Online memories
Personal Records · Online memories
Memory or reminiscence pieces published on blogs, WeChat public accounts, forums, and similar platforms. The author may be a reporter, engineer, administrator, or affected resident — this category isn’t split further by author type. Online content like this is especially prone to disappearing (link rot, deleted accounts, content removal), so every entry records an archived copy alongside the original URL. This section holds source information and a brief summary only, not reproduced text — see Sources & Methodology.
Published entries
| Title | Author | Platform | Publish date | Summary | Rights status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| “板桥溃坝三十五年祭” (“A Thirty-Five Year Remembrance of the Banqiao Dam Collapse”) (archived copy) | Jun Shuyuan (君淑苑, blog handle; relationship to the event not fully confirmed — the post itself reads as a first-hand account) | Blogspot (personal blog) | Aug 23, 2010 | The blogger’s own first-hand recollection of the 1975 Henan flood, describing her and her family’s experience during the disaster | Cited only |
| “A Family’s Account of Witnessing the ‘75.8’ Banqiao Reservoir Disaster,” Part 1: “My Water Story: ‘The Lake’” | Kuang Jie (匡洁) | 三峡探索 (Three Gorges Probe / Probe International) | July 10, 2014 | Part 1 of a three-part series; Kuang Jie’s own first-hand recollection of the 1975 Banqiao Reservoir disaster | Cited only |
| “A Family’s Account of Witnessing the ‘75.8’ Banqiao Reservoir Disaster,” Part 2: “Remembering the Collapse of Henan’s Banqiao Reservoir” | Wang Youshi (王又石) | 三峡探索 (Three Gorges Probe / Probe International) | July 15, 2014 | Part 2 of the same series; Wang Youshi’s own first-hand recollection of the Banqiao Reservoir collapse | Cited only |
| “A Family’s Account of Witnessing the ‘75.8’ Banqiao Reservoir Disaster,” Part 3: “The Banqiao Reservoir Failure I Experienced” | Kuang Li (匡立) | 三峡探索 (Three Gorges Probe / Probe International) | July 21, 2014 | Part 3 of the same series; Kuang Li’s own first-hand recollection of the Banqiao Reservoir failure | Cited only |
| “Miscellaneous Notes on the 60th Division’s ‘75.8’ Central Plains Flood-Fighting” | Wang Xiaobing (王晓兵) | bjn4a.org.cn (site nature not fully confirmed; the domain and content suggest a military-unit/veterans’ association site) | Aug 5, 2023 | Per this site’s Central condolence telegrams document, the 60th Division’s pontoon-bridge company took part in reinforcing the Boshan Reservoir during the crisis; this piece is believed to be a recollection by someone connected to that division of the “75.8” Central Plains flood-fighting effort. | Cited only |
| “1975: On Leave, the 59th Division Ran Into the Henan Flood Fight” | Yuan Nianqi (袁念琪) | bjn4a.org.cn (site nature not fully confirmed; the domain and content suggest a military-unit/veterans’ association site) | Aug 10, 2023 | Per this site’s Central condolence telegrams document, 23 division-level or higher PLA units took part in the Zhumadian flood fight, though that document does not name the 59th Division specifically; this piece is believed to be a recollection by someone connected to that division of the “75.8” Henan flood-fighting effort. | Cited only |
| “Tianzhong Memories: Huang Fangliang || A First-Hand Account of the 1975 Flood-Fighting at Boshan Reservoir and Across the Zhumadian Region” (automated archiving unsuccessful; the researcher has retained a full print-to-PDF copy as a private local backup, not publicly released) | Huang Fangliang (黄方亮), oral account/essay — at the time of the “75.8” flood, a communications runner in the 2nd Company (pontoon-bridge company) of the engineering battalion, 60th Division, then-20th Army, only about eight months into his service | WeChat public account “豫见文史” (Yujian Wenshi; administered by the Suiping County Cultural Development Promotion Association, run by the Yujian Wenshi Studio) | May 22, 2026 (the author’s own dateline at the end of the piece reads May 6, 2026) | Huang Fangliang’s first-hand account of discovering and reporting the imminent breach risk at Boshan Reservoir’s dam in the early hours of Aug 8, 1975, his company’s overnight emergency reinforcement work, and the roughly month-long rescue and relief effort across the Zhumadian region (Suiping, Runan, Pingyu, Shangcai, Xincai, and other counties) that followed. Per this site’s Central condolence telegrams document, “the leadership of the 2nd Artillery Division led cadres and soldiers, and with the active cooperation of the 60th Division’s pontoon-bridge company (then on field-training exercises), fought for three days and two nights to raise the Boshan Reservoir dam by 1.5 meters”; this piece gives an ordinary soldier’s-eye account of the same unit’s involvement, with some details (the specific sequence of events, duration) not fully matching the official record — the two sources corroborate each other in outline but the discrepancy still needs further verification | Cited only |
| “Suiping Memories: Wei Fu’an || A Record of Rebuilding Wencheng Commune After the ‘75.8’ Flood” (automated archiving unsuccessful; the researcher has retained a full print-to-PDF copy as a private local backup, not publicly released) | Wei Fu’an (魏富安), oral account — after the “75.8” flood, dispatched by the Suiping County Party Committee to serve as Wencheng Commune’s party secretary (with Fan Yuqing as deputy secretary); compiled by Li Shanbin (李善斌) | WeChat public account “豫见文史” (Yujian Wenshi; administered by the Suiping County Cultural Development Promotion Association, run by the Yujian Wenshi Studio) | Aug 6, 2026 | Wei Fu’an’s own first-hand account of leading Wencheng Commune’s post-disaster recovery: stabilizing residents, self-reliant production, restoring farmland irrigation, rebuilding housing, and afforestation — social-reconstruction content closely matching this project’s focus on the social and engineering background | Cited only |
| “Suiping Memories: Qingteng || Reflections 51 Years After Experiencing the ‘75.8’ Extraordinary Flood” (automated archiving unsuccessful; the researcher has retained a full print-to-PDF copy as a private local backup, not publicly released) | Qingteng (青藤, pen name of Wei Chengxin/魏成信), resident of Machuang Village, Wencheng Township, Suiping County, 19 years old at the time of the “75.8” flood; formerly a middle-school physics teacher and principal of Wencheng Middle School, later a civil servant, now retired and serving as cultural director of the Yujian Wenshi Studio | WeChat public account “豫见文史” (Yujian Wenshi; administered by the Suiping County Cultural Development Promotion Association, run by the Yujian Wenshi Studio) | Aug 7, 2026 (the author’s own dateline at the end of the piece reads Aug 8, 2026, the 51st anniversary of the “75.8” flood) | The author’s own account of being swept into the floodwater when the Banqiao Reservoir dam collapse reached Machuang Village in the early hours of Aug 8, 1975, and surviving by being pushed out through a gap in a collapsed house’s back wall, along with his description of the village’s heavy losses and his own reflections over five decades on the randomness of survival; the piece centers on personal experience and psychological aftermath rather than any region-wide casualty count | Cited only |
Accessed/archived: Sept 5, 2026. 三峡探索 (Three Gorges Probe / Probe International) is published by a Canadian environmental NGO with a long-standing, explicit advocacy position critical of large Chinese dam projects. These three pieces are included solely because they are first-hand accounts from members of the same family — listing them does not imply endorsement of the publisher’s other content or overall position. The site loads page content via client-side scripting, and automated archiving (Wayback Machine) could not be confirmed successful; the original links were each confirmed accessible at the time of cataloging.
The “豫见文史” WeChat account runs a dedicated “‘75.8’ Great Flood” series; known further entries include Wang Qiyun’s “The Full Story of Wencheng’s ‘75.8’ Great Flood Disaster,” Zhao Mingfa’s “A Life-and-Death Vigil by a Man in His Seventies During the ‘75.8’ Extraordinary Flood,” and a non-personal-account chronology, “A Timeline of the ‘75.8’ Extraordinary Flood Disaster.” These will be catalogued individually if and when specific article details are obtained.
Entry format
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Title | Article title |
| Author | Author’s name or online handle (if known), and their relationship to the event |
| Platform | Where it was published (personal blog, WeChat account, forum, etc.) |
| Original URL | Link to the original article |
| Archived copy | Link to a web-archive snapshot, or a note that a private local snapshot exists; entries that couldn’t be archived should say why |
| Publish date | The article’s publish date, if determinable |
| Accessed/archived date | The date this project consulted or archived the content |
| Summary | A brief, non-verbatim description of the content relevant to this project |
| Rights status | Typically “cited only,” or a short fair-use quotation of a specific fact where needed (see Sources & Methodology); this site does not reproduce the full text or extended passages |
WeChat entries: citation format and archiving notes
WeChat public-account (公众号) articles are the least stable source type in this category — they can disappear at any time due to platform moderation, account bans, or the author’s own deletion, and they aren’t indexed by search engines, which makes independent verification harder. When adding one:
- Record both the account name and account ID, not just the display name — display names can be changed after the fact. Screenshot the account’s info page as supporting evidence (the ID itself can eventually be recycled after an account is deleted, so treat it as corroborating, not sole, evidence).
- Author: use the individual’s name if the article is signed; if not, treat the account itself as the responsible party.
- Publish date is the date shown on the article; accessed/archived date is when this project actually consulted or archived it. Keep these separate, since WeChat articles can be silently edited after publication — the archive snapshot is the only proof of the exact version being cited.
- Archiving: try archive.today first (it handles WeChat pages more reliably than the Wayback Machine, which is also worth trying as a backup). If both fail, fall back to WeChat’s own share/export function or a full-page screenshot/print-to-PDF as a manual archive, and note in the entry “automated archiving failed, manual screenshot archive used.”
- Reposts: if the original was already deleted and it’s only findable via someone else’s repost (e.g., a screenshot shared on Weibo or Zhihu), say so explicitly (“secondhand repost, not archived from the original”) and lower the reliability assessment accordingly.
Recommended citation format (adapting the GB/T 7714 convention for online sources):
Author (or account name). “Article Title.” WeChat account: Account Name (Account ID), published [date] [accessed date]. Original URL. Archived at: [archive link].
Notes
- Online content is generally harder to verify for authenticity and authorship than formal publications; entries are assessed against the verification principles in Sources & Methodology, and uncertain reliability is noted in the summary.
- Content involving living individuals also follows the interview-ethics and anonymization principles described there.
- This category does not include posts that only argue over casualty numbers without offering first-hand memory content — see the Rights & Reuse section of Sources & Methodology for how that material is handled instead.