Connecting the dots to put flesh on the bones of history

"Who has fully realized that history is not contained in thick books but lives in our very own blood?"

 – Carl Jung

Jung had a point. History in books, especially school textbooks, often raised more questions than it answers.

That's also true in histories of the founding of the Communist Party of China in July 1921. We Chinese grew up with the "facts" presented in textbooks, but we were left wondering why so few women were mentioned and why, for example, police broke up the Party's first congress when it was a relatively innocuous movement at the time.

The makers of the new epic film "1921," which was nationally released today, have tried to fill in some of the blanks.

The movie crew, led by 40-year veteran filmmaker Huang Jianxin, explored what is in "our very own blood." They attempt to recast textbook facts into a flesh-and-blood tale that includes the role of women revolutionaries.

"It had to be character-driven," Huang told Shanghai Daily. "Previous dramas on this subject, including my own projects, often followed chronicle-style storytelling and ended up more like literary reportage. I wanted to follow a psychological timeline, drawing audiences into the story through subjective perspectives of the characters."

Huang, producer and co-director of "1921," shocked the cast by relentlessly urging them "to get rid of the burden of playing their parts as though they were the great leaders that eventually came to be."

"We are telling the story from a contemporary perspective, 100 years after it happened," Huang said. "But we needed to return these legendary characters to their historical era and to their social status at the time. Many were not the great leaders we have come to know but young nobodies."

He demanded that Wang Renjun, who plays young Mao Zedong, not to read anything about the chairman post-1922, fearing that it might influence the actor's interpretation of Mao at age 28.

"Like today's youngsters, these people were passionate at the time, leading protests in hometowns," Huang said. "But they were also playful and curious, especially when visiting a metropolis like Shanghai for the first time."

The movie includes scenes of the curious young founders, average age 28, seeking out night hotspots in the city. There is one scene where the young revolutionaries try to convince Mao to try on a Western suit, telling him that "Marxism is a Western theory, so wear something Western."

He Shuheng was the oldest of the Party founding members at age 45. In the film, He tells the story of a friend's reception by the Empress Dowager after he scored high in the imperial exam.

When asked what the empress looked like, the friend had no answer because he was forbidden from raising his head during the entire reception.

"How sad is that when the intellectuals are forbidden from raising their heads high?" He asks in the film.

The movie, which had pre-release screenings last weekend, drew a box office of more than 70 million yuan (US$10.8 million), more than a quarter of industry revenue that weekend.

Chinese film audiences, used to watching the best movies from all over the world, are increasingly more critical of movies and not shy about posting negative comments when a plot is illogical or characters unconvincing.

To address such astute viewers, the "1921" film crew was obsessive in recreating Shanghai of a century ago. Old artifacts from that era were used to convey authenticity. 

Thousands of light bulbs were painstakingly installed to create a Shanghai before neon lighting. French expatriates from across the Yangtze River Delta were recruited as extras for a scene in which France's national day was celebrated in Shanghai.

"Some people may ask, 'Why all the hard work when audiences probably can't tell the difference between a French and a Russian?" Huang said. "But I insisted on French people because there is a scene of them singing 'La Marseillaise" and I wanted the expressions on their faces to ring true."

As to all those questions not quite addressed in textbooks, the crew, especially co-director Zheng Dasheng, buried themselves in books to shed light in dark corners.

Zheng, previously best-known for arthouse movies, was brought in to build an atmosphere of poetic romanticism. One of the film's screenwriters Yu Xi, who has mostly worked on Hong Kong actions, joined the team to give espionage elements authenticity.

"We read lots of books and archive materials, especially memoirs written by those who attended the first congress of the Party," Zheng said. "The first-hand memoirs described what they did in those days and offered us vivid details."

For example, Chairman Mao showed up in some memoirs as "a young man from Hunan Province, with an athletic build, who was quiet at the meetings and loved debating with others."

Famously known as a fanatic swimmer in his later life, the young Mao was indeed an athletic young man. One of his first published articles was one about the importance of physical fitness for Chinese people.

"It's very difficult to be true to history yet not be restricted by it," Zheng said. "What happened between the dots? As filmmakers, our artistic imagination takes over where historians stop."

Based on his research, Zheng connected the dots on why the First National Congress of the Party was raided by police and forced to hold its clandestine final meeting in another town.

"They simply knocked on the wrong door," he explained. "The police in the former French Concession were knocking on doors of all registered social groups to inform them of an upcoming new rule about meetings. The Party founders were holding their congress next door to a registered and rather influential social group."

So was it just coincidence that police were enforcing the new social meetings rule when the Party founders were meeting?

"The new rule was established mainly because of a man named Maring, who attended the first congress," Zheng explained. "He was already a big international name among cops in Europe. He was arrested and later released in Vienna before boarding a ship for Shanghai. European cops alerted their French colleagues in Shanghai, who were worried about what trouble Maring might stir up in Shanghai. Hence the new rule."

Maring, whose real name was Henk Sneevilet, was a Dutch Communist dispatched to China by the Communist International.

The espionage intrigue in the film took on greater scope after a telegram from Japan was discovered by Zheng's research.

"It was never known before and it sent chills through us," said Zheng, recalling the first time he read a copy of the telegram from Japanese police archives.

The telegram was sent by Japanese agents in Shanghai to Tokyo on June 29 in 1921. It stated that delegates of the Communist Party from various cities in China would hold a meeting in Shanghai the next day.

"It was chilling because it was so accurate," Zheng said. "The congress initially planned to meet on June 30, but the start was delayed because not all the delegates had arrived in Shanghai. The telegram showed us that the Japanese were closely watching, with very detailed intelligence."

Sometimes, research turned up unexpected twists.

In the age of the Internet, Netizens deconstruct and re-create almost anything. One of their most widely circulated online tales is one about "the most successful start-up company in the history of mankind."

The tale goes: "It was registered in 1921, with nearly zero capital and a little over 50 employees scattered around the country. They told a convincing story about Marxism wherever they went and soon attracted the first few rounds of angel investors. In the decades that followed, the company almost went bankrupt several times but managed to complete an initial public offering in 1949 (the founding of the People's Republic of China), and was listed internationally in New York in 1971 (Restoring all the lawful rights of the People's Republic of China in the United Nations). And now, the time-honored brand operates the second-largest economy in the world."

The masterminds behind "1921" were delighted to dig up a correspondence that resonates with the modern-day humor. In it, Mao tells Li Da, one of the Party founders, "Respected brother, you were one of the company's founders. Now the business is booming. Hope you can return and participate in its management soon."

It is said that Mao used the metaphor lest the letter fell into the hands of enemy spies.

The new movie also addresses a widening focus on gender issues. Two of the five TV dramas nominated for awards at the recent Shanghai TV Festival centered on women and both were among the highest-rated and most discussed dramas of the past year.

"Increasingly more audiences ask, where are the women?" said "1921" producer Ren Ning of Shanghai.

"Many dramas about the Party founding," she explained, "are missing female characters or have women as just someone's wife. But women indeed played an important role, and we wanted to fill that blind spot."

A new generation of women was emerging in China in the early 1920s. They challenged the old tradition of patriarchy and saw themselves as equal to men. It was a slow, long process. Many of them were wives of famous revolutionaries, with whom they stood head and shoulder in terms of passion, idealism and sacrifice. Some of these women are featured in "1921."

"These female revolutionaries understood love in both the sense of loving family and in the broader sense of loving country," said Liu Shishi, who plays Soong Ching Ling, wife of Sun Yat-sen, the founder of the Republic of China. She was the only person ever accorded the special title "honorary president of the People's Republic of China."

Referring to the famous Mao quote about women holding up half the sky, Liu said she was in awe of Soong, who devoted her life to causes related to women and children.

Another woman of note brought to life in the film is Wang Huiwu, wife of Marxist philosopher Li Da and a major player in preparations for the congress.

"She was a 23 at the time, independent, wise and brave like many women of the era," said producer Ren. "She was the one who proposed to move the last meeting of the congress to a boat in the nearby city of Jiaxing after the Shanghai meeting was interrupted by police. That was a very important decision."

In the movie, Wang is played by actress Ni Ni, who starred opposite Christian Bale in Zhang Yimou's Golden Globe-nominated 2011 epic "The Flowers of War."

"Playing this character and learning about her life, including how she discovered spies and alerted members of the congress, made it clear to me that female power was never absent in the development and strength of China," Ni said.