陈列馆英语讲解词

中国甲午战争博物院陈列馆讲解词Good Morning, Ladies and gentlemen,Welcome to the Exhibition Hall of the Museum of Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895. The exhibition hall covers a floor area of ten thousand square meters and its building area of is about 8,800 square meters. This is a comprehensive exhibition hall that fully displays the history of Sino-Japanese War.The building, designed by the Professor Peng Yigang, master architectural designer of China, creatively combines the main building, which signifies the vessel of the North Marine Navy, and the statue of a high-ranking military officer of the navy. The exhibition hall is praised as “the Chinese classical building during the 20th century“.The cast iron sculpture in the middle of the square, named as the soul of the sea,is the model of the vessel wreckage of the North Marine Navy. The exhibition hall has two levels, drawing a whole picture of the Sino-Japanese War with abundant cultural relic and historical material and data, and it is an important base for patriotic education.The relief sculpture on the peripheral part of the exhibition hall, called never forget the history of the Sino-Japanese War, displays the relative important figures and battles though artistic means, thus it has a strong sense of expression. Then, let’s get into the hall and get to know the history of this period.Ladies and gentlemen, we will then visit the Sino facts show, called National Grief of 1894-1895.The sequence hallThe bow-like sequence hall integrates with the sedimentary rocks background, which has a heavy sense of history.The failure of the Sino-Japanese War not only causes serious disaster to China, but also awakens the Chinese people. Just as what Liang Qicao, a famous politician in Modern Times of China, said before, “It is the Sino-Japanese War that awakens us who still indulge in the dream of the Celestial Empire.”Next, we will focus on the whole process of the War.China is an ocean power but the humiliation of modern china also starts from the collapse of coast defense. After the Opium War, the Qing Government realized the importance of building a modernized navy, and this also marks the beginning of the coast defense construction of modern China. Figures in the pictures are all the representatives of the Westernization Movement during Qing Dynasty. They claimed to learn advanced Western technology. Yi Xin, Prince Gong, the representative of the Westernization Movement in the central government, supported local representatives, such as Li Hongzhang, Zuo Zongtang and Zhang Zhidong, to build the modernized military industry.The Westernization Movement prospers the military industry and military education of modern China. In the middle of 19th century, the breechloadersreplaced the original old buggy rifles as the main military weaponry. Although they cannot put on a par with the modern weapons, they are much more advanced than the weapons used during the cold weapon age. Meanwhile, Chinese students were dispatched to Germany to learn artillery; Qing Government also bought advanced Krupp cannon—All those witnessed the development of modernization of modern Chinese military.The preparations were started in 1879 for the constitution of the North Marine Navy and finally in October 3rd, 1888, the promulgation of the Regulations of the North Marine Navy marked the establishment of the navy. When it was first constructed, the North Marine Navy owned 25 regular military naval vessels, which mostly bought from Britain and Germany. At that time, the strength of North Navy ranked the first in Asia and the forth in the world. Most of the high-ranking general officers of the navy had been abroad to receive advanced Western military education.Bases foundation acts as an important role in the development of the military forces. After careful investigation, the Qing Government built three bases—Dagu in Tianjin, Lvshun in Liaoning and Weihaiwei in Shantung Peninsula, a triangular defense system, to protect the capital and to fight against aggression.The North Marine Navy is the first standardized navy in modern China, which owns higher-educated general officers, excellent performance vessels and the tight defense base. But it is also such strong troop that was completely annihilated during the Sino-Japanese War. Why? Later, we will explain it to you.Japan, neighbor of China, developed fast and embarked on a road of militarism and overseas expansion. It made a policy of conquering China and finally dominating Asia and were carefully planned and prepared for this.Before the war broke out, Japanese government dispatched spies to make a comprehensive study of Chinese politics, economy, military forces and culture. It is said the Japanese spies can knew the exact location of a well which even the native Chinese didn’t know. Thus, we can see that this is a long-planned war of aggression against China. We see this is a series of plans of aggression drawn up by the Japanese. In order to put into action as soon as possible, Japan intensified the efforts to constitute the navy. Japanese, led by the Emperor, donated money to expand the navy. Meanwhile, in China, Qing government has stopped the continued development of the Navy. As the Empress Dowager Cixi diverted funds to build the Summer Palace and three Navy Sea Project, six years after constitution, the Northern Navy failed to add any equipment. In May, 1894, after reviewing the coast defense, Li Hongzhang issued a sighs worrying about the future. And just two months after that, the war broke out.From this map we know that it would be quite difficult for Japan to directly attack China from the sea. Then, Japan’s final strategy is to occupy Korea and then with Korea as a base and springboard, Japan continued to invade China.In the spring of 1894, taking the “Donghak Rebellion” uprising as an excuse, Japan invaded Korea. And then, Japan provoked war on the Toshima Sea. On August 1st, both sides, China and Japan, declared war against each other, the Sino-Japanese Warfinally broke out. This is the declaration of war edict of both countries. Pyongyang War is the first large scale confrontation between the Army after the outbreak of the Sino-battle. The Qing troops suffered heavy losses and retreat 500 Chinese miles through the Yalu River. Korea finally became the bases and springboard for Japan to invade China.The Sino-Japanese War includes naval battles, land battles and the battles with naval and ground forces working together. Many patriotic generals emerged during the war. This is Zuo Baogui, the representative of the Army, is the first high-level general officers sacrificing his life for the motherland in the Sino-War. During the war, wearing the yellow jacket bestowed by the emperor, he boarded Xuanwumen and commanded operations. After the gunner was killed, he took over his job and continued fighting against the enemy. Sadly, he was shot in the chest and died. He was only 57 at that time. Another representative of the navy is Chen Jingying. Before the wall broke out, he wrote a letter to his family. In his letter, he said, “As a soldier, I should totally devote myself to defending the country. Loyalty and filial piety cannot be achieved both since ancient times. All I could do is to serve the country.”After the war broke out, Chen Jingying went to the battlefield without hesitation. He died at the age of 32.Two days after the Battle of Pyongyang, the world-famous Yellow Sea Battle broke out on the Dadonggou territorial water outside the estuary of the Yalu River. Then, let’s step into the Demonstration Area of the Yellow Sea Battle.After the Yellow Sea Battle, the Japanese’s ambition of invasion exaggerated. After a month’s preparation, the Japanese military troops branched out into two columns and launch war of aggression against China. The first Japanese troop broke through Yalu River, the boundary of China and Korea, and stepped into the Chinese territory. Just on the same day, the second troop landed on Huayuankou of Liaoning and attacked Jinzhou of Lvshun under the cover of the navy. After occupying Jinzhou, the Japanese army committed rape, arson and murder and all kinds of evil. Here, we can see a really sorrowful story of 10 members of a family in Jinzhou drowning themselves in the well.At that time, a family, whose family name is Qu, lived in the southwest of Jinzhou. Seven female members of the family drew themselves into the well with three kids so as not to be insulted by the Japanese. The well is then called the “the Qu’s Well”. Jinzhou fell into enemy hands. After ten days of preparation, the Japanese army continued its invasion and attacked Lvshun. In just one day time, the so-called “the No.1 Far East Fort” Lvshun bases, which was painstakingly managed for 16 years by the Qing Government, was occupied by Japan. Then, after the occupation, the Japanese massacred the citizens and the massacre lasted for as long as three days and four nights. More than twenty thousands of Chinese citizens in Lvshun were murdered and only thirty-six survived. But these thirty-six citizens were left to bury the dead bodies. The Le Monde of America once criticized the brutal violence of Japanese army.“Japan has taken of the mask of civilization and revealed its real face of brutality.”After Lvshun fell into Japanese’s hands, the other military bases of LiaoningProvince also fell one after another. Then, the defensive system set in the southern part of Liaoning Province totally collapsed. The battle of Liaotung came to an end. After the Battle of Liaotung, Japan decided to enhance the strategy of attacking Shantung Peninsula, blocking the Bohai Sea Gulf, and finally annihilate North Marine Navy Fleet. On January 20th, 1895, they landed on Longxu Island of Rongcheng in the eastern part of Shantung Peninsula and launched a large scale invasion on Weihaiwei.This group of photos reappeared the scenes of the battle of safeguarding Weihaiwei.This is the statue of Ding Ruchang, prefect of the North Marine Navy. Ding, born in Lujiang, Anhui Province, is the first prefect of marine navy in the history of modern China. After being defeated, the Qing Government ordered to pluck the buttons (worn on Qing Dynasty officials' hats as a sign of rank), remove from the post, but still remain in office. During the battle of safeguarding Weihaiwei, Ding refused to surrender and asked Niu Changbing to invalid the jade seal of prefect of the North Marine Navy. At that night, he committed suicide in his living room. After his death, Niu Changbing drew up the capitulation on behalf of the prefect, and signed the Treaty of Weihai. After Ding’s death, the Government refused to endow any pension to his family. Besides, his corpse was even put on black prison garb and added three steel hoops outside his coffin, because “even dead, he was still guilty.”. His coffin was sent to his homeland but was not allowed to inter. It is not until 1910 that he regained his reputation and his family received pension.On February 17th1895, Japanese occupied Liugong Island and the North Marine Navy was completely annihilated. The captured Qing soldiers summed up to 5,137 and the captured vessels reached up to 11.The falling of Weihaiwei and the annihilation of North Marine Navy greatly stroke the Qing Government. This fastened the speed of surrender and finally they greed to sign the Treaty of Shimonoseki.The electron image projector of page turning reproduces the main content of the Treaty of Shimonoseki. And this reproduces the scene of negotiation of Chunfan House in Shimonoseki.According to the Treaty, the Qing Government has to compensate Japan 2,600 million tael of silver, which amounts to a total of more than three years of Qing Government’s revenue. Also, this large amount of money can constitute seven fleets with the same large scale of the North Marine Navy. It is 18 times more than the money embezzled by the Empress Dowager Cixi to constitute the Summer Palace. The huge sum of reparations strongly prospered the economy and military forces of Japan. Japan also tasted blood of war and then declared several times of wars against China.According to the Treaty of Shimonoseki, Taiwan was ceded to Japan, which infuriated the whole nation. Citizens in Taiwan acclaimed that “they would rather all die in the dust thus lose Taiwan, than surrender submissively”. They kept on fighting for more than four months under serious conditions without foreign aid. They killed more than 32,000 Japanese soldiers which amount to two times as manyas the Japanese casualties during the Sino-Japanese War. In the end, they failed and Taiwan was under the control of Japan for as long as 50 years. In 1945 after the victory of War of Resistance against Japan, Taiwan returned to the embrace of motherland.After the failure of Sino-Japanese War, the Werstern imperialist powers aroused the fanaticism of carving up China. Meanwhile, Liugong Island and Weihaiwei were forcibly leased by Britain. In 1925, Sir Wen Yiduo, the famous patriotic poet finished the song of seven sons, in which he metaphorized the seven places forcibly rented by the Western imperialist powers as seven sons taken away. These songs express the sadness of the sons roaming outside and being oppressed by different races. This is the fourth song, Weihaiwei.What the Sino-Japanese has told us is that “A country will be vulnerable to attack if lagging behind and will be ruined if corrupting”. History reminds us that we should learn the lesson and intensify the coast defenses so as to safeguard our territory.All has become the past. When looking back at history, we should be prepared for danger in times of safety and intensify the constitution of coast forces. Please be prepared.。