1940-1980: Communism and The Cinema
Chinese film-making under the Communists is a story which really dates back to 1938, when Mao Zedong and his fellow Long Marchers finally set up their base in Yan'an deep in Shaanxi Province and began to prepare for the seizure of power. There could have been no world farther removed from the glamour of Shanghai than dusty, poverty-stricken Yan'an, full of peasants and simple farmers. This was the ideal location for the film-makers of the future People's Republic to practise their skills. Talent escaping through Japanese lines was soon trickling through in search of employment, among them an obscure actress of high ambitions, one Jiang Qing , later to become Mao's wife and self-appointed empress of Chinese culture. One thing that all the leading Communists in Yan'an agreed on was the importance of film as a centralizing medium , which could and should be used to unify the culture of the nation after the war had been won. The immediate consequence of the Communist victory in 1949 was that the showing of foreign films was severely curtailed. Days were numbered for the private Shanghai studios, too, though they still managed to produce a few films in the years immediately after 1949. In 1950, a Film Guidance committee was set up, comprising 32 members whose task would be to set standards and, effectively, decide upon all film output for the entire nation. In addition to Mao's wife, Jiang Qing, the members of the committee included Yan'an film-makers as well as May Fourth intellectuals, and the established prewar film-makers drew some confidence from the range of voices represented. By 1953 a unified national system for film production was in place and the first major socialist epic, Bridge , appeared in 1949, depicting mass mobilization of workers and peasantry rushing enthusiastically to construct a bridge in record time. Although predictably dull in terms of character and plot, the cast still contained a number of prewar Shanghai actors to divert audiences. The end of the film is marked, for the first time in Chinese cinema, by the entire cast gathering to shout "Long live Chairman Mao!", a scene that was to be re-enacted time and again over the coming years. A year after Bridge one of the very last non-government Shanghai studio films appeared, The Life of Wu Xun . This was a huge project that had started years earlier, well before 1949, and, surprisingly, had been allowed to run through to completion despite the change of regime. The subject of the film is the famous nineteenth-century entrepreneur, Wu Xun, who started out life as a beggar and eventually rose to enormous riches, whereupon he set out on his lifetime's ambition to educate the peasantry. Despite the addition of a narrator's voice at the end of the film, pointing out that it was revolution and not education that peasants really needed, the film turned out a disaster for the Shanghai film industry. Mao himself wrote a damning critique of it for idolizing a "Qing landlord", and a full-scale campaign was launched against the legacy of the entire Shanghai film world, studios, actors, critics and audiences alike. The remains of the May Fourth Movement struggled on. New Year's Sacrifice, a film based on a short story from the great prewar intellectual Lu Xun, was released in 1956, though with most of the intelligence and all of the irony taken out. The consolation for the old guard was that newer generations of Chinese film-makers had not yet solved the problem of how to portray life in the contemporary era either. The 1952 screen adaptation of Lao She's short story Dragon's Beard Ditch, for example, was supposed to contrast the miserable pre-1949 life of a poor district of Beijing with the happy, prosperous life that was being lived under the Communists. The only problem, as any audience could immediately see, was that the supposedly miserable pre-1949 scenes actually looked a good deal more human and heart-warming than the later ones. Nevertheless, the Communists did achieve some of their original targets during the 1950s . The promotion of a universal culture and language was one of them. All characters in all films - from Tibetans to Mongolians to Cantonese - were depicted as speaking in flawless Mandarin Chinese . Film production, too, fanned out across China, and was no longer confined to the eastern coastal cities. Above all, there was an explosion in audiences, from around 47 million tickets sold in 1949, to 600 million in 1956, to over 4 billion in 1959. The latter figure should be understood in the context of the madness surrounding the Great Leap Forward, a time of crazed overproduction in all fields, film included. Film studios began sprouting in every town in China, though with a catastrophic loss of quality - a typical studio in Jiangxi Province comprised one man, his bicycle and an antique stills camera. The colossal output of that year included uninspiring titles such as Loving the Factory as One's Home. The conspicuous failure of the Great Leap Forward did, however, bring some short-lived advantages to the film industry. While Mao was forced temporarily into the political sidelines in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the cultural bureaucrats signalled that in addition to "revolutionary realism", a certain degree of "revolutionary romanticism" was also to be encouraged. Chinese themes and subjects, as opposed to pure Marxism, were looked upon with more favour. A slight blossoming occurred, with improbable films such as Lin Zexu (1959), which covered the life of the great Qing-dynasty official who stood up to the British at the time of the Opium Wars. There was even a tentative branching out into comedy, with the film What's Eating You ? based on the relatively un-socialist antics of a Suzhou waiter. Unusually, the film featured local dialects, as well as a faintly detectable parody of the "Learn from Lei Feng" campaign, by which the government was seeking to encourage greater sacrifices from individuals by promoting the mythical heroic worker Lei Feng. Generally, films from these years took to depicting so-called "middle" characters, who were neither class heroes nor class villains.
Voyageinchina.comAdam Yin says "Chinese Visa Application
The following information is FOR YOUR REFERENCE ONLY, Please contact Chinese embassy or consulate general in your country or region for accurate and detailed information.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
According to the Law of the People's Republic of China Concerning the Administration of Foreigners Entering and Leaving the Country, foreign tourists must apply for visas at China's foreign affairs offices, consulates or other organizations authorized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A group of five tourists or more can apply for a group tourist visa. This is usually handled by a travel agency organizing groups. People coming to China from countries which have visa agreements with China (such as agreements which exempt tourist groups from visas) are treated in accordance with these agreements.
If anyone wants to go to Tibet for a visit you can apply for a visa only with the consent of the Tourism Administration of the Tibet Autonomous Region or any one of its foreign representative offices. A passport is required for visa application, the passport shall be valid for at least 6 months beyond the duration of the tour.
A Brief Introduction to Chinese Visa
Chinese visa is a permit issued to a foreigner by the Chinese visa authorities for entry into, exit from or transit through the Chinese territory. The Chinese visa authorities may issue a Diplomatic, Courtesy, Service or Ordinary Visa to a foreigner according to his/her identity, purpose of visit to China and passport type.
The Ordinary Visa consists of eight sub-categories, which are respectively marked with Chinese phonetic letters L, F, Z, X, C, G, D, J-1and J-2.
L Visa: Issued to an applicant who comes to China for tourist purposes, family visiting or other personal affairs.
F Visa: Issued to an applicant who is invited to China for visit, research, lecture, business, scientific-technological and culture exchanges or short-term advanced studies or intern practice for a period of no more than six months.
Z Visa: Issued to an applicant who is to take up a post or employment in China, and their accompanying family members.
X Visa: Issued to an applicant who comes to China for the purpose of study, advanced studies or intern practice for a period over six months.
C Visa: Issued to crewmembers on international aviation, navigation and land transportation missions and family members accompanying them.
G Visa: Issued to those who transit through China.
D Visa: Issued to applicant who is to reside permanently in China.
J-1 Visa: Issued to foreign resident correspondents in China.
J-2 Visa: Issued to foreign correspondents on temporary interview missions in China.
Validity of Visa: normally speaking, a visa is valid for 3 months from the date of issuance (date of application) and on any day within this period, the visa holder may enter China.
Duration of Stay Specified in the Visa: normally speaking, a visa holder may stay in China for 1 month which counts from the date of his/her entrance into China. To stay longer, you need to specify your request in your application form and itˇŻll be subject to the permission of the consul in charge.
Overseas Chinese Visa Authorities, include Chinese embassies, consulates, visa offices, and the consular department of the office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China. If a foreigner intends to enter into, exit from or transit through the Chinese territory, he shall apply to the above-mentioned Chinese visa authorities for a Chinese visa. For further information, please consult the nearest Chinese visa authorities.
5)Important Notes:
According to the relevant international law, any sovereign state has the exclusive rights to decide whether or not to allow the foreigners to enter its territory, and accordingly to issue visa, reject visa application and cancel an issued visa according to its national law without providing the reasons.
With its valid Chinese passport, a Chinese citizen can enter China without a visa.
" www.voyageinchina.comAdam Yin says "Emerald Tour Ltd., a registered inbound travel operator in China. providing high quality destination management services for exceptional value including: China tour packages; Shanghai, Beijing City tours; hotel reservation; and MICE service in China.
www.voyageinchina.com" a nice guide in Guilin Chinajade leo says "Do you want to pay a visit to China before 2008 Olympic Game, Do you hear about Guilin Yangshuo where has the reputation of having the most beautiful landscape under heaven. It is a dream place for many tourists who want to see the real natural landscape and touch the countryside life.
Hilltops pop up from nowhere like trees in the forest and they are shaped like buns, camels, fishes, saw-teeth, horses, etc. It is a city you must visit or you will miss those beautiful landscape there. Rivers flow around like green silk ribbons while the hills reveal themselves as jade hair-pins. Guilin embraces great landscapes like green hills, clear waters, pretty rocks and fantastic caves.
I am from Guilin, a licensed tour guide for Guilin area. A grauate from Guangxi Teacher's University, I have had more than 2 years of travel service experience in Guilin.
A tour guide with a warm heart and sincerity, I am offering tourists visiting Guilin with uptodate information and a tour guide service. You can bank on my knowledge of Guilin and my earned reputation as a reliable tour guide in the region.
Activities available:
1. Airport pick-up service
2. Photoshoot Guide
3. Ancient town tour
4. Business tour guidelines
5. Flight ticket & Hotel room reservation
6. Accompanying services to other cities of China
7. Buying houses in Guilin and Yangshuo
8. Faming Activities and Stay in farmers' houses
9. Hot Balloon
10. Li river cruise tour. Cormorant fish, fantastic caves
11. Longsheng dragon's backbone rice terraces
12. Marvelous ethnic shows, local souvenirs market and market day of town
13. Climbing the highest mountain to see the panoramic view
14. Bamboo boat rafting, white water drifting as well as taking mud bath in water cave
15. Hiking, Riding bicycle to old villages to see real farmers life and talk with them
16. Learning to cook Chinese food, Learning Chinese Qigong and Taiji
Any special requests will be considered
If you want to tour China but fail to pay a visit to Guilin, it is equal to having not toured China! If want to get the best experience out of Guilin please contact us and we will make sure you have a once in a life time experience.
Address: No. 16, Lijiang Road, Guilin, China.
Tel: 86-773-5617058 Mobile number: 86-13086737586
Email: jadeleo66@yahoo.com www.guilinprivatetours.com
" Amy style sidecar motorcycles in shanghai chinajohnson says "here has some chinese amy style sidecars
for sale for more information please email
wildwolfsidecar@yahoo.com
mobile number
13524051655
" vintage 750cc sidecar motorcycles in shanggai china the replica of BMWjohnson says "Johnson sidecar has some customzied pla style vintage sidecar motorcycles in songjiang shanghai china for sale
when you purchase sidecar johnson sidecar helps you to get the registation (the number plate)
you can also rent a sidecar during the holiday when you are in china
with good price and top quality here
more information please
email sidecarshanghai@yahoo.com
skype johnsonsidecar
mobile +8613661904350" travel by ride sidecar motorbikesjohnson says "Johnson Sidecar offers you the highest cj 750 sidecar restoration available in China . Ride
with confidence on a Vintage
CJ 750 sidecar from sidecar shanghai. Owning a highest quality Vintage People's Liberation
Army CJ 750 Sidecar is dream of many people!!!
we have all the spare parts for changjiang sidecar in stock in shanghai china
more information
we also have some changjiang sidecars for rent here. rent a sidecar when you are
traveling in shanghai china
please email sidecarshanghai@yahoo.com
website www.sidecar-shanghai.com
mobile 13661904350
" Explore China On Line (Video and Stills)David Mundstock says "My film "The Last Emperor’s Home Video” offers visits to China’s best known places, including the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Beijing’s Summer Palace, the Grand Canal, Xian, beautiful Guilin, Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou, plus Hong Kong.
“The Last Emperor’s Home Video” can be seen on the web, if you have a high speed internet connection.
This is a free, non-commercial, streaming video on the Windows Media Player. No ads and no strings attached. I still sell absolutely nothing.
The gallery of still photos from China can be viewed with any modem.
There are over 30 of my other amateur travel videos on-line covering all seven continents. Visit Japan, Italy, England, Antarctica, Bali, Hawaii, Russia, Peru, Mayan Pyramids, Egypt, Greece, or Turkey; see whales, penguins, or polar bears.
The planet is yours, including my Home Page giant galaxy of still pictures.
To watch a video or view the stills, please ask a search engine for:
Intrepid Berkeley Explorer"
Your Tip for China
Help other backpackers! Write your own guides and backpacking tips to China - they will appear instantly on this page - Please only write a tip/guide to China - visit the main China forum to ask a question!
Please do not post links to your site here (they won't work) - please use the China webguide section below! Thanks.
|
