Cherishing peace via grand music

"Commemorating the 70th anniversary of victory in World War II is not to remember hatred, but to make such a tragic history of war not to repeat again in anywhere in the world," Wang added.

Eighty-year-old Chinese-American musician Yao Xueyan directed and conducted the concert, which featured more than 300 musicians from diverse backgrounds.

The program included Song of the Guerrillas, Bella Ciao, Yellow River Cantata and other pieces. Among them, Yellow River Cantata was written during the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, when the writer Xian Xinghai marched with the anti-Japanese forces to the northwest shore of the Yellow River.

When the melody of the most well known movements of the cantata Defend the Yellow River resounded, hundreds of audience members joined in spontaneously.

"The spirit-lifting melody is what we Chinese are all familiar with," said Liu Yumei, who traveled from Washington for the concert with family members. "Even (though) we are scattered outside the motherland, I feel that we were connected tightly with our motherland at the moment I sang the song together with all the attendees."

Flying Tigers veteran Chen Jintang and World War II US Marine veteran Kuang Rongyao attended the concert and won warm applause from the audiences.

"That's probably one of the most moving scenes of tonight," said Ma Huaqiang, an audience member. "When they waved to us, I was totally touched by their trembling but unswerving expression. We just cannot stop applauding."

China's telecommunications equipment and systems company ZTE gave smartphones as a tribute during the intermission.

"ZTE has a long tradition in caring and helping veterans in China," said Sam Shen, senior vice-president and head of ZTE USA Inc. "Today we carry out this activity abroad to pay our tribute to veterans in the US; it's a social responsibility" for a Chinese corporation.

The China Council for the Promotion of Peaceful National Reunification, US Chinese Chamber of Commerce and more than 30 Chinese communities in the eastern US sponsored and supported the concert.

Hong Xiao in New York contributed to this story.