After the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, rural reform took the lead in making breakthroughs in China.
In response to this, in the early 1980s, a number of rural films were released intensively. Among these films, "Our Cow 100 Years Old" produced by Shanghai Film Studio left a deep impression on many people.
Why would such a film reflecting rural reform focus on Shandong Rongcheng?
How was china's countryside changing at that time?
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"100 years old cattle" became synonymous with rural cadres in the early stage of rural reform
In December 1983, the movie "Our Cow Is 100 Years Old" premiered in Rongcheng, Shandong.
Screenwriter Yuan Xueqiang clearly remembers that the premiere ceremony was held in the open air, and during the screening of the film, there was heavy snow in the sky.
"None of the audience left." The bursts of laughter that came from the screening scene that day became Yuan Xueqiang's warmest memory.
The film then swept the country and was screened 24 hours a day in many parts of the country, creating a box office miracle of hundreds of millions of people watching the film.
"Our Cow is 100 Years Old" tells a story that happened in rural Shandong after the implementation of the household contract responsibility system. At the beginning of the implementation of the policy, the land was not immediately distributed to every household, but only a small step forward on the basis of the previous production brigade: the people in the brigade freely formed working groups.
▲ Poster of the movie "Our Cow Is 100 Years Old"
Yuan Xueqiang was a peasant writer, and his Chengxiang Commune took the lead in implementing the co-production contract responsibility system in the Yantai area at that time. Yuan Xueqiang worked at the commune's cultural station, and his family had an acre of responsible land, and he was very familiar with the situation in the countryside at that time.
Yuan Xueqiang recalled: "At that time, I was mainly doing cultural and propaganda work at the commune cultural station, and I encountered a very real problem, the peasants had to implement the responsibility system of co-production contracting, and the original production team became three or four co-production contract responsibility groups. This kind of co-production contract responsibility group was first voluntarily combined, and ten or eight families set up a group, but the lazy men, second slips, thieves and even those with bad styles in the village were left behind. ”
The contradictions in reality are artistically processed and written into the script.
At the beginning of the film, several characters with distinct personalities appear vividly in front of the audience: "Lazy Man" Tian Fu is lazy and lazy; "causing natural disasters" Niu Qi is grumpy and reckless; "Three Hands" Xinliang likes to steal; there are also "wandering ghosts" Niu Tiansheng and spicy widow chrysanthemums who do not obey, all of which have become people that are not wanted by various work groups during contracting.
▲ Stills from the movie "Our Cow Is 100 Years Old": Niu 100 Years Old (right) and "Lazy Man" Tian Fu
There is a scene full of dramatic conflicts in the film of "grasping the cast" scene - the 15 work groups do not want these "dragging their legs", the secretary of the brigade proposed to determine how to arrange these people through the way of "casting lots", some members disagreed, and the secretary of the brigade insisted: "If you don't grasp it, you have to catch it!" In the spring and summer, we cannot delay production for these few people. ”
This scene was not made up by Yuan Xueqiang out of thin air.
"After the implementation of the co-production contract responsibility system, who to work with is related to whether you can eat enough. There is such a person in your group, he is not good at work, then everyone suffers. Later this problem was reflected in the Commune Party Committee. I am very interested in this subject. First, this kind of subject had not been written at that time; second, I thought it was fun to put together some flawed but distinct personalities, form a group, and have a party member take the lead! So I wrote the novel "The Footsteps of the Cropper" before the adaptation of "Our Cow Is 100 Years Old".
"Our Cow is 100 Years Old" focuses on shaping the image of the Communist Party member Niu 100 years old. The members of the party branch of the brigade formed a mutual aid group with five backward masses with different characteristics to work together and work hard to get rich. In the laughter, the vices are gradually corrected, and the contradictions and conflicts of reality are resolved one by one.
In view of the problems of "land is distributed to households and no party branches" appeared in individual rural areas at that time, the film convincingly reflected the new type of relationship between party branches and the masses, and "cattle hundred years old" has since become synonymous with rural cadres who lead the masses to get rid of poverty and become rich.
In reality, do cattle centenarians and "lazy group" really exist?
Director Zhao Huanzhang happened to discover Yuan Xueqiang's novel.
At the end of 1979, the People's Daily published an article in which it asked the question, "Why are there so few rural films?" "For a time, major film studios began to pay attention to films with rural themes.
At that time, china's rural areas were undergoing earth-shaking changes, and the contradictions and conflicts between the past outlook on life and values and the new rural economic policy brought a steady stream of fresh themes to artistic creation.
In 1981, several films with rural themes were recognized by a wide audience, the most popular of which was Zhao Huanzhang's "Xiyingmen".
Zhao Huanzhang recalled that after the release of "Xiyingmen", he wanted to shoot a new drama with rural themes. At that time, the Yantai region recommended a number of works to him.
Yuan Xueqiang: "At that time, the famous screenwriters and assistant directors of Shanghai Film Studio were looking for scripts with rural themes. One person recommended it: 'We have a big beard and write a very funny one.' I just had one in my bag, and they looked at it at night and said, 'Good!' The next day they went back to Shanghai to show director Zhao Huanzhang, and the director also made a decision after reading it: 'Well, let the author adapt!' ’”
Although Yuan Xueqiang, a peasant writer, did not know how to write film scripts at that time, Zhao Huanzhang insisted, "We want a style, that is, the original rural taste."
▲ The movie "Our Cow Is 100 Years Old" novel and film script (courtesy of screenwriter Yuan Xueqiang)
The contradictions reflected in the film are concentrated in the stage of dividing the field into the operation group in the early stage of the implementation of the household contract responsibility system. In reality, does the "lazy group" really exist?
Yuan Xueqiang said that in fact, the biggest contradiction at that time was not after the implementation of the responsibility system, but at the time when the wind and rain were coming. Compared with the "lazy group" in the movie, in the late 70s and early 80s, the real rural appearance was that the cauldron of rice was not enough to eat, and many people did not have the enthusiasm to produce.
Yuan Xueqiang: "No one wants it, the secretary of the village party branch and the party members will want it, and the consciousness of the party members at that time was so high!" So in reality, our commune does not have a 'lazy group', but such a thing touched me. Every character in the movie has a life archetype, and the prototype of Niu Baisheng is composed of five or six party branch secretaries, and when I write, I will consider how they will communicate, how they will deal with problems, and how they will make different moves. ”
Huang Futian is one of the prototypes of "Ox Hundred Years". He began to serve as the party secretary of Chengxiang Commune at the age of 27, huang Futian recalled, in 1978, there were still 250 million people in the country who did not solve the problem of food and clothing. He sighed: The socialist production team at that time could not be dragged out!
Huang Futian: "I can't drag this socialist production brigade anymore." When we go up the mountain to work, because we are doing it for others, not for ourselves, so everyone's enthusiasm is not fully mobilized, so the captain and party members must take the lead and carry, force, and drag the work. ”
▲ Film prototype From left to right: screenwriter Yuan Xueqiang, Secretary of the Ercun Brigade Hu Baofa, Secretary of the Chengxiang Commune Party Committee Huang Futian (Photo by reporter Zhou Yifan)
Divide the fields and go it alone - "Enough for the state, enough for the collective, the rest are all their own"
In 1980, the news of the big bag of dry work in Xiaogang Village, Fengyang, Anhui Province, reached Weihai. Although in a conversation in May of that year, Deng Xiaoping affirmed the peasants' pioneering reforms, many people still had doubts.
Like the 100-year-old cow in the film, Huang Futian is not only decent but also courageous. He knows in his heart that if he wants to get rid of poverty and bring up the "lazy people" in reality, the only way is the household contract responsibility system.
At a meeting of the secretaries of the districts, counties, and communes at three levels, he saw the signs of reform -- Wang Jifu, then secretary of the Yantai Prefectural Party Committee, invited Zhang Fugui, a national agricultural labor model and Wenden County, to give a report. Zhang Fugui went to Beijing in 1978 to attend the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, and after returning to his hometown, he established a responsibility system.
Huang Futian: "Open a meeting of the secretaries of the communes in the region to discuss the responsibility system at the level of the production team. Everyone wants to get it quickly, but it really can't be moved, it's too strenuous. At the meeting, there was no clear answer to let Zhang Fugui, a model worker in Wendeng County, come to power as a typical person, and exchanged views on how to engage in the production responsibility system, how to mobilize enthusiasm, and how to develop production. oh! I don't need you to say it, I know what's going on. ”
▲A 1980s "Contract Protocol on Co-production Contract Responsibility System" in Shandong
Liu Chengchu, the village secretary of HuangbushanQian Village of Chengxiang Commune, was the first to "divide the fields and work alone" with the support of Huang Futian.
Huang Futian: At that time, Liu Chengchu asked, "I want to engage in a responsibility system, Secretary Huang, is it okay?" "I said don't ask me, you think for yourself.
Reporter: At that time, you supported them from the bottom of your heart?
Huang Futian: Yes! I am particularly supportive. At that time, he went to the end at once, and it turned out that the production team operation group was allowed to contract, and he stepped into place step by step, and all the land went to the household.
For a time, the people of Huangbushan Qiancun Village were in full swing, and other communes asked Liu Chengchu, secretary of the village branch of Huangbushan Qiancun, to introduce their experience. In the second half of 1981, Huang Futian communicated with the secretaries of several other communes: household contract responsibility system, everyone worked together!
Huang Futian: "The power of the responsibility system is manifested in all aspects. How to divide the land to the households in order to be reasonably divided? I conducted a pilot project for more than a month, and then the commune held a general meeting, and everyone 'vacated' a little, and they all went back to the responsibility system. ”
"Co-production contracting is good, increasing production and increasing income"
In the movie, driven by the grass-roots party member Niu Baisheng, the members of the lazy group are full of energy in life and labor.
Reality is one step further than cinema. Directly divide the fields to households, so that the enthusiasm of the big guys is higher. Hu Baofa, the 92-year-old secretary of the Ercun Brigade, recalled: "The brigade called the production team to talk about this matter, and the production team announced to all households that everyone had no objections, but supported it." The people are also very happy, in the past collective production, some people did not work, some people pretended to be sick and did not dry, sowing should have been completed in ten days, and the result could not be completed in half a month. After the production is divided into households, everyone is afraid of reducing production after the time has passed. ”
In the first half of 1982, Wang Jifu, then secretary of the Yantai Prefectural Party Committee, went to the countryside to inspect the work of sowing wheat against drought, and Huang Futian said that the inspection team was touched by the scene of men, women, and children of the Chengxiang Commune working together to fight the drought.
Huang Futian: "Zhengjia Village is a mountain village, there is a woman and a seven- or eight-year-old child in the village, the man is not at home, she sent the child down to the bottom of the well, scooped half a bucket of water, and then pulled it up, and used the water to pour the bud rice." This incident moved Wang Zifu to tears, which touched him greatly. If the production responsibility system is not implemented, everyone will push and pick! ”
The expectations of grassroots cadres and peasants for life and the future have broken through the old system that is not conducive to the development of productive forces, and the upsurge of rural reform has spread in China.
▲The implementation of the household contract responsibility system, Yantai farmers have achieved a bumper harvest (picture source network)
In 1982, the Party Central Committee issued the first "No. 1 Document" on the "Three Rural Areas" issue, which clearly pointed out that all kinds of responsibility systems, including contract production to households and contracted cadres to households, are all production responsibility systems of the socialist collective economy.
Yuan Xueqiang, who was in the torrent of the times, wrote the novel "The Footsteps of the Croppers" in 1981. In 1983, when revising the script with director Zhao Huanzhang and screenwriter Liu Funian, he said that if he wrote "The Footsteps of the Cropper" at this time, he would not just stay in the homework group, but would write the division of fields to households and the contract to households.
▲ In 1984, the 35th anniversary of the founding of New China was celebrated, and the parade floats played the slogan of "co-production contracting well" (picture source network)
A dream come true - "Dried rice is duck eggs, after a meal a big apple"
At the end of the film "Our Cow is 100 Years Old", the village has achieved a great harvest, and everyone is collecting grain on the field. Yuan Xueqiang later sighed, "At that time, the creation did not deliberately reflect the times, and life itself was like this."
Director Zhao Huanzhang has since filmed the film "Our Veterans", which tells the story of the policy "encouraging a small number of people to get rich first" after the reform of the rural economic system. "Xiyingmen", "Our Cow Hundred Years Old" and "Our Veterans" constitute Zhao Huanzhang's "rural trilogy", and have also become the development context and epitome of China's rural areas in the 1980s.
The "Outline for China's Agricultural Development in the 1990s" points out: It is necessary to continue to stabilize the responsibility system based on household co-production contracting, proceed from the actual conditions of various localities, and gradually strengthen the collective economic strength.
Entering the 21 st century, the comprehensive revitalization of rural areas and the realization of agricultural and rural modernization have become the main themes. In 2006, agricultural taxes that have lasted for more than 2,000 years were completely exempted; in 2013, the term "family farm" first appeared in the No. 1 document of the Central Committee; and now, China is comprehensively promoting the strategy of rural revitalization, so that the countryside can be beautiful and farmers rich.
Zhao Huanzhang has always had a point of view: those who engage in movies must not forget the countryside and the peasants, and the closer such a movie is to the countryside and the closer to the peasants, the more applause there will be.
▲ Xixiakou Village, which was once subordinate to Chengxiang Commune, is already a well-off village, and the people are now living a rich life (Photo by reporter Zhou Yifan)
In the Chengxiang Commune, the dreams that the old people had when they ate the big pot of rice had long come true.
Hu Baofa: At that time, a collective meeting was held, saying that he would live a socialist life in the future. "Dried rice is duck eggs, after the meal a big apple", after saying that, the people laughed, how can they live that kind of life!
Yuan Xueqiang: I will always remember eating in the canteen and saying that by that time, we would eat sweet potatoes as rare!
Huang Futian: Oh my God, there are big changes, my God, now there is everything.
Yuan Xueqiang: I don't know what to eat now.
Hu Baofa: Now advocate eating coarse grains!
In the classic movies and TV series of different periods in New China, the images of flesh-and-blood Communist Party members have penetrated the hearts of the people with the help of images. They correspond to the glorious course of the century-old party history, and they are also accompanied by real historical figures. The stories in the images are singable and weeping, but the details off-screen may be little known. The Voice of China celebrates the centenary of the founding of the Communist Party of China with a special program "Party History in Images", which takes you through these timeless and classic artistic images and touches the real century-old Party history from a unique perspective.
Producer: Gao Yan
Editor: Guo Jing, Liu Lili
Interview: Zhou Yifan Wang Chenglin
Production: Shan Dandan
New Media: Chen Ming, Na Ziye
Consultant: Xu Pengtang, researcher of the Central Academy of Party History and Literature