A Chinese mother, Zhang Xinghui, handcrafts 1,000 pairs of shoe pads for soldiers to honor her late son, who died rescuing his comrade in 2005. Her dedication has inspired many.

A Chinese mother has handcrafted more than 1,000 pairs of shoe pads for new army recruits in memory of her soldier son who died rescuing his comrade two decades ago. Zhang Xinghui, from southwestern China’s Chongqing municipality, is affectionately nicknamed “shoe pad mum”. In 2005, her son, 19-year-old Gu Nu, died while patrolling a mountain in Tibet and rescuing his teammate from a landslide. Gu became a frontier guard in 2003 and was promoted as his squad’s deputy leader. When Zhang learned....