Two small children arrived at a municipal martyr's cemetery in Beijing on 5 February to lay flowers and clean the grave of their father, identified by state media as Zhao Hu. It was their first formal visit to the tomb, and footage released by Chinese outlets shows them clinging to the headstone and breaking into anguished sobs, a raw display of grief in a space otherwise staged for reverence.
The images have been circulated widely by national and local outlets that routinely cover ceremonies for those designated as martyrs — a term the state uses for people who died serving public security, the military, or in other circumstances deemed to reflect sacrificial service to the nation. In China, such coverage serves both to honour individual sacrifice and to reaffirm broader civic values the Communist Party emphasises: duty, loyalty and collective memory.
Commemoration of martyrs is a central element of contemporary Chinese political culture. Since enactment of the Law on the Protection of Heroes and Martyrs, and through regular public rituals such as memorial ceremonies and visits to martyr cemeteries, the state has institutionalised the remembrance of those who died in service. These rituals offer consolation to bereaved families and create visible narratives that tie private loss to public purpose.
Yet the footage also invites more complicated questions about how grief is portrayed and mobilised. Intimate scenes of children bereft at a graveside are powerful on their own terms, but they also function as emotive signals in a broader civic campaign: they personalise the cost of state-defined sacrifice while reinforcing social solidarity. For audiences outside China, the imagery clarifies why the government invests political capital in ceremonial displays and education emphasising heroes and martyrs.
The human story is straightforward and affecting: two children encountering — perhaps for the first time — a public marker of a father they lost. The political frame is deliberate. Coverage of such moments helps sustain a narrative in which individual sacrifices are integrated into a collective historical memory, strengthening legitimacy and social cohesion at a time when the state places renewed emphasis on patriotic education for younger generations.
For the family and the local community the visit is both a private act of mourning and part of a public ritual. How such moments are framed and amplified by media will continue to shape domestic attitudes toward service, sacrifice and the state’s role in managing collective memory.