The
Cultural Revolution (1967-1976) was perhaps the cruelest period
of modern Chinese history. Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl,
the latest portrayal of the ruthlessness of the People’s Republic
of China in trampling on the individual during the Cultural
Revolution, is based on Yan Geling’s novella Heavenly Bath
(Tian Yu), which in turn is adapted for the screen and directed
by China-born actress Joan Chen. The film focuses on fifteen-year-old
Wen Xiu (played by Lu Lu), nicknamed Xiu Xiu, who is from
an educated working class family in the city of Chengdu. All
7.5 million educated teenagers, according to the Communist
Party, must be sent down to the provinces to become "educated"
by hard labor alongside the poorest of the poor about the
wisdom of the Communist utopia. Whereas her boyfriend (played
by Luoyong Wang) has political connections and avoids being
sent to the provinces, she boards a bus for an unknown destination,
believing that she will return home after the usual year of
service. After successful months in one of the provinces,
Wen Xui is transferred to learn horse and yak herding for
a few months, and she is promised that her new knowledge will
enable her to be later transferred to a prestigious cavalry
unit for educated girls. When she arrives on the Tibetan steppes,
in a desolate location far from Chinese culture, she is quite
unhappy as the tent-mate of laconic, uneducated Tibetan Lao
Jin (played by Lop Sang). Castrated for opposing Chinese domination
of his motherland, middle-aged Lao Jin has respectfully entertained
other sent-down girls before, and tries to be as gentle as
possible, but acid-tongued Wen Xiu does not show Lao Jin respect,
a well-known character fault of the arrogant educated class
that the Communist Party was obviously trying to correct.
The summer
comes and goes, but Wen Xiu is not transferred as promised.
An itinerant peddler informs her that the cavalry unit has
been disbanded due to a riot among the educated girls. The
Party, in short, did not devise an alternative plan for Wen
Xiu, who is thus left in limbo. Although Lao Jin offers to
take Wen Xiu to a bus station so that she can return to Chengdu,
Wen Xiu replies that without proper approval, such action
would result in her death. When the merchant returns, he perfidiously
offers to assist Wen Xiu in securing approval for her to go
home in exchange for sexual favors, and she loses her virginity.
Thereafter, a series of visitors rape her, at first unwillingly
and then willingly, as her desperation turns into hopelessness.
Inevitably, she bears a child, goes to the village hospital,
is branded as a whore, and has an abortion. Perhaps the most
extraordinary aspect of the film is what is not spoken—the
eyes of Lao Jin, who would like to help and protect immature
Wen Xiu but who expresses in deeds but not in words his compassion
for her. In the end, she dies in the snow, and we can safely
speculate that her family well knows the human costs of the
misnamed "Cultural Revolution." Similar to the suppressed
but upbeat Farewell My Concubine (1993) and
To Live (1990), which also portray aspects of the Cultural
Revolution, Xiu Xiu has achieved a special notoriety—it is
banned in China. Joan Chen, moreover, is prohibited from making
any more films in the territory of the People’s Republic.
In so doing, the government in Beijing has thus given approval
to the excesses of the Cultural Revolution and thereby has
indicted itself of an arrogant, mindless, and undemocratic
perception of the masses as expendable ciphers, whereas the
film is an eloquent statement about the need for greater respect
by the government of the rights of children, families, peasants,
and indeed for cultural rights. Accordingly, the Political
Film Society has nominated Xiu Xiu for an award
in the category among nominees for best film on human rights
in 1999. MH
I
want to comment on this film
