Cao Ming (second from left) and his students work to restore letters and other documents from revolutionaries. PROVIDED TO TEENS
“After taking off the tape and glue and smoothing out the creases across the pages, the near hundred-year-old letters and martyr’s certificate were revitalized,” said Chen Hezhen, a 71-year-old grandmother from Ningbo, Zhejiang.
来自浙江宁波的71岁老奶奶陈荷珍说：“不缠胶带，不涂胶水，还修补了纸页上的折痕，这些有着近百年历史的信件和烈士证又活过来了。”
On Nov 13, she received the restored memorial papers left by her father, who sacrificed his life on the battlefield when she was only 1 year old. She was grateful to a group of college students from Ningbo University of Finance & Economics (NUFE), who helped bring her precious memory to life.
11月13日，陈荷珍收到了修复好的父亲的烈士证明，父亲在她1岁时就牺牲在战场上。陈荷珍很感激这群来自宁波财经学院的大学生，他们让自己珍贵的记忆再次变得栩栩如生。
Repairing relics left by veterans and martyrs is a part of NUFE’s social practice project. Since June, these young people have helped restore letters and other documents and returned them to families of revolutionary martyrs.
修复老兵和烈士的遗物是宁波财经学院社会实践项目的一部分。从6月起，这些年轻人帮忙修复了书信和其他文书，并把文书交还给了革命烈士家属。
“When we visited martyrs‘ families, we heard many inspiring stories and were touched by those late soldiers,” said Wang Yiqun, 21, the project’s leader. “Their family members have saved their letters in memory of them. But we’ve found that those objects have different degrees of damage, so we want to do something to help them.”
“看望烈士家属时，我们听到了许多震撼人心的故事，并且为这些烈士所感动，”21岁的实践团团长王益群说，“家属保存了烈士的信件来纪念他们。但我们发现这些文书信件有着不同程度的破损，所以就想做些什么来帮忙。”
However, it isn’t easy to restore these relics. Pan Yi, 22, one young restorer, stared at a damaged page of a martyr’s letter with adhesive tape. For days, she worked to separate the tape and paper safely. Her teacher helped her make a special degumming agent to spray on the tape, which could then be peeled off by small tweezers little by little. After that, Pan carefully checked the holes and worn-out margins. She then stuck paper made of the same material over the damaged area with a brush full of special paste. As for the creases, Pan glued striped craft paper over them.
然而，要修复这些遗物并不容易。22岁的潘逸是一位年轻的修复人员，她眼前的是一封烈士遗留的信件，书信破损，粘有胶带。一连几天，潘逸致力于把胶带和纸安全分开。老师帮助潘逸制作了一种特殊的脱胶剂，将其喷洒在胶带上，就可以用小镊子一点一点地把胶带剥下来。随后，潘逸仔细检查了纸张的破洞和磨损的页边。接着，她用粘满特殊浆糊的刷子，将用相同材料制成的纸粘在受损部位。至于修复折痕，潘逸就将牛皮纸条粘在上面。
“I need to be especially careful and patient because the process can take a few weeks just to repair a single page,” said Pan. “What motivates us is our faith – those old papers carrying the spirit of undaunted heroes and the feelings of mourning that their family members endure. We need to repair them as they were before.”
“我需要特别小心和耐心，因为修复一页文件可能需要几周的时间，”潘逸说，“激励我们的是自身的信念——那些旧文书承载着烈士无畏的精神，寄托着烈士家属的哀思之情。我们需要将文书修复得同往日一样。”
Now, these students are preparing to hold an exhibition of restored relics, sharing their stories with more people. “Repairing a martyr’s certificate requires more than mastering basic repairing skills. It’s important to fully understand the story behind the original text,” said Cao Ming, their tutor. “I’m proud of our students because they can apply what they’ve learned to help families of martyrs and spread the heroic stories in a more vivid way.”
现在，这些学生们准备给修复的遗物举办一个展览，与更多人分享他们的故事。“修复一件烈士证，除了需要掌握基本的修复技巧，对原文书背景的充分理解也很重要，”修复团队的导师曹明说，“我为我们的学生感到骄傲，他们可以运用所学来帮助烈士家属，可以用更生动的方式传播英雄故事。”
