内容提要
Foreword
Inaugurated on 15 August 1985, the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders (called the ‘Memorial Hall’) is located in the south-western corner of Nanjing known as Jiangdongmen, which was the site of the massacre and the site of the ‘Mass Grave of Ten Thousand Corpses’. Expanded and enlarged, respectively, from 1994 to 1995 and from 2005 to 2007, the Memorial Hall was opened to the public on 13 December 2007, marking the 70th anniversary of the 300,000 victims of the Nanjing Massacre.
Located on Shuiximen Street, the Memorial Hall covers a total area of 74,000 square metres, with a floor area of 25,000 square metres and an exhibition area of 12,000 square metres. As a site-based museum of history, the Memorial Hall consists of four functional sections, namely the Exhibition and Meeting Centre, the Centre for the Memory of the Victims of the Massacre, the Peace Park and the Administrative Area.
The exhibitions in the Memorial Hall fall into four categories: the permanent exhibition, themed exhibits, the exhibit on the site of the ‘Mass Grave of Ten Thousand Corpses’ and temporary exhibitions. The regular exhibition, A Human Holocaust – An Exhibition of the Historical Facts of the Nanjing Massacre Perpetrated by the Japanese Invaders aims at unfolding an authentic chapter of history through numerous cultural relics and valuable archives, which are supplemented by simple and unsophisticated artistic forms, thus tugging at visitors’ heartstrings. The Memorial Hall has collected more than 150,000 articles to underpin its display and exhibits, including 25,000 cultural relics, among them 315 recognized as Grade 1, 672 Grade 2 and 965 Grade 3.
Designed by Qi Kang and He Jingtang, two master architects in China, the spatial layout of the expanded Memorial Hall, in the shape of an ‘Ark of Peace’, implies the ‘turning of swords into ploughshares’, rendering an air of solemnity and stateliness. The Memorial Hall conveys the symbolic significance of ‘Death and Peace’, as evidenced by ‘the Bones of the Killed and the Ruins of the Destroyed’ on one hand and ‘Home for the Humanity and Peace for the World’ on the other hand.
The Memorial Hall has about 30 sculptures, including, on the Sculpture Square: A Ruined Family, The Refugees, The Cry of Wronged Souls, Call of the Mother, Goddess of Peace, and a large group sculpture Catastrophe of the Ancient City. These sculpture installations form critical links with the exhibitions outside the Memorial Hall, between the square, the monuments, and other displays, expanding the spatial layout and enhancing the quality of the exhibits in the Memorial Hall.
The past 25 years have witnessed the tremendous achievements that the Memorial Hall has made in terms of presentation and exhibition, academic study and training, public education, exchange and co-operation. The Memorial Hall has so far received over 30 million visitors, and, since the opening of the new hall, five million annually. In addition, exhibitions on the Nanjing Massacre have been organized in more than 10 countries and regions including Japan, the Philippines, the USA and Denmark. Tour exhibitions have been held in over 20 Chinese cities, including Beijing, Wuhan, Shenyang and Guangzhou, and more than 200 special exhibitions and events visited by over 1.5 million visitors in total, for example ‘Commemoration for the Compatriots Killed in the Nanjing Massacre – Nanjing International Peace Assembly’, have been organized. In addition, the Memorial Hall has forged friendly and co-operative relations with its 10 counterparts worldwide, including Auschwitz–Birkenau State Museum; Museum of the Great Patriotic War, Moscow; Le Mémorial de Caen – Cité de l’Histoire pour la Paix; and the Kyoto Museum for World Peace, Ritsumeikan University.
Since its opening, the new Memorial Hall has been showered with praise for its splendid exhibitions, magnificent architecture and elegant sculptures from visitors both at home and abroad. As a result, the new Memorial Hall has been selected into the World Top 10 Dark Tourist Destinations, China’s Grade 1 Museums and State-Protected Historic Sites, and has won many major prizes, including China’s Top 10 Exhibitions, the Luban Prize for architectural projects and the Prize for Achievement in Urban Sculpture in New China.
（文章来源：《侵华日军南京大屠杀遇难同胞纪念馆》）
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