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Impact of communism on the chinese communist revolution
Cultural Revolution history Essay
Cultural Revolution history Essay
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The movie “To Live” is a film about a family’s experience during hard and challenging time under Mao’s rule. Released in 1994, the movie was directed by Zhang Yimou and his sixth collaboration with Gong Li, “To Live” gives its viewers a journey towards this very revolutionary stage for the whole Chinese people. This movie transcends four decades of China’s history, which includes the Chinese Civil War, Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. “To Live” gives another perspective about this particular stage of China’s history. Instead of looking from above, the movie emphasizes the life experiences of the ordinary people as they try to cope up with these changes brought by the Chinese government under Mao’s rule
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In 1958, when Mao launched the ruinous “Great Leap Forward”. This included mass collectivization and the attempt to push forward Chinese industrialization by organizing “backyard furnaces” for every commune. People were ordered to contribute all their iron-made tools and cooking utensils to local smelters and to work round the clock in order to achieve ambitious production quotas. In one of the scenes in the film “To Live”, Fugui, in order to maintain face in the commune, ordered his exhausted young son to report for work at the smelter. When his son fell asleep on the job, he was crushed to death by a falling brick wall accidentally run into by a truck driven by, as fate would have it, another exhausted worker, Chunsheng, who has now become a local Party official. The remorseful Chunsheng begs forgiveness, but Jiazhen is inconsolable and declares that he “owes her a life”. The promulgation of the Great Leap Forward was the result of the failure of the Soviet model of industrialization in China, the reason behind this was that, china had a very dense population and no large agricultural surplus with which to accumulate
Jonathan Spence tells his readers of how Mao Zedong was a remarkable man to say the very least. He grew up a poor farm boy from a small rural town in Shaoshan, China. Mao was originally fated to be a farmer just as his father was. It was by chance that his young wife passed away and he was permitted to continue his education which he valued so greatly. Mao matured in a China that was undergoing a threat from foreign businesses and an unruly class of young people who wanted modernization. Throughout his school years and beyond Mao watched as the nation he lived in continued to change with the immense number of youth who began to westernize. Yet in classes he learned classical Chinese literature, poems, and history. Mao also attained a thorough knowledge of the modern and Western world. This great struggle between modern and classical Chinese is what can be attributed to most of the unrest in China during this time period. His education, determination and infectious personalit...
The phrase “history repeats itself is quite evident in this film. Currently, China’s economy is in a massive industrial revolution, similar to the American industrial revolution of the early 19th century. After three years of following the Zhang family, first time director Lixin Fan released The Last Train Home, attempting to raise awareness to the down side of China’s powerful economy. While the film The Last Train Home seems to just depict the lives of factory workers, it is also making a political statement about how western capitalism exploits factory workers to produce cheap goods. The film makes this exploitation evident by depicting the fracturing of the Zhang family and the harsh working conditions they must endure.
The novel 'Mao's Last Dancer', is a gripping story about the author, Li Cunxin and his story to success as a professional ballet dancer in communist China. The story shows how hard work, determination and hardships lead to the achievement of goals. Throughout the book, Li suffers from a number of physically and mentally challenging struggles that test him and push him to become stronger and more determined. Both mental and physical struggles are equally as difficult to overcome and both play a big part in different stages of Li's life.
After Chairman Mao’s death, Ji-Li and the rest of China realize that he was never the right leader for China and instead of improving China’s society, he actually prevented it. In the end, Ji-Li knows she was brainwashed by Mao’s actions. The Communist Party told them what to wear, read, think, and how to act. They never let China be free to be who they are. It was not until Mao's death that Ji-li began questioning what they were told. “It was only after Mao’s death in 1976 that people woke up. We finally learned that the whole Cultural Revolution had been part of a power struggle at the highest levels of the Party. Our leader had taken advantage of our trust and loyalty to manipulate the whole country.” (Jiang, Chapter 18). Now, as an adult, Ji-li tries to bridge the gap between China and America. She loves the freedom she enjoys in America, especially that she does not have to worry about what she says or thinks, but she does not hate China. People can not use political corruption and injustice to get what they want out of society. Promoting equality and opportunities for all is key to improving society. We can not get behind beating people up or imprisoning them because they did not abide by society’s
Teenager, an age of rebellions is offered the perfect opportunity: to falsely testify against their parents, and became the educable children of Chairman Mao. But for many, the choice is not easy. Specially for the kid from "black" family, similar to main character Jiang; they have to choose between siding with their family, consider a disgrace, going against Chairman Mao's idea, or to be an honorable red guard,and side with the communist party."' Why don't you stay home with him? In case...' 'I've thought about that.' She looked away from my face to the litter on the table. 'But we can't allow personal matters to interfere with revolutionary duties. Especially for an important political assignment like the exhibition.'"(205). That's the idea chairman Mao encouraged, and it clearly separate family from politics. From this other girl point of view, she valued her policies and belief overtook her love for her brother. The action of this girl makes a strong contract to Ji-Li, bother third action define who they are.
In the film To Live, a man and his family experience the effects of historical events of their own lives while living in China from the 1940s until the late 1970s. This film is a work of fiction, but it creates a generalization about the lives of the common folk and their imaginable struggle through life that they went through during the war. The war represented an ideological split between the Communist CPS and the KMT’s brand of Nationalism. Xu Fugui is one of the main characters and his name in Chinese means “Lucky & Rich.” Describing his character at the start on having an addiction to gambling and does not take responsibility for his actions. The film also hints slight social norms of gender inequality, such as with his wife, Jiazhen,
Into the Wild, a 2007 nonfiction film based on New York Times bestseller book written
Most films captivate the audience’s interest through the main character. This film did just that. Through the main character Li Cunxin, I was able to notice the amount of hard work and dedication which lead Li to become a famous ballet dancer known worldwide. The film, based on the autobiography by Li Cunxin, “Mao’s Last Dancer” directed by Bruce Beresford is about a Chinese boy named Li Cunxin who’s born into a large family of 6 boys. At the age of eleven, Li got chosen from a poverty-stricken Chinese village by Madam Mao’s cultural representatives to leave his family and study ballet in Beijing. This film focussed on his eventual departure from China to U.S.A after being selected by a world leading choreographer, Ben Stevenson including the
Anita Chan. Children of Mao: Personality Development and Political Activism in the Red Guard Generation (Seattle: University of Washington Press. 1985)
China’s Great Proletariat Cultural Revolution (GPCR) is a well-documented period in world history, but the most profound records are found vivified in the literature and films later into the 20th century, respectively. One of the most profound novels is “To Live”, authored by Yu Hua, which as a fictional narrative offers both a unique and realistic sense of the time period at the individual level. However, the provocative film adaptation directed by Zhang Yimou in 1994 was formidable enough that it was banned in Mainland China. Zhang paints a more realistic picture of how the GPCR influenced Chinese society but adds zest to Hua’s ambiguity but acceptable imperfection. Naturally, the film has many different characteristics yet still manages to overcome the challenges that implicate film adaptations.
There is no better way to learn about China's communist revolution than to live it through the eyes of an innocent child whose experiences were based on the author's first-hand experience. Readers learn how every aspect of an individual's life was changed, mostly for the worst during this time. You will also learn why and how Chairman Mao launched the revolution initially, to maintain the communist system he worked hard to create in the 1950's. As the story of Ling unfolded, I realized how it boiled down to people's struggle for existence and survival during Mao's reign, and how lucky we are to have freedom and justice in the United States; values no one should ever take for
In his 2006 film, Still Life, Jia Zhangke creates an enigmatic case study of alienation and displacement. Through the use of space, both literal and figurative, and long, extended takes that expand the perception of time Zhangke tells the story of a people who are victims of their own environment. What is perhaps most striking of the film, beyond even the existential and political undertones, is the division drawn between the cold and demonstrative attitude the government adopts towards its citizens and the warm, caring daily interactions between the people themselves.
Within the German Democratic Republic, there was a secret police force known as the Stasi, which was responsible for state surveillance, attempting to permeate every facet of life. Agents within and informants tied to the Stasi were both feared and hated, as there was no true semblance of privacy for most citizens. Directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, the movie The Lives of Others follows one particular Stasi agent as he carries out his mission to spy on a well-known writer and his lover. As the film progresses, the audience is able to see the moral transformation of Stasi Captain Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler primarily through the director 's use of the script, colors and lighting, and music.
...a journey of discovery/rediscovery of what the Western world comes to mean, while at the same time, negotiating the redefinition of selfhood and national identity of Hong Kong. The will to search for a reconciliation with the West in these films is certainly deeply embedded in Hong Kong’s search for its own identity in the post-colonial era. After its return to its Chinese motherland, Hong Kong consequently takes up the important position as the bridge between China and the West. Many recognize that its success to find its identity as part of China in the future depends on its ability to come to terms with its colonial past. Indeed, as we have seen, both films positively insist on the possibility of fulfilling such an aspiration. The process is not a comfortable one, and it is often one of pain and risks. Yet the films assure that it is also one of promise and hope.
Mao’s Cultural Revolution was an attempt to create a new culture for China. Through education reforms and readjustments, Mao hoped to create a new generation of Chinese people - a generation of mindless Communists. By eliminating intellectuals via the Down to the Countryside movement, Mao hoped to eliminate elements of traditional Chinese culture and create a new form Chinese culture. He knew that dumbing down the masses would give him more power so his regime would be more stable. This dramatic reform affected youth especially as they were targeted by Mao’s propaganda and influence. Drawing from his experiences as an Educated Youth who was sent down to the countryside Down to the Countryside movement, Ah Cheng wrote The King of Children to show the effects of the Cultural Revolution on education, and how they affected the meaning people found in education. In The King of Children, it is shown that the Cultural Revolution destroyed the traditional incentives for pursuing an education, and instead people found moral and ethical meaning in pursuing an education.