Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army has been a role model for the whole country, and the heroic deeds of the Army inspired generations of Chinese people. In the late 1950s, Chairman Mao Zedong raised the ideas of Anti-invasion and civil defense. The soldiers and civilians were on fire and united as one. People were ready for war, coming up with a slogan “Seven 700 million people equals to 700 million soldiers, the vast territory of the motherland becomes a huge military camp”. Under the background of “every citizen is a soldier”, Yang Zhiguang paid visits to workers, farmers and soldiers all over the country and recorded their trainings, studies and lives by his painting brush.

In this exhibition, we selected Yang’s works dedicated to the liberation army and militia to show the audiences the age of fire when Chinese soldiers and militia bravely united together and defended our nation.