"Back to 1942" with Adrien Brody, Tim Robbins and Zhang Guoli (2012)

The period of World War Two and the role China played in winning the war against the Japanese is often misunderstood. Since they became our sworn enemies so soon after the end of the war we never really examine the sacrifices the Chinese made in our common cause during this time. This film will help put much of that into perspective for the average viewer.

Chinese director Feng Xiaogang has created a modern epic film with this sweeping tale of China before the days of Mao; when she was still roiled by internal strife, even as she was assailed from without by the Japanese. As if those two forces were not enough of a challenge to a beleaguered people, there came a famine. And with that famine came all the corruption and greed imaginable as people try to keep their own families alive; often at the expense of their neighbors. Complicate that scenario with an occupying enemy force which demands most of the available food reserves and the situation becomes even more of a nightmare.

The Henan Province is where this film is set; the year is 1942. Tim Robbins plays American Priest Thomas Megan, and Adrien Brody plays a very young Theodore White working as a journalist to uncover the truth in a land where the truth is as great a commodity as food itself. Whose truth do you want? 

Watching this film with test your faith if you have any; and make you long for it if you don’t. But whatever your reaction, this film will give you a clearer understanding of how the China of Mao Tse Tung came to be. And that knowledge will help you to understand the China of today. This is a truly remarkable film.

"The General Died at Dawn" with Gary Cooper, Madeline Carroll and Akim Tamiroff (1936)

See William Frawley as you’ve never seen him before in this film which takes place in the years between the two world wars. At the time of this story, by writers Charles G. Booth and Clifford Odets, China was undergoing tremendous change as it was struggling to overthrow the warlord system of government which had ruled the land for thousands of years. The choice was between a nationalist, Western styled government; or the radical changes evoked by the Communist Party. In it, he plays one of several mercenaries looking to profit from the turmoil which reigned in China at the time. Don’t look for a hint of Fred Metz in his portrayal of Brighton, a booze besotted man whose only concern is the buck he might make at the expense of others.  His greed will prove his undoing.

Gary Cooper plays a man known as O’Hara, an American mercenary who finds himself in care of the money to purchase arms for the local militia. Acting against his instructions to avoid traveling by train, O’Hara takes the rail to Shanghai, losing the money along the way, along with a piece of his heart. Judy Pierre, played by Madeline Carroll, is the temptress who causes him to lose the money to the ruthless warlord General Yang, played by Akim Tamiroff.  Judy’s father has conspired with the General to steal the money from O’Hara, and although Judy is in love with the American, she allows herself to be used in the conspiracy to rob him. She soon comes to regret her actions, as it becomes plain that the man she has fallen in love with now holds her in contempt.

Sparks fly as O’Hara attempts to recover the money, as well as his honor in this adventure. As an added attraction, there is much to be learned about Chinese history and the opposing factions vying for power in the decades between the First, and Second, World Wars. These were the years when she was struggling to reform herself from a backward country, isolated from the rest of the world, into a viable nation which would command respect abroad, as well as at home. The wars in China were as much about the foreigners being allowed to carve the country up for profit, as they were about national unity. They don’t make them like this anymore.

"Colors Of the Mountain" by Da Chen

Sometimes, while reading a good book, like I am now, I will also be reading something I have read in the past. It is usually completely unconnected to the book I am currently reading, but it is always a book that has had a profound effect upon me. "Colors of the Mountain", Da Chen's beautiful memoir of growing up in Communist China, is that sort of book.

Born in 1962 to a family of former landowners, which was a crime in itself, the young Da Chen is beaten at school and ridiculed wherever he goes. He is the top student in his classes, but due to his grandparents having once owned land, he is repeatedly denied a higher education.

The family endures all the deprivations of Red China under Chairman Mao. Rotten food, bad medicine and a lack of justice are the most obvious symptons that plagued the country at the time. But what about the soul of a young boy who yearns to become more? What happens to the human soul when hope is always just out of reach? And when that hope is denied in an official capacity, what can one person do to alleviate the obviously flawed and cruel system?

These are the questions that confront young Mr. Chen as he grows up during the Cultural Revolution, a period in which he sees his grandfather publicly disgraced for having once owned land, as well as seeing his father jailed for having a University degree.

While some would surely give up under such treatment, Da Chen passes the countries University entrance exams in 1977, at the age of 14, scoring in the top 2%. He can no longer be ignored. He is now on a path that will not only bring to fruition his dream of attending Beijing Language Institute, where he eventually graduates with the highest honors, but will open up a whole new world for him.

Meanwhile, his father managed to work his way out of the labor camps by utilizing his own skills as an acupuncturist. He delighted in using the largest, and most painful needles, on the Communist Cadre members who had made his life a living hell for so many years.

Mr. Chen winds up his academic career in New York, at Columbia Law School, on a full scholarship. From there he lands a job on Wall Street. He lives today in the Hudson Valley area of New York with his wife and family. He is a noted brush calligrapher, specializing in spiritual design. He also plays classical bamboo flute.

When you compare Da Chen's remarkable life to the recent rumblings about China's democracy activist Liu Xiaobo accepting the Nobel Peace Prize, you have to wonder how much she has really changed. We have embraced freedom of trade with China, perhaps it is now time for China to embrace freedom of thought with her own people.

"Mao's Great Famine" by Frank Dikotter

China has always been a fascinating subject for me. Their recorded history spans over 6,000 years. But the time period that has always interested me the most are the years between the Boxer Rebellion in 1903 and the Cultural Revolution of 1966. These years are filled with the story of a nation struggling to right itself after thousands of years spent living under fuedal warlords in a land too large to be Governed Centrally, given both the large distances and the limitations of communications technology at the time.

Before World War Two,China was engaged in an internal struggle to rid herself of the foreign powers that had literally carved her up into commercial zones. Politically, the country was constantly in upheaval, as the Nationalist forces struggled against the Communists forces for control of China's political destiny. Would the Nationalists prevail, or would the country go Communist? That question had to be put on hold as the Chinese people cast aside their internal differences to battle a common enemy; the Japanese agression of the 1930's and 1940's.

When the war ended, the Chinese, under Mao Tse Tung, forced Chiang Kai-Chek into exile on the island of Formosa, and established the Communist government we came to regard as "Red China" on the mainland. Growing up we were told in school all about the advances in literacy and agriculture, as well as industry, that were being made there under Communism. This was all done in an effort to teach us tolerance of other forms of government. The implication was that to be a Communist doesn't automatically make you the enemy. And China has evolved into a major player in every aspect of the world, both economically and industrially. But the path to get there was long and hard.

The abuses heaped deliberately upon the Soviet people pale in comparison to the arbitrary decisions that were made by Chairman Mao, affecting one quarter of the worlds population. The abuses and insanity of the Cultural Revolution are well documented, as in Ji Li Jiang's wonderful memoir "Red Scarf Girl." Having lived through that time here in America, I had some knowledge of something happening in China, through TV and news reports. But until recently I had never known that China suffered a massive famine between the years 1958 and 1962. "Mao's Great Famine" is the story of that period, officially called The Great Leap Forward.

It is unimaginable, to the average American, to live in a country which is so underdeveloped, that the Government would send operatives door to door to collect any metal, or tinware, that was in your home. This metal would then be taken to a collective, or community, furnace for smelting into steel. The result was often inferior "pig iron." Still though, you had to turn it all in to meet the quota. It didn't matter that it was no good. So you just passed it on. Multiply this by millions.

Now imagine having lived in an agricultural community of the same country, where there were quotas set on your production. It doesn't matter if it rained, or not, you still had to meet your quota. So, many farmers hid some of the food for their own families. Multiply this by millions.

This is the way the "Great Leap Forward" played itself out. Before it was over, millions of people had died of starvation. Millions of others had died from disease and overwork in inferior steel mills and other failed industrial efforts.

The economic system was utterly destroyed, replaced by a black market system trading in various state issued coupons. Many of these coupons were restricted to the area in which one lived, which in turn restricted an individuals ability to move about freely. In cases like that, black markets offered, for sale or exchange, other coupons. Cash actually lost it's purchasing power.

One of the major effects of all of this was the mass migration of farmers from the countryside into the cities. Forced to give their crops to the state, and then subsisting only on what the state allowed them to keep, was so dispiriting that many simply left the farms. The wages, and coupons, that could be earned in factories seemed like a much better idea. But upon arriving in the cities the average worker found himself underpaid, and often underfed, as the cities began to feel the pinch of the overcrowding, as well as the dwindling amount of food being produced. At that point, every one is forced to go home.

This is one of the best books you will find concerning the failed policies of the "Great leap Forward." Mr.Dikotter has done an excellent job in making the subject both informative and readable. Given the complexity of the material, this was not an easy thing to accomplish.

The book is comprehensive and well written. It is not designed to look down upon, nor to ridicule, the policies of the past in China. More than that, it serves as a spotlight on a very dark and often misunderstood period in modern Chinese history. The more that is written about China under Mao, the more one has to wonder, how did so many, allow so much, to go wrong for so long a time.