The Red Detachment of Women (1961 film)
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.
The Red Detachment of Women became famous after winning the PRC's best script, best director, and best actress awards in November 1961. The film characters of Qiong Hua, Hong Changqing, and Nan Batian became quite well-known and following the success of the Red Detachment of Women ballet in 1964 by the end of 1966 was elevated to one of the eight "revolutionary model theatrical works", which formed the official canon. A film of the ballet was released in 1970.
Plot
In September 1930, the Communist Party of China set up a division in Hainan Island, which contained a company of female soldiers called the Red Detachment of Women. The Party representative, Hong Changqing disguises as an oversea businessman to come across Nan Batian. He claims that he is back from abroad with large fortunes. Attempting to expand his armed forces with Changqing's help, Nan Batian holds a feast for Changqing. During Changqing's visit to Batian, he takes notice of a maidservant of Batian who suffers from Batian's torture. He makes a simple excuse to take that maidservant with him in order to free her from the oppression. At the time of their parting, Changqing knows her name is Wu Qionghua and she intends to be a soldier to fight against the feudal landlord. Guiding by Hong Changqing, Qionghua makes her way to the encampment with another young woman, Fu Honglian, who refuses her life as a widow. They are welcomed by the Red Detachment of Women because of their poor backgrounds.In a following reconnaissance mission, Qionghua occasionally sees Nan Batian and she fires at him despite of the military discipline. Batian is wounded while Qionghua's mission is failed. The company commander trained her in serious criticism and Hong Changqing reminds her of her position as a revolutionary fighter. Afterward in another mission, Hong Changqing and Wu Qionghua disguise as a businessman and his maidservant the same as before to enter Nan Batian's fort as spies. In the battle of Batian's fort, the Red Army successfully occupies the fort with help from inside and captures Nan Batian alive. However, the crafty Nan Batian escapes through a tunnel. In the following peasant movements, Qionghua takes an active part and she applies to join the Chinese Communist Party.
The escaping Nan Batian reports the situation to the government and the KMT assigns a brigade to attack the Red Army in Hainan Island. The Red Army retreats to the mountains. In a battle to cover the retreat, Hong Changqing is wounded and he is captured alive. He refuses to surrender and accepts his death bravely. Having witnessed Changqing's death, Qionghua returns to the encampment and becomes the successive Party representative. She organizes an operation to destroy Nan Batian's forces after the KMT brigade leaves Hainan Island. They successfully occupy Batian's fort again and sentence the death of Nan Batian. Under Wu Qionghua's leadership, the Red Detachment of Women is marching to a bright future.
Characters
Wu Qionghua
Actress: Zhu XijuanWu Qionghua is a maidservant belongs to a feudal landlord, Nan Batian. She is a tenacious, pungent, brave youth whose father was skinned by Nan Batian. She has been lived in hatred to the landlord for a long time and never yields even in water prison after being whipped. With Hong Changqing's help, she is able to join the Red Detachment of Women, where she grows from an ordinary soldier to a proletarian pioneer fighter.
Hong Changqing
Actor: Wang XingangHong Changqing is the young Party representative of the women detachment. He is a firm, strong character who is loyal and enthusiastic towards the Communist Party. Because of the hardship his father suffered, Changqing struggled in the society at a young age and gained much experience, which made him mature. In the conversation with Wu Qionghua, he uses his self-experience to persuade her and helps her grow.
Nan Batian
Actor: Chen QiangNan Batian is one of the largest feudal landlords in Hainan Island. He is a cruel, fierce, crafty, and arbitrary character who believes himself of great talent. He has relationships with both government and local bandits. He also recruits militias and sets up checkpoints in the area he controls. Nan Batian is the archenemy of the Hainan Red Army.
Fu Honglian
Actor: Xiang MeiFu Honglian is also an honest, kind young woman who suffers feudal oppression. She was sold as a child bride at the age of 10. Her husband had already died, and she has been accompanied a "wooden husband" for ten years. Such mental torture pushes her to join the red army when Wu Qionghua comes to her house on a rainy night. They join the Red Detachment of Women together and fight side by side in the following battles.
Majordomo
Actor: Yang MengchangThe majordomo of Nan Batian is a scholar image with a poker face. He is very careful and suspicious. He always does his best to fulfill his master's will. He also gives Nan Batian many ideas when Batian is dealing with tricky problems. When his advice is obstinately rejected by Nan Batian, he sighs for not having a wise master.
Songs
Song of the Red Detachment of Women
Red Flags Fly on Mt Wuzhi
Influences and Propaganda
Cultural Revolution
The Cultural Revolution is often seen as a dark period of Chinese politics and violence. The government follows Mao’s order started a reform campaign. The main goal is to regulate theatres and sift through plays by only keeping the “good” ones and banning any plays that involved feudal content. Later, all traditional and Western-influenced plays are banned as well. Yet this period also witnesses the creation of “革命样板戏 ”, The Red Detachment of Women is one of the few that luckily survived during the revolution period.However, the real history is very different from the story on the screen. As a combat unit, the Red Detachment of Women lasted only 500 days before it was broken up by Kuomintang troops. Some of them died on the battlefield and a few were captured. Most of the rest returned to civilian life, hidden from view. It wasn't until many years later when their stories were discovered by accident, and they became the main characters in novel, movies, and stage plays. However, what happened to them after they put down their guns and the long life after that is rarely mentioned. During the ill-fated Cultural Revolution, the ballet version of “The Red Detachment of Women" became a must-have for leaders to entertain foreign guests, was also designated as a Revolutionary opera and was remade into a film, showing all over the country. These are two very different images: On stage, they are the heroes of the revolution; in reality, they are the objects of the revolution.
The reality is that some of the soldiers fell into a low ebb in the political movements after 1949 because of the experience of being captured by the Kuomintang or being married to "politically incorrect" people. Writers and artists who created the Red Detachment of Women series of works of art were also buffeted to varying degrees. Bai Shuxiang, the first actress to play Wu Qionghua in the ballet Red Detachment of Women, was labeled as “destructive Revolutionary opera" and "counter-revolutionary” and was once sent to a Labor camp. The screenwriter, director, and former head of the National Ballet of China, Li Chengxiang, was dismissed as a "capitalist roader" and locked up in a cowshed until the capitalist needed him to play the villain "Nanba Tian南霸天". The archetype and the artistic image, two groups that are far apart from each other, suddenly became class enemies. They are the shadow of the on-stage glorious Red Detachment of Women, where the light of history turns dark.
Feminism
Unlike Western feminism, Chinese socialist feminism was mobilized by the country’s leader and the Party gave authority and power to works of art that allow them to use the power of art to influence the public. One of the main goals of China’s revolutionary journey was to focus on the liberation of women. Under the Party’s mandate, women were emancipated from tradition and it is so important since this indicates a huge revolutionary change that women are as capable as men. “The Red Detachment of Women” was created base on the archetype of the all-female battalion and the film strongly promoted the theme that women can also serve as soldiers and do revolutions. Mao has a famous slogan “women hold up half the sky”. Feminists around the world praised him a lot due to this line. Heroines under Mao’s communist theatre challenged the traditional stereotyped women. Theses female characters fought for women’s liberation and gender equalitarianism. Just like Qiong Hua, she fought for her unfortunate life and against feudal patriarchy.However, in recent years some feminist scholars criticized what he called feminism politics. Revolutionary artistic production seems to embrace the female population, it also erased femininity. The communist artwork heroine all have a common characteristic which is women act like a man. Therefore, Mao’s heroines are concluded as having the characteristics of “gender erasure”, and scholars consider this seems to be built on the stereotype of a pre-existing gender pattern assigned to women. This goes against the very spirit and purpose of feminism.
Propaganda
From the 1900s when cinema entered the market, it started to play an important role in the Chinese Communist Party's media strategy. Film like Operation Red Sea successfully merged patriotic narratives with a Hollywood type of story. This attracted numerous audiences and enhanced people's national assertiveness. Using movies to promote is nothing new. From ancient times to the present, CCP continuously oversees in the film industry, and the Central Propaganda Department takes direct control over the profession.Mao and his wife Jiang employed literature and art as propagandistic tools to influence the general public. The Red Detachment of Women had an unambiguously intent on propaganda, and its production skill was undeniable. Villains were dark and showed up in dim color while the heroes were pure and they appeared with a bright and vivid atmosphere. This sharp color comparison created a strong visual contrast to the audience for ideological education. Later, the government started a moving cinema to bring the film to the villages. Through watching various revolutionary based communist movies, people enjoyed the entertainment, and at the same time they carried out a subtle influence.