Related Research Articles
The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goal was to preserve Chinese communism by purging remnants of capitalist and traditional elements from Chinese society, and to re-impose Mao Zedong Thought as the dominant ideology in the PRC. The Revolution marked the return of Mao, who was Chairman of the Communist Party of China (CPC), to the central position of power after a period of less radical leadership to recover from the failures of the Great Leap Forward, which caused the Great Chinese Famine (1959–1961). However, the Revolution failed to achieve its main goals.
Jiang Qing, also known as Madame Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary, actress, and major political figure during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976). She was the fourth wife of Mao Zedong, the Chairman of the Communist Party and Paramount leader of China. She used the stage name Lan Ping (藍蘋) during her acting career, and was known by many other names. She married Mao in Yan'an in November 1938 and served as the inaugural "First Lady" of the People's Republic of China. Jiang was best known for playing a major role in the Cultural Revolution and for forming the radical political alliance known as the "Gang of Four". Jiang served as Mao's personal secretary in the 1940s and was head of the Film Section of the Communist Party's Propaganda Department in the 1950s. She served as an important emissary for Mao in the early stages of the Cultural Revolution. In 1966, she was appointed deputy director of the Central Cultural Revolution Group. She collaborated with Lin Biao to advance Mao's unique brand of Communist ideology as well as Mao's cult of personality. At the height of the Cultural Revolution, Jiang held significant influence in the affairs of state, particularly in the realm of culture and the arts, and was idolized in propaganda posters as the "Great Flagbearer of the Proletarian Revolution". In 1969, Jiang gained a seat on the Politburo. Before Mao's death, the Gang of Four controlled many of China's political institutions, including the media and propaganda. However, Jiang, deriving most of her political legitimacy from Mao, often found herself at odds with other top leaders. Mao's death in 1976 dealt a significant blow to Jiang's political fortunes. She was arrested in October 1976 by Hua Guofeng and his allies, and was subsequently condemned by party authorities. Since then, Jiang has been officially branded as having been part of the "Lin Biao and Jiang Qing Counter-Revolutionary Cliques" (林彪江青反革命集团), to which most of the blame for the damage and devastation caused by the Cultural Revolution was assigned. Though she was initially sentenced to death, her sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 1983. After being released for medical treatment, Jiang died by suicide in May 1991.
Fang Lizhi was a Chinese astrophysicist, vice-president of the University of Science and Technology of China, and activist whose liberal ideas inspired the pro-democracy student movement of 1986–87 and, finally, the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. Because of his activism, he was expelled from the Chinese Communist Party in January 1987. For his work, Fang was a recipient of the Robert F Kennedy Human Rights Award in 1989, given each year to an individual whose courageous activism is at the heart of the human rights movement and in the spirit of Robert F. Kennedy's vision and legacy. He was elected an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1980, but it was revoked after 1989.
Xie Fuzhi was a Chinese Communist Party military commander, political commissar, and national security specialist. He was born in 1909 in Hong'an County, Hubei and died in Beijing in 1972. Xie was known for his efficiency and his loyalty to Mao Zedong, and during the Cultural Revolution he played a key role in hunting down the Chairman's enemies in his capacity as Minister of Public Security from 1959 to 1972.
Xie Jin was a Chinese film director. He rose to prominence in 1957, directing the film Woman Basketball Player No. 5, and is considered one of the Third Generation directors of China. Most recently he was known for the direction of The Opium War.
The Wuhan incident was an armed conflict in the People's Republic of China between two hostile groups who were fighting for control over the city of Wuhan in July 1967, at the height of the Cultural Revolution. The two opposing forces were the "Million Heroes" and the "Wuhan Workers' General Headquarters". The former, numbering about 500,000 people, comprised mainly skilled workers, state and local party employees, and were supported by the local PLA, led by the commander of Wuhan Military Region, General Chen Zaidao. The "Wuhan Workers' General Headquarters", also numbering close to 500,000 people, comprised mostly workers and students from Red Guard organizations.
Hibiscus Town is a 1986 Chinese film directed by Xie Jin, based on a novel by the same name written by Gu Hua. The film, a melodrama, follows the life and travails of a young woman who lives through the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution and as such is an example of the "scar drama" genre that emerged in the 1980s and 1990s that detailed life during that period. The film was produced by the Shanghai Film Studio.
Just in Singapore is a Singaporean Chinese modern comedic drama which was telecasted on Singapore's free-to-air channel, MediaCorp Channel 8. It made its debut on 25 February 2008 and ended on 4 April 2008. This drama serial consists of 30 episodes, and was screened on every weekday night at 9:00 pm. The series was repeated at 2 am on Sundays.
All Men Are Brothers, also known as Seven Soldiers of Kung Fu, is a 1975 Hong Kong wuxia film based on the Chinese classical 14th century novel Water Margin. The film was produced by the Shaw Brothers Studio and directed by Chang Cheh and Wu Ma.
The Herdsman is a 1982 Chinese film about the life of a herdsman in western China from 1950s through the Cultural Revolution, and his reunion with his father from America. It was produced by the Shanghai Film Studio and directed by Xie Jin, starring Zhu Shimao. It is based on a novel by Zhang Xianliang.
Wu De, born Li Chunhua (李春华), was a Chinese Communist revolutionary and politician of the People's Republic of China. He served in provincial-level leadership positions in Pingyuan Province, Tianjin municipality, Jilin Province, and Beijing municipality, and was a member of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party from 1973 to 1980. After the Cultural Revolution, Wu was a key supporter of Hua Guofeng and was forced out of politics after Deng Xiaoping ousted Hua from his leadership position.
Two Stage Sisters is a 1964 Chinese drama film produced by Shanghai Tianma Film Studio and directed by Xie Jin, starring Xie Fang and Cao Yindi. Made just before the Cultural Revolution, it tells the story of two female Yue opera practitioners from the same troupe who end up taking very different paths in their lives: "one succumbs to bourgeois affluence and privilege, while the other finds inspiration and fulfilment in the social commitment associated with the May Fourth movement and the thought of Lu Xun.” The film documents their journey through abusive feudal conditions in the countryside before achieving success and prestige on the stage, meanwhile historically following Shanghai's experience under Japanese and KMT rule. This original screenplay depicts the socio-political changes encompassing China from 1935-1950 through the theatrical world of Shaoxing, and accordingly mixes both a Chinese aesthetic with Hollywood and socialist realist forms. The main protagonist is said to be based on the life of Xie Jin's friend and opera-veteran Yuan Xuefen.
Jiaozhou was an imperial Chinese province under the Han and Jin dynasties. Under the Han, the area included Liangguang and northern Vietnam but Guangdong was later separated to form the province of Guangzhou by Sun Quan following the death of Shi Xie and lasted until the creation of the Annan Protectorate in 679.
Black Snow is a 1990 Chinese drama film directed by Xie Fei. It was written and adapted from a novel by Liu Heng. It was entered into the 40th Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the Silver Bear for an outstanding single achievement. Although the English film title follows the original name of the novel, the Chinese film title 本命年 běnmìngnián means the year when someone is aged 12, 24, 36, and so on when the Twelve Terrestrial Branches come round again.
1911, is a 2011 Chinese historical drama film about the 1911 Revolution in China, produced to commemorate the revolution's 100th anniversary. Directed by Jackie Chan and Zhang Li, the film stars Chan in his 100th film as an actor, alongside an ensemble cast that includes Winston Chao, Li Bingbing, Joan Chen, Hu Ge, and Chan's son Jaycee Chan. It was released on 23 September 2011 in mainland China and on 29 September in Hong Kong; it also opened on the 24th Tokyo International Film Festival later in October.
Li Xiuming is a mainland Chinese film actress. She won both of Golden Rooster Award and Hundred Flowers Award for Best Actress, for Xu Mao and His Daughters. Her most remembered role are "Chunmiao" in Xie Jin's Chunmiao and "Princess Peacock". In 1993, she retired from Beijing Studio.
The Red Detachment of Women is a 1961 Chinese film by Xie Jin based on a script by Liang Xin. It is set in the 1930s and involves two peasant women who go into warfare. The cast includes Zhu Xijuan, Wang Xingang, Xiang Mei, Jin Naihua, Chen Qiang, and Niu Ben.
On the Docks is a Chinese revolutionary opera and one of the eight model plays available during the Cultural Revolution. Also known as The Harbor, it was the first revolutionary opera with a story about working peasants eagerly accepting the responsibility of militant struggle. The creation of the drama was inspired by Mao Zedong's publication Talks at the Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art, whose agenda was the development of social entertainment for workers, peasants, and soldiers. His wife Jiang Qing played a significant role in devising both the words and the music, which at times led to a power struggle with Liu Shaoqi over the opera's ideological message. The director Xie Jin staged the original production in the early 1960s and also filmed the story in 1972. A different film of the same play was released in 1973.
Xie Fang is a Chinese actress and author. She is best known for her involvement with pre-Cultural Revolution cinema.
Qiu Jin, also known as Qiu Jin: A Revolutionary, is a 1983 Chinese biographical film co-written and directed by Xie Jin, starring Li Xiuming as the revolutionary Qiu Jin. The film also features Li Zhiyu, Chen Xiguang, Yu Shizhi, Wang Fuli, Huang Meiying, Cong Shan, Zhang Kezhong, Wu Wenlun, and Shi Weijian in supporting performances. The film based on the real life of Qiu Jin, focusing on her efforts in the 1900s to overthrow the corruption Qing Empire. The film was released in 1983 in China.
References
- Marion, Donald J. (1997). The Chinese Filmography: The 2444 Feature Films Produced by Studios in the People's Republic of China from 1949 through 1995. McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN 0-7864-0305-5.
- Pang, Laikwan (2017). The Art of Cloning: Creative Production During China's Cultural Revolution. Verso Books. ISBN 978-1-78478-520-8.
