thousand Communists, social activists, dissidents and other enemies of the government were executed here.Just inside the entrance is the most famous part of the memorial, a colossal stone carving showing a group of prisoners definitely facing execution. The busts and torsos of the martyrs gradually emerge from the rough stone base, making them more of a single statue of many people than a group of statues.

The statues are backed by a thick grove of dark pines, contrasting with the gray stone. The monumental scale of the statue and the intense determination of the roughly carved faces have made it a symbol of the memorial. Paths lead through groves of trees to the main part of the memorial. A superb example of Chinese socialist realism, its center is a
long rectangular courtyard paved with gray stone. At one end rises a huge memorial stele to those executed rises rises, with a eternal flame and a grand statue of a prisoner breaking his chains at the base. The stele is mirrored in the lightly rippling waters of a long reflecting pool. At the head of the pool is a wall carved with the musical score of the
Internationale, the original Communist anthem. The lyrics are etched in Chinese and all the languages of China's minorities, from the squiggly letters of Thai to the harsh angular Tibetan symbols to the arcane ideograms of Manchu and Mongolian. All along the stone paved plaza are a series of reliefs illustrating the revolutionary struggle.

At the far end of the courtyard sits the imposing museum in honor of the martyrs. In contrast the grandeur and ideology of the rest of the complex, the exhibits of the museum are a remarkably moving illustration of human loss. Exhibits introduce the life, character, and accomplishments of the prisoners who died here. They go beyond basic biography to show those killed as individuals, not just heroic martyrs. Grainy black and white photos of friends at a scenic spot, amateur paintings, university report
cards, and the embroidery of female prisoners all hint at their unique personalities and make their untimely deaths more moving and tragic.