1947 Nanchang, China

Xuchun Tu
1931
Nanchang, China
Interviewed on January 29, 2022
by Michelle Tong

I used to only watch movies when my mom gave me free tickets. She worked for the local government and that was one of the perks of her job. Movie tickets were normally expensive and hard to come by, but I never had that problem.

My first movie was Spy Number One《天字第一號》(1947). It was a black and white film about an hour long. I was 16 years old. With my ticket in hand, I walked by myself from my house to the Yan Ming Lu theater in Nanchang. It was a 30-minute walk. I don’t remember much about the theater except that it was a pretty new building and very clean. Inside, there were rows and rows of seats. A white screen was in the front and a projector in the back. Unlike modern theaters that sell all kinds of snacks, we didn’t have any concession stands.

My seat number was printed on my ticket. I remember getting to my seat early and having to wait some time for the movie to start. As I waited, people trickled in around me. Ushers helped families with small children get settled. A lot of people were talking in the background, but I didn’t pay attention to them. Going to the theater used to be an individual experience for me. I liked to immerse myself in the movie and then return home right after it finished.

When I think back, I can still see the story play out in front of me. Ouyang Sha-Fei, the main actress, portrayed a female spy named Tian Zi Di Yi Hao. Tian Zi worked in a Japanese-occupied Shanghai during a time when the Japanese were still fighting the Chinese. As a spy, she had many contacts and knew many people, especially the Japanese people living in the city. Her job was to collect intel on the Japanese and report it back to the Chinese government. She was extremely good at her job because she was charismatic and social, and all the Japanese admired her without knowing her true identity. She was also beautiful.

One time, Tian Zi was cornered by a mysterious man who questioned her identity. He warned her to stop being close to the Japanese or else he would punish her. What the man – who was also a spy for the Chinese government – didn’t know was that Tian Zi was a spy too. Not only was she a spy but she was also the head of the entire spy organization, with a ranking much higher than his.

At the climax of the movie, when the man pressed Tian Zi to know why she was close to the Japanese and it seemed like he was about to hurt her, she said: “Who do you think you are?”

Surprised, the man revealed that he was Spy Number 25 and demanded: “Who are you?”

Tian Zi calmly replied: “Spy Number One.”

Suddenly, the man looked scared. Recognizing that he was in the presence of his superior, he stood up straight and listened intently to Tian Zi as she continued to speak. She revealed that she was on an important job in Shanghai and ordered the man to stick with his own assignment and leave her alone. The man immediately agreed and disappeared. With that, the movie ended.

I really liked this film because of Ouyang Sha-Fei, the actress. She acted very well – her character felt realistic, and no one in the movie could have expected her to be the spy. Even knowing that the story was made up, it was still thrilling to watch. Everyone loved this film. Spy Number One played in the theater for a long time. I bet a lot of tickets were sold.

Now, I don’t watch as many movies, but I still think about the ones I saw when I was young. There were a lot of good ones. Ask your grandma, she can tell you about them too. We watched many movies together. After I met her, I no longer went to the theater alone.