1952 Anqiu, China

Ji Xiang Han

1944

Anqiu, China

Interviewed on 2/11/2023

By Jake Wang

Translated from Mandarin

I was about – maybe 8 – when I saw my first movie. The name of the movie – oh yes it was named 三毛流浪记 (The Adventures of Sanmao the Waif). I know this for a fact because I distinctly remember the three strands of hair (三毛) on his head.

I remember the main character, Sanmao, being an orphan in the streets of Shanghai. Ah, I felt so bad for him. He really tried his best making ends meet. I remember feeling very touched by his efforts to make money. 

And yes, I remember he got into a fight. I wanted to jump into the screen and fight for Sanmao. I really wish I was a character in the movie. All I wanted to do was enter into his life and give him some food.

Ah, yes, now that we mention food, I remember him bonding with other homeless orphans on the street by sharing food. I felt so proud of him. 

Oh! I remember Sanmao’s adoption scene and I was touched by the way he still remembered his old friends even while living with a wealthy lady. I thought that this was a great story about kindness, and I remember the sounds of cheering from our village at the end of it. I remember everyone in the village talking about the movie afterwards, and we all loved Sanmao. Our village leader even bought a picture book of Sanmao. I relived all my emotions flipping though all the cartoons.

I watched the movie with my younger sister. And we had no movie theaters in Anqiu. I remember walking a kilometer to my school field (there was no name for the theater), and our town leader paid someone to set up a screen and a projector. But, the movie was free for everyone to watch and there was really no enforcement from the organizer.

I remember hundreds of heads around the big white screen – there was a big big turnout everytime. All of my friends and classmates scrambled over to the field.

We sat down on the grass – no – Ah! Everyone brought a brown stool. And yes, people who were tall annoyed me. 

Ha, I remember a trick: sometimes our view was blocked and what we did was we went behind the white screen, and we could still watch the movie, but it was mirrored. I thought I was a genius at the time.

Once in a while, there would be a big radio broadcast announcing: “Tonight there will be a movie.” We all knew it was time to carry our stools and scramble to get a good spot. I always made an effort to get a spot for me and my younger sister. We used to draw a spot for my family with a stick and claim our territory in the open field. We did make treaties though – we would sometimes share spots with our friend’s family. 

The movies in the field, including Sanmao, always fascinated me. I never fell asleep while watching but for the long ones other people did! Especially when the sun sets, young children tend to get sleepy. Usually, it was the parents that carried their children home.

One time my younger sister fell asleep, I carried her home a half mile away! I tucked her into bed, and then I walked back to watch the movie again!

Ah yes, I remember in the summertime there were far too many mosquitoes, I used a (芭蕉扇) palm-leaf fan to kill the mosquitoes. 

In our town, there were no luxuries of eating popcorn and no concessions. But I remember the smell of fresh corn on the cob and raw peanuts that people brought from home. I remember the taste of sweet potatoes and baked and dried plums – my favorite. 

I was in the countryside, but I missed the fight for spots on the field. Most of my friends moved away from the countryside and into the cities. These days were lost, as people now go to the city for theaters. Even in the countryside people don’t go out to the field anymore – they just watch TV in their home. Ah, how unfortunate.