Last year, it was the 80th Victory Anniversary of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. This year, it is the 80th Anniversary of the Victorious Return of the Central Government to Capital Nanking. Victory against Japan was credited to the tens of millions of Chinese deaths and martyrdoms, return to capital Nanking was the glory exemplified by the emblem of White Sun and Blue Sky of the Republic of China. Even in hundreds or thousands of years, they will continue to inspire and forge the National Spirit of China.

Harking back to 5 May 1946, the 35th year of the Republic of China, the Central Government officially returned to capital Nanking from provisional capital Chungking. On that day, a solemn celebration took place at the Mausoleum of Sun Yat-sen in Nanking, hosted by President Chiang Kai-shek, attended by all the senior civil and military officials. The event conveyed that the pursuit of a free and democratic China as envisioned by Dr. Sun Yat-sen was to continue with earnestness, and the Republic of China would rise from the ashes of war. 

At the time, Li Chia-mien (李加勉), the Kwangtung Provincial Government Representative in Nanking, invited many prominent men especially those from his own province who were residing in the capital, to inscribe their thoughts on paper, plentiful enough to be compiled into an album. After the fall of mainland China to the communists in 1949, he took the album with him to Taiwan. Afterwards it entered the custodianship of the descendants. On the 80th Anniversary of the Return to Capital Nanking, we have the good fortune to peruse this album, yet at a loss to the encroaching melancholy.

Curatorial and Editorial Department