This year marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, and following the recent National Day holiday, red tourism has seen a remarkable surge in popularity. Various regions have been actively tapping into their revolutionary resources and innovating diverse activities, allowing visitors to experience the power of role models, inherit red legacies, and cultivate a strong sense of patriotism.
Across the country, Beijing’s Xiangshan Park has utilized its eight revolutionary historical sites to launch initiatives such as the “New Space for Ideological and Political Education” and “New Exhibitions for Themed Classes,” offering visitors a fresh patriotic experience. Meanwhile, Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s Minhang campus kicked off a red culture hiking event themed “Exploring Great National Instruments and Experiencing China’s Strength,” attracting hundreds of new students from central and western regions along with numerous Shanghai families. This collective experience is a way to revisit and appreciate China’s strength and instill patriotic sentiments. In Fujian, the ancient site in Shanghang has introduced a red micro-theater, showcasing red cultural dramas and Hakka cultural performances, providing visitors with unique spiritual nourishment and intellectual inspiration.
In recent years, the enthusiasm surrounding red tourism has continued to grow. According to the “China Red Tourism Development Report (2023),” the number of visitors to red tourism sites has surpassed 2 billion nationwide, with the market scale approaching 1 trillion yuan. This popularity reflects the thriving vitality of red culture.
Red is the most vivid color representing the Communist Party of China and the People’s Republic. Red resources are a testament to the arduous and glorious history of our party, representing our most valuable spiritual asset. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized at the National Education Conference the importance of utilizing successful examples from the remarkable changes of the new era, encouraging the use of red resources for educational purposes, and continually expanding practical education as well as online educational spaces. Previously, five government departments, including the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Ministry of Education, jointly issued the “Action Plan for Utilizing Red Resources to Cultivate New Era Talents (2023–2025),” aiming to create hundreds of high-quality red study courses, launch thousands of red tourism study routes, and conduct tens of thousands of red tourism promotional activities targeting millions of students nationwide over three years. This initiative provides strong guidance for enhancing red cultural education and better transmitting the red legacy.
As red tourism continues to flourish, new highlights and attractions are emerging. In Ruijin, Jiangxi, innovative experiential projects like “Bamboo Weaving” and “Making Rice Cake” have been thoughtfully developed. In Shaoshan, Hunan, large-scale educational dramas such as “The Long March,” “Mao Zedong Emerged from China,” and “Dreaming of Shaoshan” have been successively introduced. Meanwhile, the revolutionary history memorial in Changshu, Jiangsu, serves as a patriotic education base. These innovative explorations continuously enrich the educational implications of red culture, expand the practical space for moral education, and subtly influence and benefit a broader audience. To effectively utilize these red resources in a contemporary context and enhance their educational function, ongoing efforts to integrate, coordinate, and reinterpret them are essential, ensuring that red resources become vibrant and impactful.
To enhance the appeal of red resources, it’s crucial to delve deeper into their meanings and explain their contemporary relevance. The cultural essence is the soul of red resources; by uncovering their core and revealing their value in today’s context, we can enhance their attractiveness and cohesion. This requires strengthening theoretical research and interpretation of red resources, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration, and examining these resources from various academic angles. Empirical studies—through methods such as data collection, field research, and oral history—should systematically and meticulously refine red cultural resources. In doing so, we can enrich the content of red resource exhibitions and innovate presentation methods, providing robust support for effective educational outcomes.
Innovation in communication strategies is also crucial for increasing the impact of red resources. To reach people’s hearts, it is important to adapt to their information processing preferences and psychological patterns in the dissemination and presentation of red resources. Embracing new technologies is essential; utilizing digital mediums such as virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), along with big data, can create immersive experiences and a multi-sensory atmosphere that enhances engagement and emotional resonance.
Moreover, a synergistic approach combining online and offline activities can strengthen the appeal of red resources. Employing diverse methods to showcase these resources and deepen the communicated content is important. New media, with its advantages of convenience and wide reach, should be leveraged to build a self-media communication matrix that utilizes short videos and live broadcasts. This approach aims to transform narratives and innovate storytelling methods, allowing red culture to be conveyed in a more vivid and direct manner to the public. Additionally, a differentiated strategy targeting youth is necessary to develop unique educational brands around red resources, continuously enriching the supply of red cultural content and making red studies engaging and beneficial.
It is worth mentioning that the integration of red technology and tourism has also become a new trend. Major national scientific projects exemplify rapid advancements in technology and embody an enduring spirit of perseverance, serving as significant red resources that should be effectively utilized for educational purposes. For instance, at the “China Sky Eye” in Pingtang, Guizhou, visitors flock to witness this national instrument and learn about the spirit of scientific inquiry. At the astronomy experience center, they can explore the history of Chinese astronomy, view models of the “China Sky Eye,” and immerse themselves in the study of astronomy, helping to foster resilience in scientific pursuits and national pride.
(Author: Fan Meng, a researcher at the Beijing Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics Research Center and a faculty member at the Department of Philosophy and Culture, Beijing Party School)
