Forward, forward. The responsibilities of warriors are heavy, and the grievances of women are deep. In ancient times, There was Mulan who went to the army for her father, and now there is a girl army carrying a gun for the people...
In 1956, Liu Wenshao, a propaganda officer of the Political Department of the Hainan Military Region, found a line in a mimeographed pamphlet about the history of the Battle of the Qiongya Column in Hainan:
"There is a female soldier company under the Qiongya Independent Division of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, and the whole company has one hundred and twenty people."
This brief record aroused Liu Wenshao's interest, so he traveled around and found Feng Zengmin, a company commander of the female soldier company at that time, and the story that had been sealed in the years had unveiled the mystery in one visit after another.
Hainan Qiongya Red Women's Army
Coincidentally, in the summer of 1958, Liang Xin flipped through the "History of the Qiongya Army" by chance, and he also accidentally found the record of "The Special Agent Company of the Women's Army of the Third Regiment of the Second Independent Division of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army". According to the information and real interviews, he spent 3 months to create the script "Qiongdao Hero Flower". Director Xie Jin felt that the name was slightly more literary, and after repeated discussions with Liang Xin, he finally set the name of the movie as "Red Detachment of Women".
Movie poster for The Red Detachment of Women
Liang Xin integrates the three life archetypes of the tortured yatou in real life, the late female revolutionary Liu Qiuju of Hainan, and a 17-year-old female martyr, and evolves into the "Qionghua" in the movie. Using the deeds of the Qiongya Red Women's Scouts as materials, he tells the growth process of Wu Qionghua, the daughter of a poor peasant, showing the class contradiction and conflict between the local tycoons and the poor people, and mixed with the romantic ideal of "daughters should be self-reliant".
Wu Qionghua
The "Red Women's Army" was the first female army in modern Chinese history, founded on May 1, 1931, and its official name was "Qiongya Column Independent Division Women's Army Special Agent Company". In the film, the women's enlistment in the military stems from irreconcilable class contradictions, while in reality, family conflicts are the most direct reason for their enlistment in the military.
In Hainan at that time, most of the strong men went to Nanyang to make a living, leaving only the women to cultivate the land at home and support their families. Once the husband is far away, the daughter-in-law has to stay widowed for half a lifetime. In the film, Honglian, who was married at the age of 10, was dressed as a woman and prepared to join the Red Army when she met Qionghua, and her image can be said to be the most realistic portrayal.
The woman is at home day after day, endures the unwarranted scolding of her in-laws, and has no right to inherit half of the property of her husband's family and her mother's family. Because of this, as soon as they heard the slogan of the Red Army turning over and making a revolution, weak women who had been wronged for decades rose up one after another. And these women who went out of the house in order to pursue equality between men and women, after the end of the movie "Red Detachment of Women", where did their fate go?
The last red detachment of women
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" >1, after the end of the movie, the story of the "Red Detachment of Women" has just begun</h1>
At the end of the film, the Kuomintang reactionaries sent an army to attack the Red Army on Hainan Island, the Niangzi Army withdrew from Coconut Forest Village, and the party representative Hong Changqing led the Niangzi Army to carry out the blocking task, and he was seriously wounded and arrested to cover the retreat of the Niangzi Army. In the face of the enemy, Hong Changqing was awe-struck and wrote in the book of self-surrender,
"It doesn't matter if you behead, for the sake of the truth, kill Hong Changqing, and the people who came after him."
Wu Qionghua retrieved the briefcase buried by Hong Changqing and became the successor of the representative of the Niangzi Army, leading the Niangzi Army to liberate the Coconut Grove Village, shoot Nan Batian, and lead the Niangzi Army to embark on a new journey.
According to the "Historical Examination of the Materials Created by the Red Women's Army", in the spring of 1932, the wind of "purging the rebellion" (purging counter-revolutionaries) in the Red Base Area blew to Hainan Island. A large number of party members and cadres in Qiongya were framed, imprisoned, and killed, and Pang Qionghua, commander of the women's army's secret service company, was also dismissed from his post and put in prison.
The Hainan Red Army has hundreds of heads on the ground, and the strength of the army has been greatly weakened. At this time, Chen Jitang, a senior member of the Nationalist government in charge of Guangdong, transferred the most elite unit, the Guard Brigade of the First Group Army of the National Revolutionary Army, to Hainan and ordered the brigade commander Chen Hanguang to suppress the Qiongya Red Army.
From the personnel establishment of the army to the weapons to the training level of the soldiers, the gap between the two sides is huge, and the Hainan Red Army has repeatedly blocked the overall defeat. By the time of the last breakthrough in April 1933, the Qiongya Red Army had only 25 men left, and the women's army was doomed. Feng Zengmin, Wang Shixiang and eight other female cadres were captured, and Pang Qionghua, who had just been acquitted, stepped out of the Communist Cell on the back foot, and was dragged into the Kuomintang prison on the front foot.
Qiongya Column Independent Division Women's Army Special Agent Company "Activity Roadmap"
In 1937, after the "July 7 Incident", zhou Enlai and Ye Jianying personally went to Nanjing to negotiate, so that the political prisoners imprisoned in the penitentiary and prison were released one after another, and the eight soldiers of the Women's Army returned to Hainan.
Regarding this period of life in prison, Feng Zengmin, a platoon leader of the women's army's special agent company, later recalled:
"The enemy interrogated me several times, but they got nothing. I was sent to Qiongdong, then to Haikou, and then to Guangzhou, where I was imprisoned as a political prisoner. Since then, I have spent 5 years in prison. In 1937, I returned to dear Hainan Island, found the Party, and threw myself into the revolutionary struggle. ”
There is no party organization, no Red Army, and the cadres of the women's army who have been released and returned home have only one way out in front of them -- to marry. At this time, they were already over 20 years old, and at the age of 15, they had to be busy looking for their in-laws in Hainan, and they became the sarcastic "old aunts" of their neighbors.
Because they had carried guns and fought battles, coupled with the propaganda under the local Kuomintang government, in order to survive, many of them had no choice but to marry men who were willing to accept themselves and had some special status, such as the head of the Kuomintang militia regiment, the husband who had remarried, the kuomintang district chief, and so on.
In those days, all Communists who were caught by the Kuomintang or the Japanese soldiers had to be as righteous as Hong Changqing, angrily rebuke the enemy, and then calmly do their righteousness. Whoever comes out of the enemy's prison alive must be a traitor. Just like Han Bing in the TV series "Kite", when she was caught by the Kuomintang Gongshu but was rescued safely, she was no longer trusted, and even repeatedly criticized by the revolutionary masses.
"Kite" Han Bing
For quite some time, they lived in poverty, misery and sorrow, and endured the blank stares of the masses. It was not until after 1978 that the unjust cases of the "Girl Scout Army" were rehabilitated one after another, and the old people who were still alive enjoyed the political treatment of the women's secret service company, and they finally waited for the day when their reputations were restored.
In 1998, 87-year-old Wang Shixiang came to Beijing and saw Tiananmen For the first time, the old man smiled and took the last photo. Only 3 days after returning to Hainan, she passed away. This reminds me of Zheng Yaoxian in "Kite", he was lying on a hospital bed, and at the last moment of his life, his only wish was to go to Tiananmen Square to see the national flag raised once, salute the national flag as a Chinese citizen, and every time he saw this place, he couldn't help but cry, this is his faith, and it is also the faith of thousands of revolutionary fighters.
"Kite" Zheng Yaoxian
From its establishment to its dissolution, the Women's Army Secret Service Company of the Qiongya Red Army only existed for a short period of 500 days, and its deeds can be described as ordinary. However, the film "Red Detachment of Women" based on them caused a national sensation, setting a record for 600 million people in the 800 million people who watched that year, and Zhu Xijuan, who played the heroine Qionghua, won the "Best Actress Award" for this, thus becoming the first "Hundred Flowers Film Queen" in the new Chinese film industry.
This 1961 red classic film, from the theme music of "Forward, Forward" to Wu Qionghua becoming the successor of the revolution, was watched in one go, but what shocked me even more was the revolutionary modern ballet adapted from this film.
Revolutionary Modern Ballet "The Red Detachment of Women"
< h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" >2, "red swan" who tiptoes to fight</h1>
On Hainan Island, in the earthen prison of the local tycoon and inferior gentleman Nan Batian, a red-clad and scarred Qionghua was bound by chains. When the leader Lao Si loosened the chain for her, Qionghua took advantage of the old fourth's unpreparedness and kicked the old fourth down, and she flew out of this dark and damp prison in a reborn posture.
At the beginning of this revolutionary dance drama, what attracted my attention was the eyes of the actors, whether it was a close-up of the characters or a group portrait of the long-range view, their eyes did not blink, they seemed to be bright and energetic, and conveyed the strong and indomitable spirit of the characters. In the process of performance, blinking is also a skill, Er Dongsheng commented on He Changxi's performance in the variety show "Actors Please Take Place 2":
"When we used to shoot costume scenes, we could basically practice until at least a minute without blinking. Because you're a hero, you can't blink at the right word. ”
"The Red Detachment of Women" was adapted from the film into a ballet, streamlining the characters, the main roles in the film as many as 14, in the dance drama only retained Wu Qionghua, Hong Changqing, Company Commander and other six positive characters, the negative characters only retained Nan BaTian and lao si. Major changes were also made in the plot, such as the plot of Wu Qionghua being given to Hong Changqing as a handmaiden, which was changed to Hong Changqing and Xiao Pang who rescued Wu Qionghua who was seriously injured during the reconnaissance, and guided her to defect to the Red Army.
A group of female soldiers dressed in military uniforms, ballet shoes, dancing knives and guns took to the stage, and the tiptoe dance with knives and guns brought a revolution to world ballet. At a time when most Chinese did not know what ballet was, the protagonist in ballet changed from a fairy to a warrior for the first time, and Bai Shuxiang, the actor of Wu Qionghua, also had a new feeling in her heart.
"When you look at it, a bunch of female soldiers are wearing shorts and sneakers, and the image is very beautiful. When you come out, you can still stand up and take a breath, stand up, and the ballet foot posture is so interesting. ”
Combining Western ballet toe in the historical context of China's Red Revolution is zhou Enlai's suggestion after watching the ballet Notre Dame in the autumn of 1963:
"Since the establishment of the Beijing Dance School in 1954, you have been engaged in ballet for almost ten years, and you have performed a lot of European classical plays, all of which are programs that exclude others. Can you do some of your own work? You can do some revolutionary and popular works, and it is not appropriate to always jump princes and fairies. ”
Considering the difficulty of creating revolutionary ballet themes, Zhou Enlai also suggested that Chinese ballet workers could first try to create a dance drama with foreign revolutionary themes, such as the "October Revolution", "Paris Commune" and so on. The head of the ballet at the time, Lee Seung-cheung, later suggested adapting the already popular film "The Red Detachment of Women".
The ballet "Red Detachment of Women" took only two months to rehearse, but ballet has always been about princes, princesses, and nobles, and now the span of female slaves who resist is required to show rebellion to revolutionary soldiers, and the performance is insufficient, and the "women" are not seen in the whole scene. The ballet crew went to the garrison for this purpose, and the actors and soldiers lived together, standing upright, taking a breath, walking in unison... Crawl and roll with the soldiers and experience the feeling of a revolutionary soldier.
The crew also innovated in dance moves, such as the scene of Wu Qionghua and the old fourth fighting, according to the original double dance design of supporting and supporting, and the tension in the performance of oppressors and rebels was slightly insufficient. Bai Shuxiang said:
"We borrowed from the chinese drama and martial arts to strengthen the confrontational movements."
Since its publication in 1964, "The Red Detachment of Women" has become the most mature modern work in the history of Chinese national ballet, and Chinese ballet has been habitually called "Red Swan".
In 1971, the ballet "The Red Detachment of Women" was made into a movie and released nationwide as a "model play". Before the screening, a sudden charge was pressed on Bai Shuxiang's head,
"Since I was not a worker, peasant, and soldier background, I have been under some pressure since 1963 and have been criticized as a white specialist. By the end of 1965, I was not allowed to go to power again, only to clean up. ”
When the ballet "Red Detachment of Women" became popular, Bai Shuxiang carefully collected her ballet shoes, and from then on, she and her beloved ballet were close to the end of the world. Bai Shuxiang, who had never been exposed to any agricultural work in the past, now had to do everything, planting seedlings, cutting wheat, raising pigs, picking manure... In the middle, he was often pulled out to criticize the fight.
Fortunately, by chance, Zhou Enlai mentioned Bai Shuxiang, which brought a chance to change her fate. Back to the year of ballet, Bai Shuxiang was 34 years old, her body fell into many diseases, her muscles became stiff, her weight was as high as 129 pounds, and she wasted a long decade.
"I remember that day when I was holding the exercise pole, I cried with joy and sorrow, and it seemed that the tears that had accumulated for nearly ten years poured out in an instant."
After just two months of hard work, a miracle fell on her, her weight dropped sharply to 106 pounds, and her basic skills were restored. After being rehabilitated in 1978, her talents shone brightly on the stage, and the first "white swan" of New China was rejuvenated with artistic youth.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >3</h1>
The story of the Red Detachment of Women has been interpreted again and again, and countless writers, directors, dancers, actors have been popular... How many people have changed their fate because of it, how many people have been tearful because of it, however, unveiling the real history behind the "Girl Scout Army" after the end of the movie, can't help but sigh how many people have been ill-fated because of it.
We can't understand Wu Qionghua's hatred; we can't understand the pain of the girl scouts shooting at fate and finally being played by fate; Bai Shuxiang loves ballet, but because of it, we can't understand the feeling of suffering for ten years. If I still think that the fiery eyes of this "goddess of vengeance" are still bright and moving, and for those who write film reviews, if they can write enough to make people want to find this movie to see, that is my heart.
The above pictures come from the Internet and are infringing and deleted.