There is a tactile isomorphism between Youth Shaohua and the creation of "Youth China"

Author: Liu Daxian (Researcher, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)

Time is not homogeneous and homogeneous, and some years and moments are more compact, condensed and meaningful than others. Zweig once called it a dramatic, fateful moment in which "what usually happens in a slow and leisurely sequence and juxtaposition is compressed into such a brief moment that determines everything." This moment makes an immutable decision for generations to come, it determines the life and death of a man, the survival of a people and even the fate of mankind as a whole", its influence is decisive, and transcends the passage of time, and always shines in history.

Moments of The Beginning:

The movie "1921" tells such a historical moment: The founding of the Communist Party of China in 1921, for China, this is a node time, the stars gather, the light shines, illuminating the way forward in Chinese history after that, and we still live in the spectrum it reflects. The history of the Party and the wider history of China's modern and contemporary revolution and construction have been told countless times through different forms, and there are also diverse presentations on the screen and screen, and how to tell this common story has become particularly important. The entry point of "1921" is the beginning, which is not only the beginning of the Chinese Communist Party, but also the beginning of the Chinese revolution to find its own path, so it has the authoritative meaning of creation.

History is difficult to write, and history that continues into the present is particularly difficult to write. "1921" places the birth of the Chinese Communist Party in the overall pattern of global modernity, explaining its origins in the context of the international communist movement. At the beginning of the film, the fast-paced editing is used to lay out the major events in China's modern and contemporary history since 1840, and the texture of historical images and documentary materials quickly creates a sense of vicissitudes and thickness, forming a serious and somber style of zhengshi. In the complete structure formed by the horizontal perspective of the world and the local context of the vertical, "1921" as a key node presents its significance in the historical structure.

The Opium War, the Sino-Japanese War, and the invasion of the Eight-Power Alliance made China enter a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, and it became a historical mission to save the people and survive, but the incompleteness of the Xinhai Revolution made elite intellectuals realize the importance of popular enlightenment, and the May Fourth New Culture Movement was immediately launched. The October Revolution played an exemplary role, allowing socialism to spread widely, and at the same time making revolutionary salvation the choice of the advanced forerunners. This explains the problem of "why geniuses come in droves" once mentioned by anthropologist Krober, that is, when some ideas first appear, they are often shocked and uneasy "storms" in society, but gradually become a generally accepted "atmosphere", and then become the potential energy for the progress of great history. The so-called situation is greater than the people, just as Sun Yat-sen said, "the general trend of the world, the vast soup, the prosperity of those who go along with it, and the death of those who oppose it", the emergence of the Communist Party of China is precisely due to the situation, so that the elite gathers. The film takes China's intellectual elite and labor elite as the main body, and at the same time intersperses the representatives of the Communist International from the Soviet Union, Japanese communists and secret agents, Communists studying in France, Shanghai workers, and patrols and secret agents in the concession, so that the complexity and inevitability of the founding moment of the party can be fully displayed.

Choice, Cooperation and Debate:

Communism and socialism are not only the individual choices of an elite group, but also the choices of historical situations since modern times

Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao agreed to establish the party, but they were confined to the affairs of one in Beijing and one in Guangzhou, and the convening of the big meeting was specifically participated by 13 representatives of early party organizations from Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Changsha, Jinan, and Japan. 1921 expresses the characteristics of these representatives in fine detail, but does not fall into a flat historiography, but focuses on the themes of choice, cooperation, and debate.

There is a passage in the film where Li Da, the convener of the party organization in Shanghai, has a conversation with his wife, Wang Huiwu. Li Da said that when he boycotted Japanese goods during the May Fourth period, he found that the matches that lit Japanese goods were themselves Japanese goods, which made him feel that he had to have his own fire. This fire of its own is actually to establish China's own vanguard organization, which is also the beginning consciousness of the Communist Party. As Sayyid said, "The beginning is not just an act; it is also a frame of mind, a work, an attitude, a consciousness." At that time, there were many domestic ideological trends and parties, and according to incomplete statistics, there were more than 200 political parties of all kinds that believed in various concepts and doctrines, and the Communist Party chose communism and socialism, which was not only the individual choice of a certain elite group, but also the choice of the historical situation since modern times. It is the result of the combination with the mass movement, and the intellectuals and laborers together constitute the main body of history, the "people". Therefore, the film emphasizes a detail in particular: Li Da rushed to the printing house and specifically changed the title of the public in the "Communist Party" publication from "people" to "people".

A person cannot choose his own country and origin, but he can choose the path and method of life. He Shuheng is the oldest of the 13 deputies, and he was a talent in the former Qing Dynasty. When the young delegates asked him why he had embarked on the path of revolution, he uttered a wish to live a life that could rise to prominence. This is also the wish and choice of countless ordinary people.

In addition to firm choice, 1921 touched the chinese communist party's sense of beginning with internationalist cooperation and the debate between the Chinese communists and the Communist International. In addition to the passage of French scenes that show the international propaganda of overseas communists, and the support from the Comintern, the film also fictionalizes the activities of a Japanese communist in Shanghai. This shows a concrete and subtle manifestation of the internationalist character of the Communist Party and the unity of proletarians of the whole world. More importantly, the film particularly portrays the debate among the delegates about whether to allow the delegates of the Comintern to participate in the meeting, which is very important and highlights the subjective consciousness of the Chinese Communist Party. That is to say, the Communist Party of China was born from China's actual conditions, and although it strives for international assistance, unites international comrades, and upholds the communist concept, it is an independent organization that has its foothold in China, the Chinese nation, and the Chinese people. This should be a very clear historical understanding of the film.

Youth China and Chinese:

Generation after generation of Chinese is not only the hope and goal of the struggle, but also the source of China's endless life and eternal youth

The main theme of the film used to be centered on the creator and producer, but since the new century, there have been some changes in response to the changes in communication channels and contexts, and more attention has been paid to the audience's experience and acceptance. From "Mekong Action" to "My Motherland and Me", "My Hometown and Me", and "King Kong Chuan", the main theme film absorbs a lot of nourishment from commercial films in the director's editing, serving the Tao, and recording beauty, creating a pleasing image shaping and eye-catching image spectacle, in order to achieve the effect of edutainment and silent moisturizing.

"1921" made its own attempt to combine youth films with the main theme narrative. We can see some of the shots in the film that are not needed from the narrative point of view, but can increase the effect from the perspective of the viewing experience: The upgraded slow-motion mirror when Wang Huiwu and his friends go to the hotel to book a room, and the close-up and freeze frame of her holding an umbrella on the red boat in the South Lake. This is obviously through the charm of the actor himself to play an eye-catching function.

"1921" is an all-star cast, and in line with the real ccp conference representatives in history, the actors are generally popular young and strong and traffic idols, with the affinity of the audience. At that time, the average age of the conference delegates was 28 years old, which was the age of prosperity, full of passion and vitality, with the enthusiasm for exploration and the courage to not be afraid of struggle, and the young actors well demonstrated the isomorphism between youth Shaohua and the creation of youth China.

In 1900, Liang Qichao wrote in "The Theory of Young China" that "the red sun rises at the beginning, and its road is greatly illuminated", which opened the reshaping of the old state and new life of China in the 20th century. The first generation of Communists can be said to be the convergence of the new Youth of May Fourth, who have changed the image of "Old China" as poor and weak, and are full of sensitivity, self-confidence, decisiveness, and courage. Mao Zedong was 28 years old when he attended the First Party Congress, and there is a passage in the film where he runs through the streets of Shanghai, flashing back to the scene of his father being chased and beaten by his father in his childhood, which constitutes a metaphor for the change between fathers and children, between old China and new China. When the young Mao Zedong stood on the Waibaidu Bridge overlooking suzhou creek and Shanghai, his eyes were firm and flashing with hope, which was the manifestation of youth's Chinese strength and beauty, and also a beautiful vision of future China.

These young people made a decision for the sake of China and the Chinese, and died for it. The film does not end with the end of the meeting, but explains the sacrifices of Wang Gemei, Deng Enming and others, when Yang Kaihui was shot by the Kuomintang and fell on the grass of flowers, it can't help but remind people of Guang Weiran's famous lyrics: "The flowers of May bloom all over the wilderness / Flowers cover the blood of the heroes / In order to save this dying nation / They have stubbornly resisted the war." Those who died in their old age have not been forgotten, because the cause they started is still going on, still full of vitality.

At the end of the film, a group of primary school students visited the site of the First Congress of the Communist Party of China in Shanghai in 2021. Echoing the little girls Li Da saw in Shanghai in 1921, as well as the little girls in the crowd at the founding ceremony, generation after generation of Chinese, they are not only the hope and goal of struggle, but also the source of China's endless life and eternal youth.

In this sense, "1921" composed a broad and magnificent picture for the centenary of the founding of the party, a song of praise for the uplifting, and a blueprint that stretched out.

Source: Wen Wei Po