The “Beijing Spring” of 1978-1981 was a civic movement that emerged in response to China’s reform and opening up, with pro-democracy activists such as Wei Jingsheng taking the lead in calling for freedom of expression and democratic reform on the Xidan Democracy Wall and in private publications. A group of poets, painters, sculptors, and photographers also joined the movement, planning an unsanctioned “Star Painting Session” in September 1979, which is considered the prelude to modern Chinese art. The documentary “Spring in Beijing,” directed by independent filmmaker and journalist Andy Cohen, was recently screened at the Montreal International Film Festival of the Arts (LEFIFA) and other venues, featuring the protests against the Xidan Democracy Wall and the protest marches that followed the banning of the Star Painting Society. This is the first time we have released the footage of photographer Chi Xiaoning’s adventures at the scene. Listen to Radio Free Asia reporter Xue Xiaoshan’s interview with the film’s director Cohen.
Reporter: Compared to the June Fourth Incident in the spring and summer of 1989, many people don’t realize that a far-reaching democracy movement also took place in China in the late 1970s. How would you convince them to see this film depicting this movement?
Cohen: This is the first documentary to focus on the Beijing Spring, and for the first time, footage has been released that Chi Xiaoning had not exposed in 35 years.
Before the democratic wall in Xidan, everyone had to suppress their feelings, art was dominated by Soviet realism, and poetry was uniform. Although Mao claimed that there was no pure art, the people made personalized expressions of art for art’s sake, and a group of self-taught artists emerged. Unwilling to hide under a rigid and cold image, they expressed their discontent since the Cultural Revolution, the closing of art schools, and the lack of schooling.
People hung their poetry, prose, magazines and photography on the walls, reflecting their artistic, creative, political, freedom-hungry inner world. There was no Internet, and everyone crowded to the wall to visit.
Ji Xiaoning was very brave, like a war correspondent. He bluffed the police at that time and exposed the useless films in front of them, leaving the really useful ones behind. He died in 2007, his daughter is still a minor, and it took three or four years for his wife’s nephew to deal with the copyright issue about whether the jurisdiction belongs to Hong Kong, Japan or China. I am very grateful to the M+ Museum in the Kowloon Cultural District of Hong Kong for finally helping me to resolve the legal copyright issue, where they have the ownership but I can use it.
The seeds of the fight for artistic freedom (by modern Chinese artists) originated in the Beijing Spring and continues to this day. The film is very relevant: the M+ Museum cannot even defend its freedom today, and Ai Weiwei’s work was banned in Hong Kong for giving the middle finger at Tiananmen Square.
The Democracy Wall in Xidan, Beijing, late 1970s (Public Domain)
Reporter: What is the relationship between the Beijing Spring and the 1989 academic movement?
Cohen: The Beijing Spring, so to speak, was the seed, germ or root of the 1989 school movement. Both have a legacy in terms of the way the march was organized, the political ideology, and the artistic expression.
After the April 5 Movement in 1976, which mourned Zhou Enlai, there was the concept of mass unity, which inspired the Beijing Spring of ’79. The Beijing Spring was a bit like the hippie movement of the 1960s in the U.S. The “Stars” march on the 11th National Day of ’79, which advocated the defense of constitutional rights, could be considered the birth of a democratic movement, unleashing a desire for social change, for democracy, and for challenging authority.
From an artistic perspective, the 1989 avant-garde exhibition No U-Turn would not have been possible without the Stars exhibition. I hope that the Chinese will finally see the Beijing Spring as a “national treasure” and write about these artists in their textbooks.
Reporter: In 1978, China was still in an ideological vacuum, with some hints of questioning Mao Zedong and the Communist Party. What were the historical factors that shaped the Beijing Spring?
Cohen: The most important factor was Deng Xiaoping’s rise to power, his invention of socialism with Chinese characteristics and his economic reforms. The political climate in China took on a liberal tendency and Western books, music and culture began to enter the country. For a long time, Chinese people didn’t even know who Jesus was, let alone Picasso. Artists such as Ai Weiwei, Ma Desheng, Huang Rui, Wang Keping, Yan Li, Bei Dao and Munch gradually came to prominence.
This included the previous visit of Nixon to China in 1972 and the normalization of Sino-American relations under the policy of engagement with China. 76 saw the death of Mao Zedong, the end of the Cultural Revolution, and the trial of the Gang of Four. Everyone started to earn money and the first Coca-Cola arrived in Beijing in 1978. These different rivers came together at a point in history that gave birth to the Beijing Spring.
Reporter: “We know the world with our own eyes and participate in it with our own brushes and carving knives. We have our own expressions in our paintings, and our expressions speak of our own ideals.” This is the manifesto of the “Stars Art Exhibition” that was first hung on the railing in ’79. What is its core spirit?
People view the Star Exhibition in front of the Beijing Art Museum (video screenshot)
Cohen: The artists of the Stars believe that every person is a star. And they had only one star growing up – Mao Zedong. At that time, someone who defecated on Mao’s portrait or painted a nude would be sentenced to jail. The Star Painting Society, on the other hand, advocated that everyone be free to create, to paint what you wanted to paint, in your own way, no longer afraid of nudity, emotion, dancing, or drinking. It was a joyful spirit where everyone supported and appreciated each other. You go and see the soaring personalities of this group, it could be a close-up movie. They are not the red, bright, shiny fake heroes of official propaganda, but the real ones.
Reporter: The “Star Art Exhibition” is regarded as the beginning of Chinese contemporary art and a symbol of the independence of contemporary artists. What is new about it and what is its historical significance? Why did it create such a sensation at the time?
Cohen: As you can see in the film, many people passing by the fence of the art museum reacted with shock and disbelief, including the distorted, three-dimensional presentation, the mockery of Mao and the Communist Party, and the fact that the exhibition was unofficial and illegal. The largest museum in China at the time, the Beijing Art Museum, had an official exhibition promoting revolutionary realism inside, and the fence outside was an exhibition of “in the wild” star paintings. They used abstract techniques, new materials, and new themes, focusing on the daily lives of ordinary people rather than promoting heroes. This dynamic dichotomy was so striking that it was like dropping a bomb. Officials were sent to disrupt the Stars painting exhibition, triggering the subsequent Fourth of July protest marches.
The historical significance of the Stars Art Exhibition is that resistance for artistic freedom will eventually defeat the censorship machine, and freedom of expression will eventually grow like a weed and break through the cracks of any fortress created by the Chinese Communist Party.
Reporter: Mao Zedong believed that “art for art’s sake, art that is superclass, art that is parallel to or independent of politics, does not actually exist.” How did the Cultural Revolution and Mao Zedong’s thought shape their understanding of politics and art?
Cohen: Wang Keping and Wei Jingsheng were both former Red Guards. The children thought they didn’t need their parents or go to school, then suffered disillusionment and found themselves victimized by manipulation. Their first rebellion was the “breaking of the Four Olds” during the Cultural Revolution, and their second rebellion was against the Communist Party, which was the moment of truth.
Mao Zedong was undoubtedly a genius, and such a manipulator has to have some weight of his own. These people grew up reading the “Red Book” (Mao’s quotations). Sculptor Wang Keping’s Long Long Life depicts a Party member holding up the Red Book, and his other rebellious work, Idol, combines a statue of Mao with a statue of Buddha.
Reporter: The Misty poetry publication Today, founded by Bei Dao and Munch, appears several times in the film.
Cohen: At that time, there were underground magazines that served as springboards for the democratic movement, such as Wei Jingsheng’s Quest and Xu Wenli’s Forum 4-5. Huang Rui and Ma Desheng were members of Today at first, and Today was also the origin of the Star Movement.
Reporter: The rise and fall of the Xidan Democracy Wall has always been shaped by Deng Xiaoping’s attitude, and he called it a “normal phenomenon” and “constitutionally permissible” when he was interviewed in 1978. In 1980, he changed his tone and criticized them as “unstable factors. Why did it change so quickly?
Cohen: Deng Xiaoping learned from Mao Zedong, and instead of improvements, arrests and purges were ushered in after the “blossoming of a hundred flowers and the contention of a hundred schools of thought. But I don’t think Deng did it on purpose. He was experimenting with democracy, economic reform and free speech. It is acceptable for the “wall of democracy” to focus on the Cultural Revolution, but it is problematic to turn one’s attention to the present. It is the artist’s job to broaden the limits. Officially, however, Wei Jingsheng pushed too far, publishing “The Fifth Modernization” and criticizing Deng Xiaoping as a dictator, and eventually being sentenced to 15 years in prison. It was clear from the closing of the Democracy Wall what kind of dictator Deng Xiaoping was, and the June 4 crackdown ten years later escalated even more.
Reporter: The climax of the film seems to come on October 1, 1979, when the Star Exhibition was banned and the protest march took place. People marched from the Democracy Wall to speak in front of the Party Committee of the Beijing Municipal Government.
Cohen: Yes, this was shot by Chi Xiaoning. The film company he used was Generation Red, which is the greatest irony of all. Ma Desheng (who suffered from polio as a child) was separated from his parents in life and death, and walked all the way to the front on crutches; it’s hard to imagine how strong he was. Xu Wenli led the singing in the front, his face revealing a pure and beautiful temperament. Then there was Wang Keping and Qu Leilei. You can feel the spirit, the speed and the electricity, filled with the anger of uncovering the truth. This segment is the climax, the soul and the pulsation of this film. It happens on the National Day, when they are defending the right to free expression in the Constitution.
Reporter: Star artist Li Shuang once said, “I think our generation is a generation that lives in a world where everything is forbidden, but like all of you young people, we have thousands of aspirations as human beings, and all these things are suppressed again and again, like pressing iron to the limit, that’s how the universe is. When all desires are pressed to their limits, when they are slowly released, they will be much more powerful than some of the generation that never had these things.” When do you think the “Beijing Spring” and similar mass awakenings and protests will return?
Cohen: The Beijing Spring birthed the seeds of rebellion, of the quest for human rights and democracy and free expression. Every subsequent democratic movement in China has had a shadow of the “Stars of Beauty”, where everyone was a star. No matter how constricted and closed the environment is, there will always be cracks. Once there is a crack, the sunlight will shine in and the seeds will grow into a big tree. This moment seems to be coming, especially in Hong Kong.
Reporter: Thank you for giving me this interview.
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