On the flight deck of the frigate Honghe, sailors gathered for an intergenerational exchange in which the navy’s newest “Sea Tiger” crew met the veterans who once earned that honor. The event combined storytelling, old uniforms and the communal singing of the unit anthem, creating a staged continuity between a celebrated Cold War skirmish and today’s high-tech fleet.
The veteran guests included Wang Muchang, former chief of engineering on the 588 torpedo boat that achieved the People’s Navy’s famed “small boat sinks big ship” victory in the Chongwu East Sea battle, and Xie Jianming, a former commander of the third-generation Sea Tiger craft. The 588 was awarded the “Sea Tiger” honorific in 1966; in October 2023 the newly commissioned Honghe was formally given that same title, transferring the legacy to a fifth‑generation vessel now operating on China’s seaborne frontiers.
Speakers emphasized continuity of spirit even as technology has changed. Veterans described the raw courage and close-quarters fighting that shaped their reputation, while younger sailors pledged to combine that fighting spirit with “overwhelming skill” and mastery of complex systems. The repeated refrain — that identical weapons can have different effects in different hands — underscored an institutional effort to fuse moral example with technical competence.
The occasion was as much about ritual and morale as it was about history. Draping a modern warship in the narratives of past heroism reinforces unit cohesion, legitimizes promotions and honors, and supplies stories that instructors can use in training to inculcate toughness and initiative. Public ceremonies like this also help the People’s Liberation Army Navy normalize a forward-facing, confident image at home, even as Beijing expands its maritime activities.
Seen through a broader lens, the Honghe event illustrates how the PLA uses commemoration to bind recruits to a lineage of sacrifice while signalling a seamless transition from the era of small-boat daring to one of longer-range, higher-tech naval operations. The blending of myth and modernization is deliberate: the navy benefits from heroic provenance, recruits find identity in shared memory, and commanders gain an easily communicable ethos as they pursue more complex missions on and beyond China’s littorals.