Chongwu Army Temple

On September 17, 1949, Nationalist forces from Taiwan attacked Chongwu during the Chinese Civil War. The attack occurred when a PLA brigade was preparing to depart Chongwu beach for a landing on Jinmen and Xiamen islands. A teenaged girl named Zeng Hen was also walking on the beach during the attack. Five PLA soldiers threw themselves on top of Zeng to protect her and were killed. Until this first shrine was torn down during a Maoist political campaign in 1971, residents worshipped at the shrine and burned incense and paper money. == Establishment ==

Zeng Hen planned to commemorate the PLA soldiers who saved her. ultimately succeeding in building the temple in 1996. The site is half devoted to the nominally secular commemoration of the twenty-seven PLA soldiers and half a Buddhist temple. It consists of a main hall, a memorial hall, two pavilions, a residence for the Zeng family, and a statute of a soldier holding a girl in his arms. The temple's outward appearance is typical of temples dedicated to local deities in southeast China. The temple's altar bears twenty-seven wooden figures representing a military unit. Behind them is an inscription in the style of a traditional spirit tablet which reads, "People's Liberation Army Martyrs." == Cultural and political significance ==

The Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese government explicitly support the temple. The local PLA garrison visits regularly. Academic Jifeng Liu writes that the temple is included in Party study materials, consistent with Xi Jinpeng's goals of building a "new 'Communist civil religion.'" Some Chongwu locals venerate the twenty-seven PLA martyrs as deities who can perform miracles. As of December 9, 2022, the identities of twenty-five of the PLA soldiers honored at the temple have been confirmed. == References ==