1960 Dongli, China
Xuezhen Wang
Born in 1949
Dongli, China
Interviewed on February 8th, 2023
By Yuan Zhan
I was 11 years old. My mother took me and my sister to watch our first movie. The movie was called “The Spring River Flows East” (一江春水向东流). We lived in Dongli, a small coastal village and had to walk for an hour to a nearby town called Zhanglin to watch the movie. The name of the theater…I think…was Chenghai Town Cinema. We used to visit the cinema only every two to three months – going to the movies was such a luxury back then!
At the door of the theater, they sold small cards with the lyrics of the movie’s theme song printed on them. With the lyrics, the audience could then sing the chorus together at the end of the movie. It sounds like this: “月儿弯弯照九州，几家哟欢乐几家…”(The moon is curved, and it shines on the states. How many families are happy? And how many stranded on the streets?…) See? I still got it.
Once you walk inside the theater, there were wooden seats, separated by the “main” and “side” area. The main area had wooden folding chairs, whereas there were only stools in the side area. The main area, was, of course, more expensive. I think it was 5 cents more expensive than the side seats.
“The Spring River Flows East” was a tragic romance, and it stayed with me even after many years. If you ask me to name my favorite movie now, I would still choose this one. I still remember the plot very clearly since I revisited the movie so many times afterwards.
My favorite character was the female lead Su Fen, a worker in a yearn factory, I felt so bad for her. She marries Zhongliang, a teacher in a night school. A year after their marriage, the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) breaks out. And the couple loses contact. Then, after the war, Su Fen starts working as a servant in a wealthy household. While waitressing at a ball one night, Su Fen runs into her husband, dancing intimately with the pretty and young Lizhen, a socialite who gives Zhongliang a high-paying job. Too ashamed to reveal her identity, Su Fen throws herself into the Huangpu River in shock and desperation. Oh, my heart still aches whenever I think of this reunion of the couple…How could this man do this to his wife? Or maybe it’s not entirely his fault, it’s the war…Yes, it’s the war that forced people apart!
I could still remember people sobbing at the end of the film. The air was stuffy, so heavy with sadness. I saw my mother cry, so I cried, too. I didn’t want my favorite character to die.
Despite the poignant ending, I loved the movie so much because…actually, it showed what rich people’s life looked like. The ball scene was filmed at an actual night club in Shanghai with colorful disco lights, fancy wine, and shiny dresses. Oh, that city life, you have no idea how I dreamed of it as a kid.
Walking out of the theater, the concessions always cheered me up. There were sugary liquorice carambola slices, dried olives, Tanghulu (rock sugar-coated fruits of hawthorn on a bamboo skewer), and bean puddings. You could get them at the counter, which we call Xi Tai Jiao (the foot of a stage) back then. Every time after we finished watching movie, I would beg my mother to buy us one of those snacks – they made us happy for a whole week.
Our school also organized movie trips as well. I remember watching “Tunnel Warfare” (地道战) with my classmates. The movies our teachers took us to were much more “political” compared to “Spring River”. I remember the boys screaming and whistling whenever the soldiers charged. The kids would physically leap out of their seats when the Chinese army emerged victorious. Good old times…but again, I preferred romances to those political movies, which were simply too loud for me.
I haven’t thought about the “Spring River” in so long. After all, my mother and sister who always took me to that movie are not here anymore.
But now that you remind me of it…I do miss Tanghulu, and that melody of the theme song still comes back to me with memories.
