1961 Gong Po, China

林雅仙(Lian Ya Xian)

Born in 1950

Gong Po, China

Interviewed on February 9th, 2023

By Jackie Dong

Translated from Fuzhounese

Hi my name is 林雅仙(Lian Ya Xian) and I was born in April of 1950 in 吴庄 (wu zhang), a small village in 福州(fu zhou) China . I was probably around eleven or twelve years old when I saw my first movie: 永不消逝的电波 (The Eternal Wave). 

I don’t really remember much about the movie. All I really remember is that there was a young man engaged in underground work in Shanghai. He and another member of the 共产党(communist party) disguised themselves as a couple in order to infiltrate the 国民党(nationalist party). The rest of the story is a bit unclear to me, but I remember being sad at the end of the movie when he died. I also don’t remember much about the character in the movie, but I thought that the actors did a great job. 

I went to the movies quite often with my friends. At the time, movie screenings were announced in the town community center. And so everytime my friends and I heard there was a new screening we would all plan to go together. Each time, we would walk over an hour from our neighborhood in 吴庄(Wu Zhuang) to 公婆(Gong Po), kind of like you walking from Queens to Brooklyn. There were around ten of us and it was quite fun. We would usually leave the house at around 5PM since the movies started at 7. By the time the movie was over it would be dark at night. 

I remember one time I got home very late in the evening and it nearly scared my mother to death. We didn’t have cell phones back then so there was no way I could tell her where I was. She scolded me and told me to not hang out with those friends anymore, but she was just upset at the moment. 

My friends and I watched a lot of violent and action movies. There weren’t many other types of movies. Most of the movies at the time had some relationship with the political agenda of the communist party. Nonetheless, I thought that these movies were amusing. There were no televisions back then and nothing to watch at home so we were always bored. 

There were concessions at the movie screening, but we did not have popcorn or candy like there is today. Instead, I remember there being 甜橄榄 (preserved sweet olives) at some of the places we went. I always wanted to have some during the movie, but my friends and I never bought any as we had no money at the time. 

There were not many theaters back then. The movie was shown outdoors by a large lake. It was honestly quite a nice setting. We would really only go in the summer as it was way too cold to go there in the winters. Now that I think about it, I don’t think there were movies shown in the winter time. There weren’t even chairs in the field where the movie was shown and so everyone just stood during the entire film. Sometimes we would get really tired and just squat. I was a really bold girl when I was younger. Since my friends and I didn’t have to buy tickets or anything, I would lead my friends and rush to the front of the field. We were short children so we didn’t block anyone’s view. 

I miss watching movies a lot. I miss watching them with my neighborhood friends. It’s a lot different in America. I don’t understand English, so I can’t watch the movies in the theaters today. I’m old now and  don’t even know how to get to places in America. I’d like to watch Chinese movies, but they aren’t shown anywhere anyways. You children are lucky as you have cell phones and such where you can just watch movies at home. Though going to the movies was part of the experience itself.