Yan'an "September 1" Expanded Sports Meeting

From September 1 to 7, 1942, the "September 1" enlarged sports meeting was held in Yan'an. There were 1388 people taking part in the games, the largest number in the Red Base. The Games was initiated by Commander-in-Chief Zhu De, and Mao Zedong received some athletes. The "September 1" expanded sports meeting in Yan'an was the largest sports meeting in the Anti Japanese base area during the Anti Japanese War, which had a far-reaching impact on the construction of military and civilian sports in the base area.

On the occasion of the International Youth Day in September 1942, Commander-in-Chief Zhu De issued a call to strengthen the physical exercise of the people, in order to "support the cruel war against fascism and heavy revolutionary work", "extensively carry out national sports", "so that every citizen should have a strong physique in order to take on the heavy work of anti-Japanese war and national salvation and establish a free and happy new China". The Yan'an Youth Federation decided to hold the "International Youth Day Expanded Games" (also known as the Yan'an "September 1st" Expanded Games) from September 1st to 7th to test the performance of sports through sports conferences.

　　Be humble and run events frugally

After the news of the preparations for the sports meeting was issued, various agencies, schools, factories, and troops in Yan'an and even counties in the border area actively participated in registration and training. Every athlete hopes to show his skills at the sports meeting, and finally determined the total number of athletes participating in the sports meeting to be 1388, creating the largest number of people participating in the sports meeting in the revolutionary base area. All units attach great importance to and support the Games and urge the athletes to train.

On the occasion of the International Youth Day Expanded Games in Yan'an City, the 27th meeting of the Border Region Government decided to allocate 30000 yuan to subsidize the preparatory funds for the event. The total number of delegates from the counties in the border region to attend the enlarged games is set at 200. The delegates to Yan'an, except for accommodation and travel expenses, are all responsible by the counties themselves, and the government will allocate subsidies or subsidies. Prizes for the event have been collected from all parties since July 20, including medals, flags and more practical shoes and socks, soap, pen and ink, magazines and so on. Due to the limitations of the objective conditions at that time, the Preparatory Committee also made use of the original facilities to repair the original facilities and did not bear the funds of the athletes to run the Games to the maximum extent.

In Yan'an at that time, the problem of the competition venue was solved smoothly. There are two main venues for the Yan'an "September 1" Expanded Games, namely the Yan'an Dongguan Airport Stadium and the Cultural Gou Youth Stadium. Yan'an Dongguan Airport Stadium is located in the east of Yan'an City, for all units of training, sports use. In view of the good condition of the airport site, and few aircraft take-off and landing, it gradually evolved into the largest sports venue in the Yan'an period. For track and field, football events, the airport will be converted into sports venues more appropriate. Yan'an Cultural Gou Youth Stadium is located outside the north gate of Yan'an City. It was designed and built by Li Dao, the first director of Yan'an Sports Association, as early as 1940. Director Li designed and built a basketball court, two volleyball courts, an obstacle course, one for high jump, long jump, shot put, horizontal bars, parallel bars, rings, wooden horses, stone bears and stone locks. At the same time, a stand and a commander's desk were built using naturally occurring earth bags. The Youth Stadium was a more standardized stadium at that time, and it became the center of sports activities at that time since its construction.

There will also be a diving show at the Qingliangshan Yanhe diving platform. The diving platform was designed and built by Director Li, with a distance of 3 meters from the water surface and a depth of more than one person.

　　The men's 100 meters reached 12 seconds.

On September 1, 1942, the Yan'an International Youth Festival expanded sports meeting opened as scheduled. The Games lasted for seven days. The conference was grandly opened at the youth movement venue outside the north gate of Yan'an. The atmosphere was lively and the people of Yan'an came to participate in the opening of the event. In addition to the representative teams in the Yan'an area, there were also representative teams from Sanbian, Suide, and Mizhi. The 120 Division of the Eighth Route Army in northwestern Shanxi also sent a representative team to participate in the games. Representatives participating in the Games came from all walks of life and all ethnic groups, including workers, soldiers, government officials, school teachers and students, and literary and art workers; there were representatives of Korean, Mongolian, Hui, Miao, and Tibetan. There are also Japanese figures from the Anti-Fascist Alliance.

The athletes swore at the opening ceremony: "Advocate sports and popularize sports; strengthen the body and prepare for battle; overthrow fascism and revolutionary spirit; observe discipline and unite style; win without arrogance, and lose without discouragement." Yan'an "Liberation Daily" once described the opening ceremony: "There is no marble commander here, and the simple earthen platform, isn't it equally solemn? There is no reinforced concrete building of the venue gate, with weeds into the gate, is not equally serious? There are no neatly arranged stands here. Isn't the hillside covered with bluestone and straw mattresses filled with thousands of spectators? Fresh river bays, isn't our beautiful swimming pool?"

The events of the competition are relatively rich and divided into two categories. The competition items include basketball and volleyball in ball games, high jump, long jump, push iron ball, 50 m, 100 m, 800 m, 1500 m, cross-country running and so on. Military projects include mountain climbing, obstacle climbing, grenade throwing, shooting, assassination, etc. Swimming includes the 50-meter freestyle and the 50-meter breaststroke. The better track and field results are: 1500 meters (4'38 "), 10000 meters (38'41"), men's long jump (6.10 meters), men's shot put (18.24 meters), women's long jump (4.30 meters), softball (35.50 meters), etc. The competitions and performances in many events were wonderful. According to the old man Li Shuhuai who participated in the games, he recalled: "At that conference, under the conditions that training, nutrition, equipment, etc. were not available, the men's 100 meters and 12 seconds, the long jump was 6.1 meters, and the shot put was 18.24 meters. Good results are indeed very good."

The Games not only out of the results, but also out of the friendship. "Liberation Daily" published a news tidbit of "commendable spirit of revolutionary friendship": "Xinghua to electricians, both sides are workers' teams. In the basketball game, both sides fully demonstrated the spirit of friendship. They touched each other and immediately shook hands and apologized. The two sides fell slightly and hurried forward to express their condolences. During the game, when the" ball "was not allowed, they showed their own strengths. Several times when they fouled and the referee had not found it, they quickly stopped the ball and waited for the referee. The spirit of this movement morality and revolutionary friendship is commendable."

In addition to the regular events, tennis, football, baseball, small football, horse racing, diving, armed river crossing, weightlifting, horizontal and parallel bars and gymnastics were also added. The martial arts performance of the Lu Xun Academy of Arts was very impressive, and the audience applauded it; the riding performance of the cavalry regiment also made people feel refreshing; the wrestling of Mongolian athletes in the Institute for Nationalities also left a deep impression. The performances were so exciting that the people of the border region were addicted to them.

　　Sing the Song of the September 1 Movement

The whole competition was intense and tense, and there was a lively scene at the venue. The Song of the September 1 Movement, composed by Anbo and Marco, sang at the venue: "The athletes of the nation, the warriors of the revolution. Come on! Let's show off our skills. Call the international robber bloody fascist, tremble before us! Climbing the mountain to climb the peak, the race to take the lead, shooting aim well, throwing bombs with great force, watching the commander on the platform, General Zhu and He command us forward! The athletes of the nation, the warriors of the revolution. Come on! Let's show our skills and let the international youth anti-aggression comrades cheer and clap their hands here. Like a dragon in the water and a tiger on the land, watching Generals Zhu and He on the commander's platform command us forward!" From this impassioned anthem, we can see how youthful and energetic the soldiers of the Eighth Route Army are, how positive and upward, not afraid of hardship, bravely armed their bodies and minds, and dedicated their youth and life to the great Chinese revolution.

During the Games, Zhu De wrote an editorial entitled "Wish the September Movement Conference" in the "Liberation Daily. After discussing the relationship between sports competition and the popularization of sports, he pointed out: "Sports, it is a great event to change the customs... We should make it popular between the army and the people. Create the atmosphere, form the habit and carry it out regularly."

The Yan'an "September 1" enlarged sports meeting closed on September 7, and the proposal of "making September 9 a sports festival" was adopted. After the closing ceremony, there were also track and field matches and ball games, which were completed on the 14th. Zhu De and Wang Zhen respectively delivered important speeches at the closing ceremony, affirming their achievements and hoping that in the future, no matter whether there is a sports meeting or not, everyone will pay attention to physical exercise. Mao Zedong cordially received all the members of the fighting basketball team. He said: "in addition to exercising, you should also work hard and contribute your strength to the revolutionary cause."

(The author is a professor of military and political Education and Research Department of Beijing Armored Force Engineering College and a doctor of history)

July 20, 2017 Source: People's Political Consultative Conference