Recently, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) authorities have been releasing hundreds of “red classic films” across the mainland in anticipation of the centennial of the CCP’s founding. The films reminded the Chinese public of past political campaigns, especially the devastation suffered by the film industry and the literary arts during the Cultural Revolution.
According to the Voice of America, the National Film Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) has recently issued a notice stating that from April to December, “The Red Army of Women”, “The Railway Guerrillas”, “The Southern Expedition”, “Shangganling”, “Little Soldier Zhang Ga”, “Mine War”, “Red Sun”, “Children of Heroes”, and many other films based on the Cultural Revolution, the Korean War, the War of Resistance against Japan, etc. will be screened. Many “red classic films” based on the Cultural Revolution, the Korean War and the War of Resistance against Japan will be released one after another throughout mainland China.
According to the report, about 100 major cinemas in Shanghai are participating in the campaign, the Department of Education of Henan Province has launched “100 films in the classroom”, and some places in Guangdong have organized 100 films of 100 red classics.
However, some cinema owners are worried about the authorities’ directive to show red classic films, fearing that the low attendance rate will directly affect theaters’ business income.
According to the report, portraits of more than 100 old Chinese film actors and directors will be displayed in movie theaters in some cities during the film festival, a move that has sparked public debate.
Song Yongyi, an expert on the history of the Cultural Revolution, told VOA that the 100 films recommended by the Chinese Communist Party, especially those in black and white, are a reminder of the absurd Cultural Revolution era, when flyers of 100 films criticized by Red Guards as poisonous grass appeared in Shanghai in the summer of 1966, including “February in Early Spring” and “Five Golden Flowers,” which are included in his Cultural Revolution database.
Song Yongyi said, since these films were released, “Do you dare to publish these old films in the middle of the Cultural Revolution, or before the Cultural Revolution, the experience of those actors and directors who were rectified? Each film is the blood and tears history of these directors and actors, how many old film directors and actors suffered during the Cultural Revolution, some were persecuted to death, and some were forced to commit suicide.”
Song Yongyi said that all old films in mainland China must be subordinated to the political needs of the Chinese Communist Party and are propaganda tools of the Party.
Song Yongyi also said that one cannot ignore the aspect of films depicting the war against the U.S. and Korea that go against history. The war began when Kim Il Sung’s forces first broke through the 38th parallel and invaded South Korea (South Korea), which led to an international boycott and the internationalization of the war on the peninsula, where the complex international political ecology continues to this day.
Among the “175 masters who died during the Cultural Revolution” published in “Beijing Literature and Art” are many writers, directors and actors, including those of the above-mentioned old red films.
According to the “History of Contemporary Chinese Cinema Art,” more than 1,000 employees of the Shanghai Film Studio were criticized during the Cultural Revolution, and 309 of them were persecuted and died unnaturally, 16 of them. Of the 108 scriptwriters and directors in the studio, 104 were illegally censored and imprisoned.
In Beijing Film Studio, out of 800 employees, more than 300 people were subjected to the autumn struggle, and 7 people died of mutilation. Two-thirds of the production force (521 people) were cancelled their Changchun household registration and forced to move to the countryside for a long time.
During the 17-year period from 1949 to 1966, Chinese films were called the “Seventeen Years of Cinema” and during the Cultural Revolution they were called “poisonous weeds of literature and art” and were all criticized and banned from screening.
According to reports, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) brainwashed the people of mainland China through red films, and these films, which were fabricated according to the CCP’s political needs, have deceived generations of Chinese people.
A performer, Hao Zhongliang (a pseudonym), who has accompanied “Bai Mao Niu” all his life, once said, “I have accompanied “Bai Mao Niu” all my life, but it turned out that “Bai Mao Niu” was a lie, and so many ‘landlords’ were criticized, killed, and deprived of their family assets, and the sons and daughters of the landlords have not had good results for generations, and have been rectified in successive campaigns. The children of the landowners, who have been suffering for generations, have been rectified during the successive campaigns, all have something to do with this “White Maiden”. After knowing the truth, I really feel sorry for myself, we have been cheated for several generations.”
Current affairs commentator Lin Hui said that the “White Hairy Woman” is one of the most familiar fictional images in China, and one of the most successful images created by the Chinese Communist Party to pervert black and white.
Zhang Jianping, a commentator on current affairs in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province, told Radio Free Asia, “The movies and plays we could see as children were probably “The White Hairy Woman,” “The Red Army of the Maiden” and “The Surprise Attack on the White Tiger Regiment. In the past we would also be incited to national emotions, but of course now we feel horrible that this is something that preaches hatred.”
Ling Zhenbao, a netizen in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province, said the CCP is on full throttle to promote its “greatness” and “prove to the world that it is the orthodoxy of the red mountains and that the violent revolution and class struggle of the Communist Party will never be forgotten.”
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