Four years have passed, but Sun Qixiang still remembered the excitement of her father when he watched China's V-day military parade on TV in the hospital.

"Despite how he was deeply ill then, the moment he saw the video of the military parade, he struggled and tried to get up from the bed, with sounds of excitement in his throat," said Sun, an economics professor at Peking University.

Her father, Sun Ziming, joined the army led by the Communist Party of China in 1938 at the age of 12. He got wounded many times in his head, chest and arm during the fight against the Japanese invaders as well as the army led by the Kuomintang.

The veteran suffered from Parkinson's disease and was barely able to move when the country put on the military parade to mark the 70th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War in September 2015.

According to the professor, her father's physical condition was not good at that time, but his strong will to watch the military parade supported him to fight against the illness.

It's a pity that the veteran passed away last year and could not see the military parade on the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, said the professor, who was awarded the National March-Eighth Red-Banner Pacesetter title and invited to view the military parade on Tuesday.

The heroes who have sacrificed for the country deserve to be remembered, and the military parade is a great ceremony to recognize their efforts and greet their contributions, she said.

Just as President Xi Jinping put it, the deeds and contributions of the heroes and role models will always be marked in the history of the People's Republic of China.

In a speech at the ceremony for presenting national medals and national honorary titles on Sunday, Xi said, "Heroes only emerge and abound where they are admired and emulated."