Today is August 1st Army Day, a holiday in China commemorating the founding of the People's Liberation Army (PLA). The date marks the anniversary of the Nanchang Uprising in 1927, the first military action fought against the Kuomintang.
Growing up in an army courtyard, our family felt especially privileged on this date when the local government organized activities that benefited the army and their families.
During my teenage years, there was a tendency in our courtyard to glorify army life, emphasizing heroism, camaraderie, adventure, bravery, and the honor of shouldering the lofty mission of defending the motherland. I even had a picture of myself taken in a borrowed army uniform.
I still remember reciting lines from Mulan: 将军百战死，壮士十年归 (Jiāng jūn bǎi zhàn sǐ, zhuàng shì shí nián guī), meaning: "A general may die in a hundred battles; a valiant soldier may return after ten years."
As time has passed, having experienced a long stretch of peace and witnessed secondhand the death, loss, cruelty and hardship caused by wars, I know there's nothing glamorous about army life. It's nothing but human sacrifice. I have come to appreciate peace above all.
In recent years, with the widespread and rapid media coverage of war-torn scenes, people all over the world should share the same aversion towards war.
War, whether in Iraq or Ukraine, no matter how governments brandish it, means the same thing for ordinary people: the sacrifice of their lives. On the other hand, it also means one thing for the rich: an opportunity to become even richer.
The world would enjoy more peace if more people saw the true nature of war and understood its devastating consequences, and more importantly refused to be part of the war machine.