WORLD'S OLDEST BLOGGER

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93-year-old Blogger Recounts WWII Stories Online

Zhao Zhenying

Recently Zhao Zhenying, a 93-year-old former soldier who fought against Japan, started Micro-blogging about his days in combat and he has already attracted a following of 3,000 fans over a few days.

Zhao was a major in the army of Republic of China (1912-1949) and the person in charge of security for the Surrender Signing Ceremony of Japanese Army in Nanjing on Sept. 9 in 1945.

Zhao graduated from a high school decades of years ago, and he could also talk to Americans in English fluently. Two years ago, Zhao's family bought a computer for him to watch news on the Internet.

A younger friend of Zhao, surnamed Lin, went to visit him and showed him Micro-blogging, which piqued Zhao's interest, and he asked Lin to help him to start his own on Sept, 10.

Lin registered Zhao's Micro-blog as "Major in the army of Republic of China (1912-1949) and the person in charge of security for the Surrender Signing Ceremony of Japanese Army in Nanjing," and published Zhao's first message with "Hello, everybody! I am Zhao Zhenying."

Since the first fans of Zhao's Micro-blog appeared, more than 100 fans started to pay their attention on the old man's stories, and the number of fans group increased to more than 2,800 within the short four days.

Many people greeted Zhao and wrote some commentary sentences. Seeing those messages, Zhao said they were too many to be replied by him one by one, but he expressed his thanks to everyone who cared about him, and he wished everyone to be healthy and happy.

Since Zhao's Micro-blog started, he really enjoys the surfing on the Micro-blog after his afternoon nap. In the several days, Zhao started to share his story, and told people what happened at the Surrender Signing Ceremony of the Japanese Army 65 years ago.




Many details of the event were all exposed for the first time. For example, he said all soldiers carried guns with them at the time, but they were unloaded in order to avoid accidental discharge. And it was actually only one person who surrendered, not two as is depicted in the famous painting of the incident.




Zhao cannot write words with computer quickly, so most words are typed by his grandson. In addition, Zhao's family members are all supportive of him, and they said his experiences were so amazing and precious, and they could learn lots of things from history.

By Wang Hanlu, People's Daily Online


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