An unsinkable sailboat

In 1955, Lin Zhao, then only 23 years old, sketched a painting where a red sun, high in the sky, peeks through swirls of light blue clouds. In the foreground, to the right, is a slim woman with her back arched and arms flung wide open, as if to absorb the rays and to blossom like the flowers beneath her feet. This is Lin, a student at Beijing University, fresh after her stint as a member of a land reform taskforce which sought to redistribute the property of landlords to peasants.

Full of youthful enthusiasm and naiveté, at the time Lin was like the kitten she sometimes drew to replace her signature: eyes star-struck by ‘Father’ Mao Zedong, ever-ready to serve the Communist Party. In the painting, the subject seeks to absorb the ‘liberating’ rays, just like Lin, who believed she already had the “red star in her heart”.[break]

But the soul that the filmmaker Hu Jie tries to invoke in the documentary Searching for the Soul of Lin Zhao is not that of the pretty girl whom classmates at the university called ‘Mademoiselle Lin’ – she of the aristocratic upbringing and tailored suits, “quiet as a budding flower” and “soft as a willow twig”. Hu seeks the rebel Lin, who dared to parody Mao’s poem entitled ‘The PLA captures Nanjing’, shattering the ‘Great Helmsman’s romanticised presentation of the conquest by calling it an arrogant act that was a shining example not of “ancient glory”, as Mao thought, but rather “man’s craziness”.

SATURDAY, 18 AUGUST 2012 | 1 PM
SEARCHING FOR LIN ZHAO’S SOUL
Dir. HU Jie. 2004. 115min.

In 1956, Mao Zedong launched the Hundred Flowers Campaign, which solicited citizens’ opinions on state policies. Surprised by the overwhelming voices of discontent, Mao quickly changed course and accused those who expressed their views as Rightists. One of which was Lin Zhao, a young, bright, and idealistic Peking University student. In prison, she continued her critique by writing on walls, bed sheets and any scraps of paper she could find using her own blood. Searching For Lin Zhao’s Soul poignantly uncovers this tragic and little known story.

Hu succeeds in conjuring up Lin’s tortured soul after she was betrayed by Mao and the party in 1957. Under the guise of ‘rectifying’ the party mechanism so as not to meet the fate of the Russian communists, Mao pretended to solicit suggestions and encourage debates on democracy and socialism. Lin, like so many other students, fell prey to this scheme, whose only intention was to sift out intellectual and rightist ‘snakes’ from the proletariat. Within two years, Lin was in Shanghai Tilanqiao prison, refusing to be reformed.

As one interviewee says, Lin had the ‘common sense’ to believe in freedom, equality, peace and harmony – all of which was regarded as counter-revolutionary. With hairpins and bamboo picks, she pricked herself to draw blood, which she used to write humanist poems and essays on the prison walls, and on pieces of cloth and paper. When Lin wrote the indicting poem ‘The Day Prometheus Suffered’, she was not just referring to the mythical Prometheus who gave fire to humankind, but also to the 5.5 million ‘rightists’ who fought to introduce the brainwashed Chinese population to reality.

Lin and her hardships are Hu’s own hairpins, which he uses to write his own essay on dissent and democracy – and this is where the film triumphs. Through interviews with Lin’s classmates, relatives, colleagues and lovers; through the black-and-white pictures taken at various stages of her life; and through footages from the Cultural Revolution and the Great Leap Forward, Hu not only provides glimpses of Lin’s convictions, but also shows us China’s tragic recent history, which the director believes does not form part of the public’s memory.

This independent documentary tells the story of the strong – those who understood what Mao Zedong was doing and fought singular and tragic battles against the demagogue and the state he commanded. In doing so, Hu’s film also tells the tale of the less strong, those who survived because they were ignorant, and those who perished while “eating [in good faith] from the same big wok”.

Of course, dissent is lonely and costly, and the wake of the Cultural Revolution buffets Chinese society to this day, which is why many individuals Hu approached refused to be interviewed. As in all societies, when confronted by state power emboldened with a party’s ability to mobilise masses using extreme slogans, the majority of China’s intelligentsia was also reduced to toeing the line. But as Lin said at the time, everyone – ‘rightist’ or ‘revolutionary’ – was in the same boat, and the objective was to land safely on shore, to build the future that the Chinese people deserved. And she believed – as did the poet Li Bai, quoted in the film – that the time would come when the boat would sail like the clouds, perhaps, this time, completely eclipsing the red sun.

Unfortunately, Lin did not make it to the shore. Eight years into her prison term, she became unbearable to the prison guards and the authorities. A fellow prisoner – who asks to remain anonymous in the film – describes how she had to be moved to solitary confinement to stop her from screaming slogans against the regime and affecting the other prisoners. In the spring of 1968, the prisoner remembers seeing Lin, as he brought her food, masked in a black plastic helmet with only small slits for the eyes.

As this man begins to draw how Lin looked with the helmet on, the reference to Lin’s painting is unmistakable: the girl who sought to bask in the glory of the red rays has had to suffer from its scorching glare. She was deteriorating, and not just from the tuberculosis that was slowly consuming her. And yet, Lin bore a formidable stare and felt freer than ever. Not long thereafter, she would be dragged from the prison hospital and secretly executed, with a bullet the authorities would later charge her mother five cents for.

FRIDAY, 17 AUGUST 2012
SUPER, GIRLS!
Dir. JIAN Yi. 2007. 73min. (Film maker attending)

Modeled after the “American Idol,” “Super Girls Singing Contest” took China by storm during its run from 2004 to 2006 drawing over 400 million television viewers. Nationwide audiences voted for their favorite contestants by sending in text messages. The overwhelming success made it an unparalleled pop culture phenomenon. In this fascinating documentary, filmmaker Jian Yi follows several teenagers on their quest to become China’s next superstars. Candid interviews reveal the inner thoughts and dreams of average youngsters in China.

SATURDAY, 18 AUGUST 2012 | 4 PM
PETITION
Dir. ZHAO Liang. 2009. 123min.

How does justice work in China for the powerless? Filmmaker Zhao Liang follows petitioners as they fight their causes all the way to Beijing from all over the country. While average citizens who find their legal cases mishandled at local levels are permitted to take their grievances to the Capital, few have success navigating the system. Arriving in Beijing and staying in shantytowns, many petitioners—most are from impoverished backgrounds—quickly fall into a legal limbo as they face ill-defined procedures, indefinite wait, and intimidation by hired thugs. Some are disillusioned but others steadfastly wait for justice to come.

SATURDAY, 18 AUGUST 2012 | 6.30 PM
BEIJING BESEIGED BY WASTE
Dir. WANG Jiuliang. 2011. 72 min.

With a population of about 20 million, the growing city of Beijing produces 30,000 tons of waste each day. Photographer/filmmaker Wang Jiuliang traveled around the city and visited 460 legal and illegal landfills from 2008 to 2010 to document the collection of garbage and excrement, the environmental calamity and the life cycles around these landfills, which include scavengers building a precarious livelihood, green spaces forming on top of waste, and livestock being fed trash. An informative and alarming portrait of urban ecology, the film has earned keen Chinese media coverage and the attention of government officials.

SUNDAY, 19 AUGUST 2012 | 4 PM
DISORDER
Dir. HUANG Weikai. 2009. 52min. (Film maker attending)

Meticulously assembled footage taken by journalists and amateur videographers reveals scenes of floods, traffic jams, arguments, police violence, accidents, and absurd happenings on the streets of China where humans and animals fight for room to survive. Filmmaker Huang Weikai’s scrupulous collage ingeniously conjures a unified picture of urban life spinning out of control. Combining a strong sense of urgency with

an ironically stoic attitude, Disorder brings to the forefront the cost behind China’s urbanization and economic rise.

SUNDAY, 19 AUGUST 2012 | 6 PM
LAST TRAIN HOME
Dir. FAN Lixin. 2009. 87min.

Every spring, 130 million migrant workers make their journey home from urban centers to spend Chinese New Year with their families—the only opportunity of the year. The massive migration sets off chaos at train and bus stations nationwide. Filmmaker Fan Lixin follows the Zhangs (husband and wife) on a two-day excruciating journey to their rural village. Like most families, their children are left behind with little supervision and care. When the Zhangs arrive home, they confront a rebellious teenage daughter who yearns for freedom and has set her mind to find work in a city. This film reveals the threat on family structure as workers are displaced throughout the country.