Li Nan: Empowering Youth Education in Ideals and Beliefs via Red Venues
Red resources [1] encapsulate the spiritual strength of the Communist Party of China (CPC) as it forged ahead through hardships and obstacles; they constitute precious spiritual nourishment for the growth and success of young people in the New Era. General Secretary Xi Jinping has emphasized: "We must utilize red resources as vivid teaching materials for firming up ideals and convictions and strengthening Party spirit [2]. We must tell the stories of the Party, of the revolution, of the revolutionary base areas, and of heroes and martyrs. We must strengthen education in revolutionary traditions, patriotism, and the ideological and moral development of youth, ensuring that the red gene [3] is passed down and that our red territory [4] never changes its color." This important thesis has pointed the direction for the protection and utilization of red resources. The "Proposal of the CPC Central Committee for Formulating the Fifteenth Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development" further posits that we must "make good use of red resources to strengthen education in the ideals and convictions of youth," promoting the idea that red culture should be perceptible and tangible, so that the red spirit is internalized in the mind and externalized in action. As the concrete carriers of red resources, red venues [5] serve as core battlefronts for conducting patriotic education among youth, providing a "second classroom" for ideological and political education in the New Era that possesses historical depth, theoretical breadth, and practical efficacy.
The core value of red venues lies in truly integrating the red gene and revolutionary spirit into educational vehicles and ideological content. They play an irreplaceable role in cultivating patriotism, a sense of responsibility, and the spirit of struggle in youth. In terms of cognitive cultivation, red venues are the carriers through which youth read and understand red history and the revolutionary spirit. Red history contains the answers to "why the CPC can, why Marxism works, and why socialism with Chinese characteristics is good." [6] The process by which red venues narrate historical stories is a process of transforming abstract historical threads and conclusions into visualized teaching. It allows youth to perceive the arduous journey and great achievements of Chinese Communists as they "ignited the trail and hacked through the thorns," [7] providing a vivid education that helps them recognize that "red political power did not come easily, the New China did not come easily, and socialism with Chinese characteristics did not come easily."
In the dimension of value guidance, red venues are the spiritual fertile soil where youth shape correct values and nurture noble character. They provide perceptible and lovable spiritual role models and value benchmarks for the growth of young people, guiding them to align themselves with advanced figures and cultivate the fine qualities of arduous struggle and selfless dedication. In the dimension of educating through practice, red venues serve as practical platforms for youth to achieve the unity of knowledge and action. Through immersive learning, they can grasp the advanced ideology of the CPC, bridge the gap between theory and reality, and promote the transformation of patriotic feelings and the ambition to strengthen the country into practical actions of diligent study and service to society. This completes the elevation of ideological and political education effectiveness from "knowing what it is" (know-that) and "knowing why it is so" (know-why) to "earnestly practicing it." Although the dissemination of red culture has already achieved results among youth groups, under the dual influence of consumption upgrading and technological empowerment, the demand for red culture among youth has shifted from passive observation and learning to personalized, interactive, and immersive active experiences. This places higher demands on the novelty and resonance of red venues, gradually becoming an urgent necessity for enhancing the effectiveness of ideological and political education.
Red venues are not merely passive historical records or educational carriers; they maintain a two-way dialogic and interactive relationship with their audience. The construction and practice of red venues must correspond with the knowledge needs, aesthetic expectations, and emotional appeals of youth, advancing practice across multiple dimensions so that red spaces truly become vivid classrooms for youth to "study history to understand principles, increase confidence, and honor virtue." [8] Using the design of red venues, we must hold fast to the authentic core of the red gene. We should remain faithful to authentic historical materials, using technological presentation methods to reproduce historical situations and construct an immersive space for historical cognition. Based on technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT) sensor scanning and modeling, and computer vision algorithms to restore historical images, we should integrate the narrative elements of red history—"people, events, time, place, and objects"—to enhance the vividness of historical narration. We must strengthen emotional resonance and interaction, promoting a shift from "transmitting knowledge" to "transmitting the spirit." Red venues create multi-dimensional fields of emotional interaction, activating the desire of youth to explore red history and revolutionary figures, allowing them to perceive noble character and the spirit of struggle through a dialogue with heroes and models that transcends time and space. We should innovate aesthetic experience methods to enhance the inspirational power of red venues in education. Red venues need to integrate aesthetic concepts into the entire process of spatial design. Visual symbols such as flags and sculptures should reflect a solemn atmosphere; auditory symbols such as red songs and bugle calls should evoke collective memory; and behavioral symbols such as taking oaths and presenting flower baskets should strengthen the sense of ritual, forming an immersive, all-sensory field of experience. Digital technology expands the audience's aesthetic perception: VR/AR broadens the limits of time and space, and 3D rendering restores the scenes of red sites. Through aesthetic appeal, red culture can be imperceptibly integrated into ideological and political education, educating through beauty and culture, while guiding youth to increase confidence, honor virtue, and practice diligently through "education in recreation."
Taking red venues as a vehicle for education requires exploring new forms and paths of nurturing people, accurately docking with the personalized growth needs of youth, and building an experience model that integrates knowledge acquisition, community expression, and spiritual inspiration. Relying on big data technology to analyze and evaluate the knowledge reserves, visiting preferences, and growth demands of different youth groups, we can customize red cultural products to achieve the precise and personalized delivery of red culture content. We must break through the unidirectional communication model of red venues and create interactive scenes with cultural resonance. Methods such as planning "check-in" tasks, inquiry-based learning, performances of red stories, and debates should be used to match the interests of young people. This encourages students to produce content rich in social and cultural value during the experience, such as posting related topics on network platforms, creating short videos, and conducting promotion through offline "check-in" practice modes, thereby promoting the "buzz" dissemination of red culture among youth. In the interaction and collision between youth groups, they can influence and promote one another, gradually creating a strong atmosphere of revering red culture, carrying forward the red gene, and practicing the red spirit. This will truly complete the transformation from perceptual knowledge to rational cognition, letting the red gene enter the mind and heart, and translating it into their own spiritual pursuit and conscious action.
To achieve high-quality development for red venues in the New Era, we must innovate in practice while upholding the fundamentals, promoting the deep integration of cognitive learning, spiritual inheritance, and modern experience. We must ensure that red venues truly become places for inheriting the red gene and cultivating ideals and convictions, providing a powerful spiritual impetus for youth to grow into the "new people of the era" who shoulder the great responsibility of national rejuvenation.