IN 2017, in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, after documentary director Xu Bei’s interview with Yang Yi was finished, the famous translator, then 98, took out a Walkman and proceeded to relax with some music.

The melody of a vintage English song came from the Walkman: “One Day When We Were Young.” “This is my little enjoyment,” Yang told the director. She is best known for her Chinese translation of “Wuthering Heights.”

Xu then immediately decided to borrow the title of the song for her new documentary, which is being screened nationwide and has achieved an 8.1 out of 10 score on Douban, China’s major reviewing website.

Through Xu’s lens, 16 interviewees of Yang’s age group collectively recall a wartime miracle and perhaps one of the greatest sagas of recent Chinese history. They are all alumni of the National Southwestern Associated University in Kunming, Yunnan Province. Functioning from 1938 to 1946, it was a short-lived but everlasting name in China’s education.

After Beijing and Tianjin fell to invading Japanese troops in 1937, patriotic teachers and students from Peking, Tsinghua and Nankai universities decided to relocate their campuses in a show of determination and disobedience. They first moved to Changsha, the capital of Hunan Province, in November that year. But, as war approached once more, they continued their journey and finally arrived in Kunming in April 1938.

Star names shine among the interviewees in the documentary, including the globally renowned theoretical physicist Chen-ning Yang; translator Xu Yuanchong, who is known for his promotion of Chinese poems in the English-speaking and French-speaking world; and Wang Xiji, designer of China’s first sounding rocket and space launch vehicle. When being interviewed, their average age was 96.

“In this film, we can feel their great expectation and unstrained hearts,” director Xu said last week. “Their affection and career paths can emotionally resonate with young people today.”

As the interviewees recall in the documentary, living conditions in the thatched cottages were poor, and danger could come any time. They needed to watch out, not only for bedbugs, but also Japanese bombs falling from the sky.

However, the difficulties were not the threshold for the university to be a hub for the most brilliant minds in China at the time. “Young people still need respect for history and care for our country’s destiny,” director Xu says. “And the university’s stories also urge people today to pursue excellence.”

Professors and teachers at the university included historian Qian Mu, architect Liang Sicheng, philosopher Feng Youlan, physicists Wu Ta-you and Wu Youxun, writers Qian Zhongshu and Shen Congwen, mathematician Hua Luogeng, and many other names who are either cultural icons or founders of Chinese modern sciences.

The students got a rare chance to be taught by several academic masters for one course. For example, for the Chinese lessons during freshman year, a host of great writers and historians took turns to lecture to the students.

For some moments, the aged interviewees, no matter how great a reputation they have, seem to suddenly flash back to their years as youth in college. They talk about their academic results like they are still envious students. They remember the days of just hanging around with their buddies. Some recall campus romances.

“We see that they’re interesting people, and that they’re resilient,” the director says. “It also tells today’s young people: Don’t be boring.”(China Daily)