1951 Yangzhou, China

Anliang Lyu

Born in 1937

First movie memory in Yangzhou China

Interviewed on 1/25/2018

By Vincent Zhang

The first movie that I remember seeing was in 1951, two year after People’s Republic of China was founded. I was 16 years old, studying eighth grade in Baoying Junior high school in Baoying town, a very small town in Yang Zhou city at that time. There were no bicycle in the town, so people went to every place on foot.

One afternoon, the whole class walked from our school, accompanied by our teacher, to People’s Theater. It was a normal single-storey building and the only cinema in our town.

The movie was called Steel Soldier (钢铁战士). It was black and white, but with sound. We didn’t have anything to eat while watching the film, and the teacher was supervising at the back. The film was basically a class outside the usual classroom to us.

In the film, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (The Communist party) battled fiercely with the army of China Nationalist party (Kuomingtang), but our army were so outnumbered by the Kuomingtang enemy. Our soldiers’ supplies were running out very quickly, with little food and ammunition remaining.

Then the squad commander and his fellow soldiers were captured by the enemy. They were asked to surrender and tell where the Communist army hid their supplies. Although the courageous soldiers suffered from all kinds of tortures, they were so loyal and unyielding that the enemy never succeeded in getting the location of the supplies.

Among the captured soldiers, one young man was no more than 20 years old, but he got the same inhumane punishment, and blood was everywhere on his face and body. The enemy forced them to write a capitulation statement, but the soldiers were firmly resisting.

Finally, the clever squad commander thought of an idea, and together with his fellow soldiers, they pretended to surrender and ask for pen and paper to write the capitulation statement. As soon the soldier got the pen, he suddenly dashed toward the head of the enemy army and stabbed the pen in his eye. The head of the enemy army was blind but I think the soldier was killed, though I can’t remember very clearly.

The moment was so dramatic and memorable that I can still recall the scene. The squad commander was so brave and smart, and we all admired that character.

After watching the film, we went back to school and received education on the spirit of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army soldiers. Teacher led the discussion among all the students and I felt deeply inspired by the unyielding heroism shown by the Communist warriors.

We went to the cinema at most once a month, because the ticket price was too expensive. However, going with the entire class could get a half discount and that was the only way to enjoy the luxury of watching a movie at that time.