he year of 2015 is the 70th anniversary of the victory of the World Anti-Fascism War and the Second Sino-Japanese War. As sister cities, the official photography exhibition ‘Commemorating History and Cherishing Peace’ were hold both in Shanghai and St Petersburg.

Since this May, the photos had been displayed in the Lobby of University Library on SISU's Songjiang Campus. The whole 44 panels told people the stories of the Battle of Shanghai and how the army and people struggled in the 900 trapped days during the Siege of Leningrad.

The battle of Shanghai on April 13, 1937 was based on the anti-Japanese national united front of KMT-Communist cooperation. It is regarded as the grand beginning of the comprehensive Anti-Japanese War. This part of the exhibition included true historical photos and comics ‘Hatred’ illustrated by Mingcao Zhang during the war. All of them epitomized the venerable patriotism showed when the army and people fought against the Japanese invaders together and also strongly revealed the fierce and brutal offence of the Japanese Fascists.

The siege of Leningrad, which lasted nearly 900 days, was one of the most miserable events in the WWII, and the most painful humanitarian disasters. In the exhibition showed a series of paintings reflected the most difficult phase in the battle, and pictorial posters created by artists from Leningrad Union of Soviet Artist ‘Martial Pencil’. They mirrored the Fascists’ atrocity and huge sacrifice and tremendous contribution which Soviet people made to defend their country.

The two-month exhibition tour was sponsored by the Ministry of Publicity of Shanghai Municipal Committee of CPC, Shanghai People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, St. Petersburg Municipal Foreign Liaison Committee and Shanghai Baoshan People’s Government.

It was co-hosted by the Memorial Hall of Shanghai Songhu Anti-Japanese War, Memorial Hall of Siege of Leningrad, Baoshan Library, Shanghai International Studies University (SISU) and Shanghai Workers' Cultural Palace.