1950 Zibo, China

Fabian Han

1939

Zibo, China

Interviewed on February 08, 2023

By Isabelle Han

(Translated from Mandarin)

The first movie I can recall seeing was The White-Haired Girl. When did I see it? Well, it came out in 1950, and I watched it right when it came out. I was born in 1939. So when I was 11, still in elementary school.

The movie was about a rich lord with land who ruled over poor farmers who didn’t have any land of their own. One girl and her dad lived alone together, and the girl had one friend—the male lead. The lord was evil and unreasonable. He would kill people for no reason. And he bullied the girl a lot. She tried to retaliate but was unsuccessful. So, the lord imprisoned her. Then she escaped and ran off into the mountains. She stayed there for twenty years. Living by herself in the mountains, her hair turned white. That’s where the movie’s name comes from. China eventually banned the land system and redistributed to the poor. No one remembered the girl, except the male lead, who went to the mountains and brought her back. The lord was punished accordingly.

The girl’s name was Yang Xi’er, the dad was Yang Bai Lao. I can’t remember the male leads name. I also can’t remember any of the actors’ and actresses’ names. But after this movie, all of them became very famous!

I went to watch the movie with classmates. I think five of them. This was in Zhangdian district. We walked thirty minutes to get to the theatre. Back then, it was all outdoor theatres.

These theatre people would drive around in their trucks, find a large open spot of land, and hold movie-watchings there. They had these huge pieces of fabric they would use to project the movie onto. And the movies were free. I didn’t pay to watch movies. A lot of people would show up. Probably 300-400. It would be a ren shan ren hai (people mountain, people sea). So many people! Everyone brings stools to sit on. The movie started at 7 or 8pm at night. It had to be dark outside for the movie. People would often talk during the movie, but I could still hear the movie. It was quite loud. It wasn’t a silent film, there was voice and music. The movie ended at 10pm, and I would walk home to sleep. I would talk with classmates about the movie on the way home, but by the next day we wouldn’t talk about it anymore.

I didn’t watch movies too often, but I would when a group of classmates thought a movie would be good. Then we would go. We ignored bad movies. I can’t remember if The White-Haired Girl was good or not. It was very popular.

We also had movie snacks. People would sell tanghulu (traditional hawthorn candy snack), guazi (pumpkin seeds), and popcorn. Tanghulu was a very popular snack. It’s hawthorn. They would put it on a stick and dip it in sugar. My favorite was the guazi. I would always get the pumpkin seeds. It’s fun to snack on pumpkin seeds while watching movies.

Outdoor movies were a lot of fun because of how many people would be there. They were loud and public gatherings. They were always so full of energy, and it was free! Later, more indoor movie theatres would pop up. I would go to those too. Where you would sit inside and look up at a screen. Silent movies were before my time, but I’ve watched some of those too. However, I don’t remember any of them. I’m not big on movies, but it was always fun to do it with classmates.