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Quiet! History speaking 【嘘！让历史说话】
Fan Jianchuan walks among statues of Chinese soldiers in one of his museums
dedicated to the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression. He says he builds
museums to advocate peace, friendship and better understanding.
One man in Sichuan collects museums as a hobby, and he's especially proud of a
cluster (馆群)that is documenting the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression
(抗日战争).
Fan Jianchuan plans to put together more than a hundred museums in his lifetime. He has
already founded 15 in his native Sichuan, a result of spending the last 30 years of his life
collecting about 8 million exhibits through private sales or public auctions（公开拍卖）.
The driving force behind his relentless（不留情的）collecting is his belief that history should be
left to speak for itself. Throughout his Jianchuan Museum Cluster in An'ren town, an hour's
drive away from Chengdu, there are signs that remind visitors: "Let's not talk loudly, history is
speaking", "Shhh ... Don't drown（淹没）the voice of history."
To the 53-year-old Fan, it is a public calling to document what has happened to the country in
the last 100 years and he wants to do it as objectively as possible, above the cacophony（刺
耳的声音, 杂音）of prejudices（偏见）and personal perspectives.
"The last 100 years have witnessed more tremendous changes in China than that of any other
period, during which the country has been industrialized, modernized and civilized," he says.
Sometimes, he travels far in search of new discoveries, but at other times, they drop right on
his doorstep（门阶）.
One of his most unusual items, a living, breathing reminder of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, is
a pig that had been buried under the rubble（瓦砾, 碎石）for more than 40 days. Fan bought
it, named it Zhu Jianqiang or Mr Piggy the Determined, and the animal now takes pride of
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place in his Sichuan Earthquake Memorial Museum. In a sadder tribute（称赞）, he also
co-built the Hu Huishan Memorial Hall in memory of a 15-year-old earthquake victim.
But the collection that tugs（猛拉）at Fan's heart the most is the cluster of five museums he
has built to commemorate the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1937-45).
Saturday was the 79th anniversary of the historic Sept 18 incident in 1931, when the invading
Japanese army blew up part of a railroad owned by a Japanese colonial company near
Mukden (now Shenyang), and used the incident as a pretext（借口，托词）for larger-scale war
against China.
Fan grew up listening to the stories of how his father, a military veteran（老兵）, fought off
Japanese invaders. During the 11 years that Fan himself served in the People's Liberation
Army, his interest in China's campaigns during World War II grew. In the 1990s, he started to
collect artifacts（古器物）of war while he first worked at a foreign-financed company and later
as a real estate agent. Since then he has been flying to Japan often, searching for and buying
original evidence of war crimes. His collection over the past decade is now estimated at more
than 100,000 items, ranging from old firearms, combat charts(作战图), military intelligence
( 军事情报) and files, magazines and posters, posthumous papers( 遗书), diaries and
photographs of Japanese soldiers.
His latest purchases include a stack of more than 1,000 letters that a low-ranking military
official wrote to his families, relatives and friends in Japan in the one year before the war
ended. This soldier was in charge of cremating(火葬) comrades(同伴) who had died on the
battlefield. As he delves into(深入研究) these official documents and individual memories,
Fan is beginning to see a complete picture of the Japanese story.
"Almost all public exhibitions display evidence of the invaders' cruelty, underlining their policies
of 'slaughter, burn and pillage 掠夺'. Historical files I found in Japan indicated that the
Japanese were also disciplined," which also explains the organized crime(有组织犯罪)by a
state entity.
The historical data he found showed that the Japanese army had been cobbled together(拼
凑 在 一 起 ) from a hodgepodge( 大 杂 烩 )of social classes. For instance, one unit of
mineworkers could fight violently while another unit of urban merchants knew little of combat
strategies.
【Notes】
Relentless：a.残酷的，不留情的，无怜悯心的
a relentless autumnal rain
绵绵秋雨
Every bamboo blind was drown to keep out the relentless sun.
所有的竹帘都放下来,抵挡毒热的阳光。
He was an instance of complete baseness of spirit, imperious, cruel, and relentless when
uppermost, adject and low-spirited when down.
他是个无耻之徒的典范,当他占了优势,得意的时候,就横暴,残忍无情;被压倒的时候,就沮丧,就意
志消沉。
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Rubble：n. 瓦砾, 碎石
Many people are entombed in the rubble of the bombe buildings.
很多人被埋在炸毁的建筑物的瓦砾里。
Many people were entombed in the rubble of the bombed buildings.
很多人被埋在炸毁的建筑物的瓦砾里。
The ceiling collapsed and rubble poured into the room.
天花板坍塌了，碎砖破瓦掉落到了屋里。
Pretext：n.借口，托词
On the pretext of asking for my advice, he called and borrowed￡10 from me.
他以向我讨教为借口，上门找我借了十英镑。
He came to see me on the pretext of asking my advice.
他以请我指教为借口来看我。
We'll have to find a pretext for not going to the party.
我们得找个借口不去参加聚会。
Hodgepodge：n. 大杂烩
This box is a hodgepodge of books, old toys and things.
这个箱子里,书、旧玩具及其他物品混杂在一起。
Fang Hung-chien wished he could have said, No wonder your honorable work is such a
hodgepodge.
方鸿渐恨不能说:“怪不得阁下的大作也是那样斑驳陆离。