In "To Live" and "Morning Sun", we see two contrasting views on the state of China during the late 1940's and into the 1950's. This is a time when Mao Zedong founded the People's Republic of China, through victory in the Chinese Civil War in 1949. In "To Live", we see a fictional narrative of this harsh era through the eyes of a struggling family. Here, the Chinese Civil War almost killed Fugui (the husband) and forced Jiazhen (the wife) to support two children by herself. Then after the creation of the People's Republic of China, we see the ongoing struggle of the family in this new communist society. It seems almost as if the normal peasant family had completely lost its identity and was in a constant struggle to regain this family identity. All personal belongings that families had were to be given to the state in order to benefit the state as a whole. The whole idea of personal belongings and personal relationships seemed to almost completly disappear. I really think that this was clearly displayed when the state was about to take Fugui's puppet set in order to make 2 bullets for the purpose of attacking "Taiwan". Overall, this movie seemed to display an unfavorable view of communism of the general masses of people in China, especially in the early years. In "Morning Sun", we see a contrasting view about the introduction of Communism. Here, their is excitement in the voices of the narrators about the prospects of communism. One of the main reasons for this optimistic view is due to the commentators that narrated this documentary. Relatives of former Communist leaders were some of the commentators in this documentary. From watching these two films, we get a clear picture of the different views that existed within China regarding Communist governments. One question that is really left unanswered in my opinion is what was international influence on China throughout these formative years of Communism?
--Tim