The year 1949 was a historical turning point for the Communist Party of China and the military troops it led. From the peaceful transfer of Beijing on January 31 to the Founding Ceremony of PRC, people witnessed the birth of a brand-new national regime. For those photographers with cameras in their hands, they had much deeper impressions on a series of historic events. This group of photos respectively showed that the People’s Liberation Army entered Beijing on February 3, 1949; Mao Zedong, Zhu De and other leaders reviewed troops on Xiyuan Airport on March 25, 1949; and troops participated in the founding ceremony.

Ceremony of Entering Beijing City
On January 22, 1949, Fu Zuoyi signed the Agreement on Peaceful Settlement of Beijing Issue and made a radio address. On January 31 the agreement came into force, indicating Beijing’s peaceful liberation. Considering it was around the Spring Festival, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army decided to enter and tool over the control of Beijing on February 3. At 10 in the morning that day, the ceremony began with troops entering from the Yongding Gate. Streets of the city were crowded with workers, citizens, students and people from other circles. Huge crowds of people gathered in Qianmen Street. Representatives from the General Committee of Beijing-Tianjin Campaign Frontier, Beijing Municipal Committee, Military Management Committee and Fu Zuoyi’s Beijing Associated Office stepped on the Zhengyang Gate and reviewed the troops. Photographers including Gao Fan, Gao Liang, Yang Zhenya, Meng Zhaorui, Li Fupei, Sun Piyong, and Zhang Zudao.

Military Parade at Xiyuan Airport
On March 23, 1949, Mao Zedong led the CPC Central Committee and the PLA headquarters to march towards Beijing from Xibaipo. They arrived at Beijing on March 25, and inspected the military parade in the afternoon at Xiyuan Airport. The parade was mainly from Division 41, the elite troops of the Fourth Field Army. Mao Zedong who wore a cotton-padded coat and an army cap stood with Zhu De on a jeep, waved their hands and saluted to the troops. This parade, which did not have a march-past, was the only parade during the Chinese War of Liberation (1945-1949). Gao Fan, then deputy director of the North China Pictorial, was the only photographer report at the parade. Sha Fei, the director of the Pictorial did not attend the event because he was detained in Shijiazhuang for illness.

Founding Ceremony of the People’s Republic of China
The people’s Republic of China was founded on October 1, 1949. The North China Pictorial took charge of organizing and coordinating the photography reporting of the ceremony. Photographers for the ceremony included Shi Shaohua, Wu Qun, Lin Yang, Chen Zhengqing, Yang Zhenya, Song Beiheng, Hong Feng, Bi Shenzhong, Gao Liang, Zhang Li, Xiong Zhixing, Hou Bo, Luo Guangda, and Meng Zhaorui. Meng Zhaorui, only 19 years old, kept taking pictures nonstop during the whole process lasting over two hours. He took pictures about the military music band playing the national anthem, the grand scene on the Tian’anmen Square, the cheering people and the grand parade.

These critical historic events which made the participants so excited had become political rites for the newly founded regime. Before the rise of modern media such as television and internet, these classical images have continuously enhanced people’s sense of identity for the new regime from the aspect of culture by influencing their feelings and concepts and forming their basic sense of order. It seems today that these grand military rites perfectly displayed the aesthetic features of revolutionary heroism. Both the photographers and people who were photographed were melted into a collective memory of pride, glory and enthusiasm, which has become an epitome of the era.

(Edited by Su Wenxiang, Xu Chongbao, Huang Si, 2015)