Breaking with Old Ideas

Breaking with Old Ideas
Traditional 決裂
Simplified 决裂
Mandarin Juéliè
Directed by Li Wenhua
Written by
  • Chunchao
  • Zhou Jie
Starring
  • Guo Zhenqing
  • Wang Suya
Music by
  • Lü Yuan
  • Tang He
Cinematography
  • Zheng Yuyuan
  • Luo De'an
Production
company
Beijing Film Studio
Release date
 1975
Running time
 127 minutes
Country China
Language Mandarin

Breaking with Old Ideas is a 1975 Chinese film directed by Li Wenhua. The film is one of the few that were produced during the Cultural Revolution.[1] As a result of the political upheaval taking place, Breaking with Old Ideas's plot was heavily regulated under highly codified guidelines on story and characterization so that it would have a mass character, as opposed to an individual focused character, namely proletarian politics as opposed to bourgeois politics. The film draws inspiration from issues with schooling in China at the time, such as that there was too much study, and too little social practice.[2][1]

Plot

In 1958, the Communist Party of China sends Long Guozheng (Guo Zhenqing), a graduate of the Counter-Japanese Military and Political University, to head the newly established Jiangxi Communist Labour University (today's Jiangxi Agricultural University). The school's more capitalist elements, aiming for high bourgeois academic standards, refuse to admit poorly-educated (according to bourgeois standards) peasants, but Long advocates the opposite: after all a Communist Labour University should only admit students from the working class! Long also begins innovative changes—to the dismay of many other staff—such as putting more emphasis on hard labor than classroom learning, switching courses to accommodate experiential learning, removing impractical sections from the curriculum, holding lessons in the field, and excusing students who miss exams to work for the commune. Later, a student Li Jinfeng (Wang Suya), whom Long considers an exemplary follower of the "educational revolution", faces expulsion and is put on trial. The masses come out in support of her and denounce those taking the capitalist line on education. Those in power taking the capitalist line decide to shut down the college as a result. In the end, the College is saved by the will of the peasants and a pronouncement from Chairman Mao himself.[3]

Cast

  • Guo Zhenqing as Long Guozheng
  • Wang Suya as Li Jinfeng
  • Wen Xiying as Deputy Secretary Tang
  • Xu Zhan as Xu Niuzai
  • Zhang Zheng as Old Representative
  • Li Shijiang as Jiang Danian
  • Hou Guanqun as Yu Gang
  • Xiang Hong as Cao Xiaomei
  • Wu Jing as Xiao Ping

References

  1. 1 2 Zhang, Yingjin & Xiao, Zhiwei. "Breaking with Old Ideas" in Encyclopedia of Chinese Film. Taylor & Francis (1998), p. 101. ISBN 0-415-15168-6.
  2. ↑ https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-9/mswv9_14.htm#b20
  3. ↑ Marion, Donald J. (1997). The Chinese Filmography: The 2444 Feature Films Produced by Studios in the People's Republic of China from 1949 through 1995. McFarland & Company, Inc. p. 82. ISBN 0-7864-0305-5.


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