I Wish I Knew (2010) - full transcript

Executive Producers: Ren Zhonglun
Chow Keung - Taylor An - Li Peng

Producers: Wang Tianyun - Yu Likwai
Meg Jin - Lin Ye - Xiong Yong

Associate Producers: Xu Wei - Zhang Dong
Maria Jin - Li Jingyi - Liu Xiadong

Advisers: Lin Xudong - Chen Danqing

Director of Photography: Yu Likwai

Sound Designer: Zhang Yang

Music Composer: Lim Giong

Editor: Zhang Jia

Starring: Zhao Tao

Shanghai 2009

Chen Danqing



I was born in Shanghai in August 1953.
There were four of us in the family.

My father was from Guangdong,
studying in Shanghai.

My mother was born in Zhejiang.

So we were migrants. We were migrants.

Many people-- families such as ours--

were living in Shanghai's
crowded alleyways.

For us, it was a great place
to run around and play.

What I recall most clearly is
the beginning of the Cultural Revolution

and how it was like before that.

We were about eight or nine,
15, 16 at the time.

It's a very vivid memory.

Neighbors used to respect
each other's privacy.

But the Cultural Revolution changed that
with all of the raids.

We suddenly found out
that certain families were "spies,"



certain ones were "capitalists,"
certain ones were "revolutionaries."

In the end,
even the revolutionaries were persecuted.

There was a "capitalist" family
living opposite us.

People said
they had owned the entire building.

We used to peek through the window
and watch them dine.

They had a big mahogany table.

There were servants, too.

Elegant manners, fine place settings.

That way of life ended
with the Cultural Revolution.

For each alleyway,
there was a boy who acted like the boss.

He had his own gang.
This boy was the best fighter.

He was a natural leader
and got along well with the others.

So we all had to choose
whom we wanted to play with.

It determined whether you'd get bullied
or whether you would bully others.

Meanwhile, in the alleyways next to us,
there were boys who targeted us.

Kind of like the Warring States period.

There was one kid from Zhangjia Park
who always went after us.

We lived in Da Zhong Li.

It would be no different in, say...
Xu Dong Li.

Anyhow, every lane, every li,

had a couple of hooligans--
"active, vivacious" boys.

that is, always fighting each other,

then making up, then fighting again.

Those are my strongest childhood memories.

Anybody?

Who wants to fight me?

Come on!

Come on. Here.

Hurry up.

Who dares to fight me?

I'm Kang Quan!

Come in and film.

My father was Yang Xingfo.

He was the co-organizer
of the Chinese Civil Rights Alliance

to rescue Communists and Democrats
who'd been arrested by the Nationalists,

and Chiang Kai-shek was very displeased.

He ordered secret agents
to assassinate my father

on the morning of June 18, 1933.

My father's office was in a western-style
house with a garden.

When we drove out there,
we had to turn a corner into the road.

So the car was moving slowly.

Then suddenly there was a loud noise.

There was an explosion.

I thought the tire had blown,
or something like that.

I stuck my head out to look.

Our car was a convertible.

The frame was metal,
and it had a canvas roof.

But there was nothing between
the roof and the frame,

so there was no protection from bullets.

As the car was making the turn,
it came to a stop.

Why?

I saw the driver jump out.

He was trying to get away.

He was shot twice.

Once in the stomach, then in the arm.
Blood everywhere.

I was too scared
to understand what was happening.

At that moment,

I became dizzy and lost consciousness.

I came to a bit later.

I found myself lying under a seat.

My father was on top of me.

I tried to get up,
but he was on top of me.

I did my best to get up.

I was only 14,
in the second year of middle school.

Anyhow, I finally managed to sit up.

Then I tried to wake my father,
but he didn't respond.

After the assassination,

Madame Soong made a speech
telling us to keep going.

But the fact was,
there was no longer a general secretary.

Madame Soong told Lin Yutang--
he was a member of the Alliance--

to stand in as general secretary.

You know what Lin said?
He said that was like asking to be killed.

So the organization was disbanded
because nobody wanted to be the leader.

Yang Xiaofo

I recall when Tse-ven Soong
came out of the railway station

with his assistant Tang Yulu.

They were in similar suits. It was hot.

They were wearing white suits
and panama hats.

The train pulled in,
and many people got off.

Before they reached the exit,
there was a gunshot.

Tse-ven Soong reacted immediately
and flung himself to the ground.

He lost his hat.

So they missed their target.

Soong's assistant took one step
and was shot dead.

All it took was one shot.

One shot was enough to kill him.

Anyhow, the assistant had dependents.

He was newly married,
and his wife was pregnant.

As a widow, she'd have many difficulties.

Tang, Soong, and my father
had been classmates in America.

They liked strolling along Huaihai Road
looking for cafés.

My father used to bring me along.

There weren't many cafés on Huaihai Road.

Back then, other than the DDS,
there was not many cafés.

Zhang Yuansun

You see a lot of yachts these days.

My father had one ages ago.

It had a kitchen,

a big dining space,

and a bedroom, too.

Like a houseboat in the West.
Just like that.

And in addition to the houseboat,
he had a couple of speedboats.

They were very fast,
and he towed them after the yacht.

They weren't like the speedboats
used in competitions today.

More like cars, with three seats
in the front and three in the back.

They had steering wheels,
just like in a car.

We rode in them all over.
We went right past the Garden Bridge.

We wore swimsuits
because the big waves would splash us.

He was one of the first
to have an air-conditioner.

They first appeared in the 1930s.

My father sang in the opera.

He was an amateur performer
in the Peking Opera.

He brought in famous performers
to rehearse with him.

He paid them simply to appear.

Everyone who came to watch
was given a tin of MSG

or mosquito-repellent lotion.

So everyone came to see the shows
not because he was a great actor

but they could get free MSG
or mosquito repellent.

That was how things went.

He loved the Peking Opera.

He liked products made in the West,

but he dressed himself
in the Chinese style.

He knew how to enjoy life.

During the Cultural Revolution,

he would say,
"I'm ready to meet the King of Hell."

Because he'd had a good life.

Even his fine clothes could go.

The only thing the Red Guards left him
was a fine Meiyi bed.

Those beds were all very costly,
but he sold it.

He said, "A bamboo bed is fine.
I don't care. I've enjoyed my life."

My grandfather's name was Zhang Yiyun.

He ran a pickle company,
which was rare at that time.

Then he went into chemicals.

And eventually,
he founded the Tianchu MSG Company.

Back then,
there was a boycott of Japanese products.

Tianchu was a big success.

It grabbed the Chinese market
for Japanese ajinomoto seasoning.

But Tianchu's raw materials
still came from Japan,

so he founded
the Tianyuan Chemical Company

to provide the raw materials.

That's why the name is similar.

And the chemical by-products were used

by another company he founded--
Tianli Nitrogen.

In the 1930s, his three companies

earned him the nickname
"Father of Industry."

And that's why,

when the Anti-Japanese War got going,

he could spend a small fortune

to buy a special fighter plane
from the German company Siemens.

He donated it to the country
in the company's name.

Suzhou River 1999

Suzhou River 2009

The Sino-British Treaty of Nanjing,
signed on August 29, 1842,

made the port of Shanghai a treaty port,
open to foreign trade.

Balfour, British Consul in Shanghai,
took up his post on November 17, 1843.

Shanghai was officially opened
to foreign trade.

The foreign concessions were established,
and so were the gangs.

Shiliupu (Wharf 16)

Du Mei-Ru

My father was Du Yuesheng.

He never talked to us about his gang.

He just said, "At the table, you should
say 'Enjoy the food. Thank you.'"

He also said, "Always pass chopsticks
to other people in this direction.

That is the way of the gang."

One day he took me out in the car.

We arrived near the Lafayette Fang gate
on Fuxing Road.

One of his bodyguards opened the car door,
jumped out,

and lined up beside the car.

We reached the gate,
and the gatekeeper made a call.

Then my father went in.

Not until the door was closed behind him

did the bodyguards
turn the car around and leave.

He was afraid of being ambushed.

When he was 14, his father died.

His mother died, too,
just after she gave birth to a girl.

Since he couldn't afford a coffin,
he rolled up Grandpa's body in a mat.

He left it in the mud
on the bank of a lake near Gaoqiao.

Later, a tree grew there,

and its roots wrapped themselves
around Grandpa's body.

A geomancer said it was a very good omen.

He was an unruly boy.

He was brought up by Wan Molin's father.

He was mischievous, so nobody liked him.

Kids gathered around him.

He'd say, "Even if I am a tramp,
I'll be the leader of the tramps."

My grandma was called Little Lanying--
a stage name.

They toured around, putting on shows.

My mother sang, and so did my aunt.

Auntie's stage name was Yuying.
My mother's was Yulan.

When they performed in Shanghai...

my father saw them.

It was in the Tianchan Theater,
the Shanghai Tianchan Theater.

Later on,
my father wanted to marry my mother,

but who should be the matchmaker?

It would be the daughter-in-law
of the gang boss Huang Jinrong.

Her name was Li Zhiqing.

Huang Jinrong's son actually died
before he and Li Zhiqing could marry.

So when Li Zhiqing married,
her husband was already dead.

The marriage ceremony took place
with only a portrait of her late fiancé.

She married into the Huang family,
but she had no husband.

So she was in charge
of almost all family affairs,

so she was my father's matchmaker.

My mother had a godmother.

She acted as my mother's matchmaker.

My grandmother made only one demand.

Her daughter must be the official wife.

She said,
"My daughter will not be a concubine."

My father made that promise to her.

Father's first wife loved him very much,
so when he married my mother,

his first wife gave him
everything she owned,

even her marriage contract.

But Dad's second and third wives
both bullied her.

Anyhow, father's first wife
gave the marriage her blessing.

"I'll give her our marriage contract
as a gift."

So my mother was his official wife.

But she played mah-jongg
with the other wives, like one big family.

At that time, most of us had no choice
but to flee Shanghai to Hong Kong.

We decided to leave.

On May 27, 1949,
my father boarded the ship Haiyan.

When it pulled out
from Shanghai's Port Wusong,

they passed a Shenxin Cotton Mill
and he said out loud,

"I never thought
I'd have to leave Shanghai."

To this day,
I don't know why he went to France.

Hong Kong would have been fine,
wouldn't it?

He wanted 140 passports to Taiwan.

But it was impossible.

They wanted to charge him $150,000.

He knew he had only $100,000.

There was never enough money.

So one day he said, "I have to die.

Otherwise, it will be you who will die."

Day by day, his health was deteriorating.

It could only end one way.

Pudong, Shanghai

The Bund

Nanjing Road set, Chedun Film Studio

Wang Peimin

My father, Wang Xiaohe, joined
the Communist Party on May 4, 1942.

The party ordered him to
go to Yangshupu Electric Power Plant.

In 1948,
everything went wrong for the Kuomintang.

There was a surge in protests
by students and workers.

My father was caught up in all that.
The enemy was watching him closely.

Eventually they charged him
with destroying a power generator.

They arrested him on April 21.

He was sentenced to death,
and he was to be executed on September 27.

On that day, my mother--

I had an elder sister.

She was born 17 months ahead of me.

I was born on October 24, 1948.

At the end of September,
my mother was pregnant with me.

Despite being so pregnant,

she picked up my sister

and went to the prison gate
with our grandma.

Many people came along in support.

Traffic around Tilanqiao Prison
was gridlocked all day.

Some policemen
whipped my mother with a belt,

trying to drive her away.

Of course, she didn't leave.

After all that,
the prison officials put up a notice.

It said they hadn't received
the execution order,

so it wouldn't be carried out that day.

My father was being held
in Yangshupu Prison,

and then they transferred him
to Tilanqiao Prison.

That prison had a special court
to sentence people in secret

for the convenience of the Kuomintang.

They convicted and sentenced my father.

He was executed in Tilanqiao Prison
on the morning of September 30.

Put to death.

My father died around ten o'clock

on September 30 in Tilanqiao Prison.

That day, a journalist
from Ta Kung Pao in Hong Kong

was conducting an interview.

He took many pictures.

Actually lots of people took photos

when my father
was brought outside the prison,

as well as after the closed-court session.

I know my father from those pictures.

He died three weeks before I was born.

So I never met him.

I knew him only from those pictures.

I miss him so much, though.
I never knew my father's love.

Wang Xiaohe

After the execution,
Mother thought of killing herself.

A neighbor said it might help
if she gave up her two children.

Mother really was suicidal,
but she was in bed, paralyzed.

She could hardly move,
let alone kill herself.

One of the underground Communists--
he's the one in that picture that you saw.

He often came to see her.

Once he told Mother,

"Bring up the two children

because they are carrying Xiaohe's blood!

Bring them up. Don't abandon them."

On hearing this, Mother said,
"I vow to bring them up!"

And so she didn't abandon us.

Life was really hard
during those eight months.

On Liberation Day, May 25, 1949,

the Communist Army
was marching along Nanjing Road.

At that moment, she went crazy.

She went to Nanjing Road to look for Dad.

"The Communists are here!
Xiaohe is back at last!"

So she was there.

We lived at the corner of Hankou Road,
very close to Nanjing Road.

She saw the Communist Army going by
with a prisoner.

So she followed the soldiers
all the way to the Bund,

still looking for Dad.

To Liberate Shanghai / Wang Bing / 1959

Shanghai is Liberated!

Long live Chairman Mao!

Welcome to Shanghai!

The Liberation of Shanghai

marks the thorough destruction
of imperialist forces in China...

as well as the complete independence
and liberation of the Chinese people!

Let those warmongers tremble
in front of the powerful Chinese people!

Shanghai was liberated on May 27, 1949.

The situation in North China is bad.

A dozen columns of the Communist Army
have poured in.

Several platoons of our army
were surrounded.

Do you think we can survive?

Red Persimmon / Wang Toon / 1996

I was in my first year
of elementary school.

It was around 1949.

In 1946-- No, it was 1948.

The war was so violent
that our classes were suspended.

We were moved to Shanghai.

At the time, I didn't understand why.

Of course, now I understand.

Why did my whole family move to Shanghai?

It was more than a dozen people.

I later understood
we were getting ready to move to Taiwan.

So we were waiting for a ship.

As I recall, while we were waiting,
we lived in a park in Shanghai.

The park itself was well guarded

because all the Kuomintang
senior officials were staying there.

We all had to stay in the park.
We lived in tents and waited for the ship.

I remember it all very well,

and I put those memories in my film,
Red Persimmon, shot in 1996.

Wang Toon

A ship named the Zhongxing turned up.

It was very big. Security was very tight.

When we were getting on board,

many others were clamoring
to get on board.

It was very hard to board the ship.

There were ten kids in our family.

My father wasn't with us.
He was still fighting at the front.

Mother, Grandma,
and Father's orderlies were there.

There was an aide-de-camp
who controlled the boarding.

Grandma was worried we'd be separated.

There were so many kids
jostling for access to the boat,

losing sight of their parents.

So she tied us all together by the waist
with a rope,

from the eldest to the youngest,
like a string of onions.

She held one end of the rope,

and Father's orderlies
kept a close eye on us.

Mother went to negotiate
with the aide-de-camp

about getting us on board.

So we were all tied together by a rope
to avoid getting lost.

One by one! Hold the rope tight!

My father's name is Wang Zhonglian.

He was one of the first graduates
of Huangpu Military Academy.

During the Chinese Civil War,
at that time,

many of the combatants
were former classmates.

They were Huangpu graduates.

So the war dragged on.

It was wearisome.

Chinese versus Chinese.

People versus people.

All because of political differences.

During... the Xuzhou-Bengbu Campaign--

What was it called?

The Huaihai Campaign.

Before that began,

my father was already commander
of the Fourth Corps.

His responsibility
was to block the advancing forces

of Liu and Deng--

Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping.

Their troops were in the Dabie Mountains.

My father attempted to block
the advance of the Communists.

That was his duty.

Later on--

Whose phone is that?

How to put it?

They all knew each other quite well,

but they had to fight.

Taiwan 2009

I had worked in the US for eight years.

I returned to Taiwan in 1975.

I returned to Tsinghua University.

Lee Chia-Tung

During the Anti-Japanese War,
my father was on the home front.

My mother stayed in Shanghai
to take care of us kids.

I think most Shanghainese
preferred to stay.

Of course, I was among them.

After the war, my father...

became a civil servant based in...

Xuzhou.

He was in charge of properties
which had been seized by Japanese.

I think he quit the job fairly soon after

because so much corruption was involved.

My father wouldn't have anything
to do with bribery,

so he couldn't remain in that job.

We returned to Shanghai.

I remember very clearly

that we once received a big biscuit tin.

We kids were all delighted.

But when Mother opened it,

it turned out to be filled with gold bars.

At that time, our next-door neighbor

was the head
of the Sincere Department Store.

And his neighbor was General Tang Enbo.

Until the siege of Shanghai in 1949,

General Tang always had a soldier
stationed outside his house

standing on guard.

One day, while I was in primary school,

Father came to pick me up.

The teacher asked him, "Why are you here?"

He answered, "Because we noticed

the soldier outside General Tang's door
disappeared."

Then he added,

"I think I'd better take my child home."

Then the teacher immediately
sent all the students home.

But people saw
that General Tang's house was abandoned.

We saw this from the windows of our house.

Loads of people broke into the house

and carried off all his furniture.

Chang Hsin-I

My grandmother was the youngest daughter
of General Zeng Guofan.

My father was the number one secretary
of the warlord Wu Peifu.

My father was killed.
There was an "incident."

He was shot.

The "incident" was widely reported.

Sometimes it was reported that he
was alive, sometimes that he was dead.

This went on for months.

Two or three months went by.
My family knew nothing about it.

The civil war had cut communication
between north and south.

Back then, one of my uncles--
the fifth uncle from the Yu family--

had a dream about my father,
and my father was covered in blood.

He was kneeling down in front of him,
asking him to take care of us.

And so this uncle
was very kind to my sister and me.

When I went on to university
for four years, I had no boyfriends.

My mother always wanted me
to marry as soon as possible.

She even started bringing in matchmakers.

And each time, I'd quarrel with her.

The man I married
was a friend of a cousin of mine.

They and two other young men
were living in the USA.

My cousin was already married,
and he was living with his wife.

The other three were bachelors.
The five of them got a car.

They took a trip right across the USA.

My cousin was romancing his fiancée.

He took a boat all the way to Beijing.

He would say, "You are my moonlight,

the brightest star in the sky."

He waxed so lyrical.

But once they were married
and had two children,

he was a different man.

He began treating his wife badly.

Once when we were dining with an uncle...

his wife asked him to pass a plate.

He answered,
"You have two hands, don't you?"

That's how he spoke to her.

So, during their trip,
their relationship was quite bad.

Seeing the man's behavior,

my husband-to-be felt sorry for her
and looked out for her himself.

She was very grateful and told him,
"When you go back to China,

I promise to introduce you a nice girl."

That's how we were invited to a dinner,
my younger sister and me.

The three bachelors were there
and a young woman named Wu.

That's how we first met.

Once we'd been introduced,
he wanted to take me out.

I couldn't go out with him by myself.

I asked my cousin to join us.
We went out together a few times.

Quite a bit later--

It was at Christmas-- Or New Year's Eve.

Anyway, that night...

my cousin hosted a party at his house.

And that same day,

my cousin's younger brother
met my husband-to-be in a cinema.

He said "You were in Shanghai!

Come to our place tonight.
We're having a party."

So we met again.

And then, it was nearly midnight.

And most of them went out to celebrate.

The upshot was my husband-to-be
and I were left alone.

He asked me to write to him.

I refused.

He spent an hour persuading me.
A taxi was waiting downstairs.

Later he wrote to me,
and I wrote him back.

Hou Hsiao-Hsien

My impressions of Shanghai were formed
when I worked on Flowers of Shanghai.

Before,
I didn't know anything about Shanghai.

I went to Shanghai in search of locations.

By that time, the city was changing.
A lot had been demolished.

There was no real possibility
of filming on location.

So we decided to focus instead
on interiors we could shoot in Taiwan.

The novel Flowers of Shanghai
is very fascinating.

The man who wrote it
came from one of those "flower houses."

He lived in one from a young age.

The book has many characters,
and each is very individual.

China used to be a patriarchal society.

It wasn't necessary
that a man fall in love.

As for marriage,
they found a wife through matchmakers.

And children followed after the marriage.

Sex was basically not a big issue.

Nothing in that society
encouraged romantic love.

That became popular after the founding
of the Republic of China.

The motif of men romancing women,
falling in love,

seemed really nice to me

and very interesting.

Flowers of Shanghai I Hou Hsiao-Hsien

At the end of the Qing dynasty,
wealth flowed to the concessions

to avoid falling into the hands
of the Taiping forces.

From then on, Chinese and foreigners
lived in close proximity.

Shanghai became a prosperous city.

Yuyuan Garden
Shanghai

Chung Kuo, Cina / Michelangelo Antonioni

A strange atmosphere,
nostalgic and cheerful at the same time.

Memories of the past
and of loyalty to the present.

In 1972, during the Cultural Revolution,
my boss gave me an assignment.

A very famous European director,
Antonioni,

was coming to China
to make a film about the country.

I heard that he'd been invited
by Premier Zhou Enlai,

so it was up to us to meet all his needs.

Zhu Qiansheng

So on the second day of filming--

we were shooting on Nanjing Road--

it struck me
that he was filming a lot of bad things,

things that reflected our backwardness.

It seemed totally unfair.

When it kept happening, I made a protest.

I said, "If you keep on like this,
I'll have to stop you."

He said,
"Everything I've seen is very good!

What do you think is not good?"

He thought everything was fine.

The way I saw it,
these things were far from fine.

"We have very good things,
but you just shoot such backward stuff."

Our standards were so different.

Two years later, out of the blue...

our work unit military representative
arrested me.

He took me from my home to the TV station.

Then he spelled it out.

Antonioni's movie, China,

had been seen by the leaders
of the Cultural Revolution--

Jiang Qing, Zhang Chunqiao,
Yao Wenyuan, and so on.

They had watched the film
and officially declared it to be

an anti-China, anti-Communist,
and anti-people poisonous weed.

I later heard that the Gang of Four
were using the issue

as a pretext to attack Premier Zhou.

I went through countless interrogations
and confessions, even public criticism.

Back then, we came here
to attend a criticism meeting.

We went to all the places
where he'd filmed,

such as Shanghai Oil Refinery.

And everywhere we went,
we were criticized and denounced.

I was called a traitor, a spy,

a counter-revolutionary, and so on.

At that time, I was just 30 years old.

How could I be that politically attuned?

Even now I have no clear idea
of what exactly Antonioni had filmed.

I've never seen the film.

To this day,
I don't know exactly what's in it.

Huang Baomei

One day, in 1955 or early 1956,

the general union instructed me
to attend a forum.

At the door was Liu Shuzhou,
the deputy mayor of Shanghai,

along with the chief
of the United Front Work Ministry.

They were waiting for me. "You're late.
The chairman is already here."

I thought they meant the forum chairman.
I said I'd hurry.

So I rushed in,
leaving my coat in the cloakroom.

I drew open a curtain and then a door,
and I saw Chairman Mao standing there.

Mayor Chen Yi also stood up.
I was completely dumbfounded.

I was so shocked.
It felt as if I were dreaming.

Nothing was making sense.
I didn't know what I was doing.

I just clasped his hand and gazed at him.

That was all I could do.

I was dumbfounded and weak in the knees.

Chairman Mao took his hand away.

He told me to take a seat.

Then Chairman Mao asked me,
"Where do you come from?"

I said I came from Shanghai.

I was from Pudong.
He said, "Pudong is a good place."

He asked what I did.
I told him I was a textile worker.

He said, "Great!
Textile workers are very important.

People all across the nation
depend on you for clothing.

Spin more so all of us will have clothes!"

It was after nine o'clock.
We went to the theater.

It was an opera
performed in a cinema house.

Chairman Mao watched the opera.

I sat beside him.

He was very attentive.
He even read the program.

The actors were very nervous
because Chairman Mao was there.

The performers were tumbling,
one somersault after another.

Suddenly,
one of them somersaulted off the stage.

Everyone was so nervous.
Right away, they did it again.

Then, in 1959,
I attended the World Youth Festival.

That was held in Vienna.

We stopped traffic
on the streets of Vienna.

They were excited at seeing Chinese.
They hadn't seen Chinese people before.

Chinese people looked lovely to them.

They expected us to look like
the photos in their museums,

with pigtails and tiny bound feet.

We looked nothing like that.

They felt they had seen real Chinese.
All Vienna was excited.

They gave us a big thumbs-up.

"China! China! Hurrah!"
Everyone gave us a thumbs-up.

At that moment,
I felt very proud to be Chinese.

So when I came back to work, I made
an effort to increase my work production.

I later played myself in a movie.

Comrade Huang Baomei!

You want to see me?

Are you Huang Baomei?

Yes.

A humble person who has suffered

becomes a national model worker,
respected by others.

What a huge change!

Huang Baomei / Xie Jin / 1958

I was no more than 14 years old
when I started working here.

The factory was named Yufeng Mill,
and it was run by the Japanese.

After liberation in 1949,
it became Shanghai No.17 Cotton Plant.

SAFETY IN THE WORKPLACE

I went abroad for further study in 1960.

After that, I came back to work
until I retired in 1987.

I worked in this plant my entire life.

One January,
I heard from my elder sister in Shanghai.

She wrote me a letter asking me
to come to Shanghai

because she had something to tell me.

My elder sister
never summoned me like that,

so I boarded a train to Shanghai.

She was attending
the Conservatory of Music

as a student in the department
of vocal arts.

She lived on campus.

When I arrived
at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music,

she was very pleased to see me.

She took me to her piano room.

Then she closed the door,
hugged me, and burst into tears.

Seeing her cry, I understood at once.

I didn't need to ask.
Something had happened to my mother.

My mother was Shangguan Yunzhu.

She was born in Jiangyin.

In 1938, during the Anti-Japanese War,
she fled to Shanghai.

Wei Ran

At the time, my mother was no more
than 19 or 20 years old.

Just like all country girls
who come to Shanghai nowadays,

she had to find a job.

She found one on Huaihai Road.
It was called He's Photo Studio.

She did the accounts.

The studio was run by He Zuoming,

a photographer at Shanghai Film Studio.

He managed the business himself.

My mother worked there as a billing clerk.

Movie stars came in there
to have their photos taken.

Jin Yan, Gu Yelu, for example,
they all had their pictures taken there.

My mother got to know them and asked
if she could work in movies.

They were polite. They told her,
"You can if you speak good Mandarin."

So she went to study at an acting school.

Two Stage Sisters I Xie Jin / 1964

Isn't that the old star of Shaoxing opera,
Shang Shuihua?

My mother's first husband

was the art teacher at her high school.

His name was Zhang Dayan.

Zhang Dayan disapproved
of her new profession.

There were some arguments,
and finally he divorced my mother.

She and Yao Ke married,
and she gave birth to my elder sister.

Next, they organized a theatrical tour
of Northern China.

The troupe performed
in Tianjin and Beijing for several months.

She couldn't get transportation
back to Shanghai,

so she went to Northern China
with my elder sister and her nanny.

When she finally returned to Shanghai, she
found that Yao Ke was being unfaithful.

He was having an affair with someone,
so my mother divorced Yao Ke.

After the divorce, she lived
with the actor Lan Ma for a while.

In 1950, at the Lyceum Theatre,

she appeared in the play
Song of the Red Flag

and got to know my father, Cheng Shuyao.

I was born to them in 1951.

It was November 22, 1968.

My mother jumped from the fourth floor
of her apartment building.

She jumped in the early morning.

There was a food market in the street
in the spot where she jumped.

She fell onto a vegetable stall.
She wasn't killed outright.

Some people tried to save her.
She told them where she lived.

But she died
soon after reaching the hospital.

Because she was a "counter-revolutionary,"
nobody really tried to do much for her.

She was left to die.
She passed away very quickly.

One reason my sister asked me
to come to Shanghai was to tell me this.

But, also, even though
she was a college student,

she was being sent to labor on a farm.

She was about to leave Shanghai,

and she couldn't be sure
she'd ever return.

My elder sister and I
had different fathers,

but we'd been very close since childhood.

So this could have been
the last time we'd see each other.

We'd be in different locations
and couldn't be sure we'd ever meet again.

So those were the circumstances under
which I learned of my mother's death.

She told me how she'd handled the funeral.

Her boyfriend, Yan Kai, was a classmate
at the conservatory of music,

and he helped her with the arrangements.

But later, in 1971, Yan Kai was labeled
an ultra-radical Red Guard

during the factional infighting
of the Cultural Revolution.

He committed suicide while in custody.
He was only 24 at the time.

That was another heavy blow to my sister.

After his death,
my sister was interrogated for a month

because she'd been so close to Yan Kai.

When she was finally released...

she was very emaciated.

She had often visited my father.

They had kept up a good relationship.

She thought of him as her own father,

and he treated her like his daughter.

They had a good relationship.

While visiting my father,
she met a boy ten years younger than she.

They fell in love with each other,
and she became pregnant.

After that happened,
she felt she couldn't stay in Shanghai.

She had no job and no income.

The two of them talked it over.
The boy's mother was in Hong Kong.

My sister's father, Yao Ke,
was also in Hong Kong.

So they decided to sneak into Hong Kong.

They traveled to Shenzhen and tried
to get into Hong Kong from there.

During the attempt, the boy was caught.

Pregnant,
my sister waited for the boy in a hotel,

so she was not caught.

But her attempt to escape
couldn't be kept secret.

The conservatory brought her back
and publicly criticized her.

She was denied any work.

In Shanghai, she gave birth to her child,

but it was sent out for adoption
while she was still in the maternity ward.

But not long after that,
my sister had an accident.

She was riding a bicycle
along Nanjing Road.

She had the accident
at the intersection with Jiangning Road.

She was run over by a truck.

She died on the spot.

Hong Kong 2009

Wei Wei

My family name is Miao.

Many people pronounce it "Mou."

My original name was Miao Mengying.

Back home, I was part of a large family.

I am the third among the girls

and the fifth among all the children.

At that time, my father was--

My grandfather was a Cantonese tea trader.

He was a businessman.

We moved from Zhongshan to Shanghai.

I left school the same year

that the Japanese
attacked the United States

and started the Pacific War.

At the time...

I did not want to study any longer.

As it happened, a theater troupe
led by Huang Zuolin and Fei Mu...

was recruiting new actors,
and I auditioned for them.

At that time, there was this prominent
film producer who lived in Shanghai.

His name was Wu Xingzai.

His business was making dyes.
They called him the Dye King.

But he was fond of the arts.

When we staged a dramatic play,
Mr. Fei went to the Carlton Theatre

to discuss how to divide the receipts.

It was Mr. Wu who arranged it all.

Mr. Wu believed that a producer
should have his own film company.

So Wenhua bought a studio in Xujiahui.

You used to live in Shanghai.
You know Lu Jie.

Lu Jie was the boss of the studio.

At that studio,
they were preparing a project by Cao Yu.

Cao Yu-- Wan Jiabao--
said his script wasn't finished yet.

He needed another month
or a month and a half.

Huang Zuolin had just finished a film,
so the studio was empty.

Mr. Wu then asked Mr. Fei, the director,
for help.

He said, "Mr. Fei,
we need to film something.

Otherwise it's too expensive
to keep the studio open."

He asked him to come up with something
to fill the gap.

So Spring in a Small Town
was the film made to fill that gap.

Everybody told Fei Mu,

"Mr. Fei,
Wei Wei isn't suitable for the role.

How can she play Zhou Yuwen?
Think about it."

He said, "Of course she can play it.
Wei Wei is very feminine,

despite what you think."

Fei, the director, had confidence in me.

Then he talked to me about the role.

He said, "Bear this in mind.

Bear in mind the following words.

The most passionate emotions...

are the ones most kept in check."

He also gave me a task,
and I can talk about it now.

Li Wei the actor
had never acted in a film before.

And he was very young.

He apparently didn't have a girlfriend
and had never had a love affair.

The director, Fei, had no idea
whether Li Wei had had girlfriends or not.

He just said to me,

"You must help him in his role.
Make him fall in love with you.

Otherwise, the film won't work."

I wondered how to react to that,
but things started to go out of control.

When you play a role in a film,
you have to be able to leave it.

But Li Wei couldn't do that.

Eventually, I had to escape from him.
I ran away from Shanghai to Hong Kong.

I feel completely helpless

on this ruined, desolate wall.

If I were to ask you to leave with me now,
will you again say, "It's up to you"?

Will you ask me?

Spring in a Small Town / Fei Mu I 1948

Barbara Fei

At the time, Spring in a Small Town
wasn't very well received.

It was a time of national crisis,

and the film was considered too soft.

Also, the film was seen as very--

It could be said the film was too gloomy.

However...

It can be said
that nobody understood Fei Mu

and what was weighing on my father's mind.

At the beginning of 1949,

tensions were building in Shanghai.

Prices skyrocketed.

As I recall,
we were using gold and silver dollars.

We were running out of money.

It was a very difficult time.

My uncle, Fei Yimin, was a journalist
for the paper Ta Kung Pao.

The paper wanted to set up
a Hong Kong bureau

and publish a Hong Kong edition
of Ta Kung Pao.

He was asked to take charge
of the project.

He said to Fei Mu,

"Bring your children to Hong Kong
and stay there for a while."

So when he arrived in Hong Kong,

we'd made no preparations
to stay very long.

We were just waiting
for things to settle down in Shanghai.

Of course, we misjudged the situation.

We settled in as best we could.
We rented a house.

I resumed practicing my piano.

Father went back to Shanghai again
and then on to Beijing.

He always had his film career in mind.

But the situation was chaotic.

Everything happened in a lawless,
disorganized way.

His stay in Beijing was quite unpleasant.

He encountered some people
who were hostile to him.

He was getting negative responses,
unhelpful feedback.

It all made him very... frustrated.

So he returned to Hong Kong.

He passed away in 1951.
Such a long time ago.

So, what were we to do?

A big family like ours in Hong Kong.

I was still very young.

I hadn't finished my studies yet.

Later, Fei Yimin, my second uncle,
said, "In my opinion...

you'd be better off in Shanghai.

Our old home is still there.
You'd be better off in Shanghai!"

I am the oldest of all the children,
so I took the lead.

And like a bunch of crabs tied together,
we returned to Shanghai.

In Shanghai, I always felt...

So I went to Beijing. I went
to the Beijing People's Art Theatre.

They call it the Renyi.

I had been there before.

Jin Ziguang was in charge of it.

He said I could stay there.

I could join
either the modern drama department

or the opera department--
I mean, the music department.

Then he said I had to write my confession.

I wondered what he meant.

What did I have to confess?

"Explain why you left Shanghai
during that time."

It turned out he asked that same question

when my father returned from Hong Kong
to visit Beijing.

In Beijing, they asked him,
"Why did you leave Shanghai in 1949?

You are not patriotic."

I thought about it.

It's been so many years later,
and I was being asked the same question.

No way.

So the next day, without telling anyone,

I left Beijing for Canton.

And from Canton, I went to Hong Kong.

A border pass was needed.

But I managed without one
and snuck into Hong Kong.

Today, the old guy invited me to tea.

He saw that my health wasn't great.
He asked me to go to America with him.

Days of Being Wild / Wong Kar-Wai / 1990

I know very well...

At my age...

it's hard to find a man I really like.

Rebecca Pan

My family came from Wuxi.

But I was born in Shanghai
and I grew up there.

I'm Shanghainese.

These days, I don't say I'm from Wuxi.

I am a native Shanghainese.

Well... I moved to Hong Kong.

At the outset,
I had no intention of learning Cantonese.

I thought I was just passing through.

I wouldn't be staying here long,
and I would go back to Shanghai.

My mother and I
came to Hong Kong together.

Because...

Like I've always said,

I like what they call old society,
except for one thing.

My father had...

a concubine.

Chinese people did this strange thing
back then.

When a man...

did really well in life,

often he took two or three wives.

Foreigners do this kind of thing too,

but they don't have more than one spouse.

The woman is called a mistress
or a girlfriend.

In China, such a woman is thought of
as a wife-- second wife, third wife.

And that was the case with my mother.

In 1949, everything changed in Shanghai.

A new era had begun.
My mother brought me to Hong Kong.

It was time to make a choice.
My father had to choose.

In this new situation,
he could have only one wife.

I think this was quite a good thing.

Anyhow,
my mother decided to leave my father.

That's when she came to Hong Kong.

To start with,
my mother did all kinds of things.

She was in the black market.
Do you know the expression?

It means selling goods underground.

She managed to get by okay,

but it was a kind of gray area,
not exactly legal.

It was a kind of...

But all of a sudden,
it was made illegal, outside the law.

Everything we had was confiscated.

So I began making a living
by singing songs.

I think I really am a devoted daughter.

The reason is...

It's because my mother
went through so much unhappiness.

As I see it, she was very unlucky.

She married very young,

and my father soon lost interest in her.

He moved on to other pleasures.

My mother was not educated.

There were many things she didn't know,
but she was very smart.

She taught herself many things.
She was good at needlework.

She could knit wool. She was a good cook.

She was a normal, traditional housewife.

But I don't think her life
had been very happy.

But then in her later years,

her retirement was quite pleasant.

By then, I wasn't that young anymore.

She wasn't that much older than me,
just 16 years.

So she and I looked like sisters,
and we were good friends.

She told me everything,
so I know a lot about her.

That's why I say
I don't mind getting old myself.

Age gives you more knowledge
and experience.

I have a sort of love for young people.

This fondness includes a concern

for their future.

Who knows if young people
understand these feelings?

Because they've never experienced--

Stop for a moment.

The man in my heart

Has a smiling face

He used to give me spring in late autumn

No one can take away from me

That light of spring

No one can take away from me

The sun that shines in my breast

It's ages since I've sung it.
I can't remember all the lyrics.

Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong

Shanghai 2010

Yang Huaiding

As you can see, I'm doing well now.

But back in 1988, I was totally broke.

Very poor.

A lot of problems.

I just wanted to improve my life.

Just imagine.

I had... a son to bring up.

My wife and I earned only 72 yuan a month.

And we lived in separate locations.

In one year, all we could save
was four yuan a month--

48 yuan for the whole year.

With 48 yuan,

all I could afford was train fare.

So, on March 28, 1988, I quit my job.

And then on April 21,
I began speculating in securities.

I went to the first securities exchange
in Shanghai--

it was at No.101 Xikang Road--

to find the listed prices
of treasury bonds.

In the morning, they were at 104 yuan.

There were only six cities in the country
which traded treasury bonds.

The opening and closing prices

were reported in the Shanghai
official journals.

So I went to the Shanghai library
to check them.

I found the information I needed.

In Hefei, Anhui Province,
the morning opening price was 92 yuan,

and the closing price was 96 yuan.

I went to Hefei that night,

and I spent the whole 20,000 yuan
buying treasury bonds.

I bought them at 96 yuan each.

Then I sold them in Shanghai
for 112 yuan each.

A 14-yuan profit.

I invested 20,000 yuan
and made 2,800 yuan profit overnight.

I couldn't sleep that night.

For the first time in 38 years,
I had a sleepless night.

At that time in Shanghai,

the daily turnover of treasury bonds
totaled only two million yuan.

My trade represented 700,000 yuan of that.

I went to Shanghai Public Security Bureau
to get some protection.

I told them that the economic reform
had made me rich.

I wanted to make more transactions,
but I was scared.

The police had created
new security services.

I hired a couple of guards.

I paid each of them 600 yuan a month.

Why did I do that?

At that time, I had neither
a checking account nor credit cards.

I was carrying one million in cash
in my briefcase.

It was a real problem.

My briefcase was scanned
at the railway station.

When they found it filled with banknotes,

they accused me of being
a robber or a thief.

I must be a bad guy.

Another time, in Luoyang,
I checked into a hotel.

When I opened my case,
someone saw it was full of banknotes.

Back then, there's no 100-yuan note,

so it was all in tens and fives.

The briefcase
weighed over a hundred pounds.

The police were there within minutes.

I received a summons.
It was really agonizing.

Of course, this affected my business.

But once I had the guards with me
and carried a letter of introduction,

all these problems were solved.

Shanghai World Expo Park

FOR THE GLORY OF THE NATION,
HOST A GREAT EXPO

Han Han

I was born on September 23, 1982,

in Shanghai's Jinshan Zone, Tinglin Town.

Back then, my girlfriend
got into the best high school.

I was afraid they wouldn't admit me.

So I tried to figure out my strengths,
and I realized I was good at running.

I didn't really know this before.

Anyhow, the high school admitted me

because of my skill as a runner.

I can say I had two real strengths.

One was running,

and, also, I could write well.

I wasn't willing to give up my free time,
so I had to write during class.

As a result, I failed several classes

because, to be frank,
I overestimated my intelligence.

I thought I could sail through
all those exams

even though I hadn't studied.

I gradually realized science subjects
were much harder in high school

than they'd been in middle school.

So I just gave up.

Finally,
I thought I would have to leave school.

The teachers were about to tell me...

that I would be expelled.

So before that happened,
I was going to quit.

One of my teachers said to me,
"You cannot be an anti-social element.

How do you plan to make a living?"

My answer was I planned
to live on royalties from my writing.

All the teachers laughed at me,

and I laughed along with them.

I received my first royalty payment
in Beijing.

Triple Doors had a print-run
of 30,000 copies.

I received 30,000 yuan in royalties,
not enough to buy a car at that time.

A few days later, the publisher told me
the 30,000 copies had sold out.

They were printing another 20,000.

I thought, "Great, I'll make 50,000 yuan."

I started thinking
about what car I could buy.

I checked out prices,
and no cars were available for 50,000.

So I decided to go for a used car.

The publisher contacted me again.
They had printed another 50,000.

I would get 100,000 yuan in total.
I was very pleased.

But I still couldn't afford to buy a car.

There was a lot of debate raged on the Web
over the three leading models--

Fukang, Santana, and Jetta.

Which was the most powerful?

They were the only brands,
and I couldn't afford any of them.

I was particularly fond
of the Beijing Jeep 2020.

I didn't know how much it cost.

There was no official Web site back then,
so I couldn't find out how much it cost.

But I guessed it would be
between 100,00 to 200,000 yuan.

So I waited until the print-run
of my novel reached 200,000.

I took the money and went out to buy one.

I was carrying about 200,000 in cash.

My dream was going to come true.

I eventually found a car dealership.

I asked how much the Jeep cost.

I was so nervous.

They told me it would cost 40,000.

Then I had second thoughts
and didn't buy it.

It was mere vanity.
If it cost 190,000, I'd have bought it.

Later...

I did some careful analysis,
and I bought a Fukang, a Citroën brand.

I'd looked into it carefully.

Jetta wouldn't be my choice because they
were driven as taxis in Northeast China.

And Santanas
were used as taxis in Shanghai.

I thought I couldn't be seen driving a car
that was used as a taxi.

I wanted something special.

So I chose a Fukang
and drove the car to Beijing.

And there I found out that Fukangs
were used as taxis in Beijing!

Later, I approached a racing team
called Shanghai Volkswagen 333.

It was one of the best teams in China.

The boss said, "If you join us,
at least you'll be good for publicity.

We don't care
about your results in the races."

This was my first racing car.

That year, I won two championships.

If one day,
I can win a lot of championships,

I'll finally have the grand championship
that I really want.

I'll definitely be happy to tell everyone
that I'm actually a writer.

You are now at the top
of the Shanghai World Financial Center,

on the 100th floor, 1,555 feet high.

It is the world's highest viewing deck.