Famine film sparks sad memories
Source: Xinhua |
November 30, 2012, Friday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
Moviegoers packed cinemas across China yesterday for the first public screenings of a film that explores a painful topic for the nation - famine.
"Back To 1942," directed by Feng Xiaogang, focuses on a drought which killed 3 million people in central China's Henan Province.
The morning showings left some members of the audience, many of whom were elderly, visibly upset.
"The movie is very heavy and truthful, it reminds me of many scenes from my life," said 75-year-old Chen Mingya in Zhengzhou, Henan's capital.
The film tells the story of refugees who fled their hometowns in search of food, a situation made worse by the Japanese invasion and a dysfunctional Nationalist government. Many starved to death on the grueling journey to nearby Shaanxi Province.
"People lost their dignity," said Feng's wife Xu Fan, who plays a farmer who sold herself for a handful of millet to feed her children.
The younger generation may be unfamiliar with the period, but it had left a scar in the memories of the middle-aged and elderly, Feng said.
"Our nation is characterized by tremendous sufferings in history. To know where we come from helps us understand where we should go," Feng said in Shanghai.
"Hunger can make people do crazy things," said Yu Baoyou, a 51-year-old resident of Henan's Zhumadian.
Yu recalled how villagers jumped into floodwater to catch dead cattle and rotten vegetables after a dam burst in 1975 killed more than 26,000 people and left many others without food.
Weakened by wars
Historians say China's huge population but uneven distribution of resources meant food allocation by central government was essential when drought and floods cut supplies to some regions.
"Mass famine broke out when the regulating hand of government was weakened by wars or political upheaval," said Gu Xiaoming, a history professor at Fudan University.
Gu said China also suffered from a scarcity of food in recent decades as a result of backward agricultural production.
Cao Bin, a college student born in east China's Zhejiang Province, said that one legacy of the era was his grandparents' sanctification of dining and frugality with food.
"For grandma, it's like blasphemy to say you want to skip a meal simply because you're not hungry," he said. "Grandma often says she feels secure only when she is stuffed, even after so many years living in affluence."
Sociologists say discussions about hunger are still important today. As urban Chinese begin to fret about obesity-related diseases such as diabetes, there are still rural areas where impoverished farmers can only afford instant noodles on special occasions such as their children's birthdays.
Zhang Youde, a sociology professor at the Shanghai University of Political Science and Law, said: "Though China's coastal regions are no longer plagued by hunger, there are still many people who are not fed decently in central and western parts of the country."
Only this week, children at a primary school in Hunan Province were found to have been getting only a small piece of bread and some milk for lunch, triggering a public outcry.
"China still has a long way to go in the battle against poverty and starvation, and should always remember the bitter lesson of its hunger history," Zhang said.
"Back To 1942," directed by Feng Xiaogang, focuses on a drought which killed 3 million people in central China's Henan Province.
The morning showings left some members of the audience, many of whom were elderly, visibly upset.
"The movie is very heavy and truthful, it reminds me of many scenes from my life," said 75-year-old Chen Mingya in Zhengzhou, Henan's capital.
The film tells the story of refugees who fled their hometowns in search of food, a situation made worse by the Japanese invasion and a dysfunctional Nationalist government. Many starved to death on the grueling journey to nearby Shaanxi Province.
"People lost their dignity," said Feng's wife Xu Fan, who plays a farmer who sold herself for a handful of millet to feed her children.
The younger generation may be unfamiliar with the period, but it had left a scar in the memories of the middle-aged and elderly, Feng said.
"Our nation is characterized by tremendous sufferings in history. To know where we come from helps us understand where we should go," Feng said in Shanghai.
"Hunger can make people do crazy things," said Yu Baoyou, a 51-year-old resident of Henan's Zhumadian.
Yu recalled how villagers jumped into floodwater to catch dead cattle and rotten vegetables after a dam burst in 1975 killed more than 26,000 people and left many others without food.
Weakened by wars
Historians say China's huge population but uneven distribution of resources meant food allocation by central government was essential when drought and floods cut supplies to some regions.
"Mass famine broke out when the regulating hand of government was weakened by wars or political upheaval," said Gu Xiaoming, a history professor at Fudan University.
Gu said China also suffered from a scarcity of food in recent decades as a result of backward agricultural production.
Cao Bin, a college student born in east China's Zhejiang Province, said that one legacy of the era was his grandparents' sanctification of dining and frugality with food.
"For grandma, it's like blasphemy to say you want to skip a meal simply because you're not hungry," he said. "Grandma often says she feels secure only when she is stuffed, even after so many years living in affluence."
Sociologists say discussions about hunger are still important today. As urban Chinese begin to fret about obesity-related diseases such as diabetes, there are still rural areas where impoverished farmers can only afford instant noodles on special occasions such as their children's birthdays.
Zhang Youde, a sociology professor at the Shanghai University of Political Science and Law, said: "Though China's coastal regions are no longer plagued by hunger, there are still many people who are not fed decently in central and western parts of the country."
Only this week, children at a primary school in Hunan Province were found to have been getting only a small piece of bread and some milk for lunch, triggering a public outcry.
"China still has a long way to go in the battle against poverty and starvation, and should always remember the bitter lesson of its hunger history," Zhang said.
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