Interview: Italian rock band dedicates song to memory of Nanjing Massacre victims

Italian rock band 7grani has dedicated a song in remembrance of the Nanjing Massacre to raise awareness among young generations about genocides in history.

"We were very affected by this extermination of thousands and thousands of Chinese people, which continues to remain largely forgotten," Fabrizio Settegrani, the lead singer of the band, told Xinhua in an interview.

More than 300,000 Chinese civilians and soldiers were murdered and about 20,000 women were raped in a 40-odd-day slaughter by invading Japanese troops who captured Nanjing, China's then capital, on Dec. 13, 1937.

7grani is made up of three brothers - Fabrizio, Mauro and Flavio Settegrani - living near Lake Como in northern Italy. The brothers identify strongly with topics related to World War II and the atrocities that the human race inflicted upon each other during that time.

Their new song Ragazza di Nanchino (Nanjing Girl) is included in the band's latest album Neve diventeremo (We will become snow) which was released on Tuesday, International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The album, dedicated to the memory and the topics of World War II, takes its title from a song about the Nazi Holocaust, inspired by the true story of a family friend who was deported to Buchenwald and Dora Mittelbau concentration camps in 1944.

"We believe in music as a way to get closer to young generations, to move them, arouse reflection and make what happened known," Fabrizio said. At the same time, music, while invoking memory, also allows musicians to deliver messages of hope, he added.

Memory is fundamental, Fabrizio stressed. Young generations have to know the past in order to look at the present and keep their eyes peeled to impede shameful crimes from ever occurring again, he pointed out.

Ragazza di Nanchino was inspired by the book The Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang. The three brothers were especially moved by the description of the Nanjing Massacre wherein Japanese threw the dead bodies of Chinese people into the Yangtze River.

"The river was devastated itself from the violence of what happened. So we decided to start our song with the poetical image of scattered flower petals all over the Yangtze as a sort of purification, release...the river symbolizes life, death, passing things and all that remains," Fabrizio said.

The song is about a broken love with a Nanjing girl. "I tell her that I will always have in my heart the pain that she bears inside her. It is a tribute to memory and a love dedication for those women who suffer violence," Fabrizio said.

Ragazza di Nanchino was also an occasion for the band to present its works to many schools in Italy, as well as concerts and events throughout the country, to promote cultural integration, as the band is well aware of the key role that education plays in this.

"Approaching China's culture was fascinating to try to understand the past of Chinese people, and try to go beyond the economic issues that are at the center of nowadays' topics related to China," Mauro said. "Therefore, composing this song was important for us also to explore the culture and poetic sensitivity of the Chinese world," he highlighted.

Not only did the band hire Italian-Sino harpist, Pauline Fazzioli in the recording of Ragazza di Nanchino, but they also "dream of going to China to play and shoot a documentary-video in those places where the massacre occurred, to show how Nanjing and the whole of China have recovered strongly from that tragic event," Mauro told Xinhua. Enditem