Although I was not in class for the first half of the films "To Live" and "Morning Sun", I think the second half of each was more than powerful enough to leave me with some sort of impression or thought. What really left me in awe was the zeal with which Wan and the other factory workers helped paint and improve Fugui's home, and just the general happiness of Wan in general. This point was strengthened for me when the hospital scene ensued. The pain that Fengxia undergoes is parallelled by the pain Wan and Fugui have when they see the failings of their communist system. The hospital nurses do not have the skill to deliver a baby, and the only capable doctors have been jailed. What puzzled me was what puzzles me whenever I am presented with some sort of Communist story. How on Earth can people worship some leader who doesn't even do anything for them? It would seem that these people just have such idealist views that it blinds them to any present discomfort. What did surprise me was the sense of personal honor Fugui had when the soldier tried to pay him for the murder of his son. This sense of honor seems to me like it would be lost in a society that preaches the group over the person.
Posted by dan at October 22, 2004 01:55 PMabout what you said about the death of Fugui's son:
I think that the reason that he had personal honor is that as individuals, the chinese didn't seem to understand or really internalize what was happening in the Revolution. Fugui and his family, obeyed the Revolution and participated, but never actually expressed any personal desire for the new society. They showed circumstantial fear of social consequences, but to me, that is natural in all human societies. I thin kwhat you wrote touches on the principles of obedience and conformity, and Mao did a good job of separate people's ideas from them and replacing them with his ideals. Deep down inside, as shown by Fugui, they were still human beings that valued family and personal honor and success, no matter how communist they acted.