"Haixia": Blooming the Fragrance of New China's Female Spirit

"On the seaside, on the beach, the wind rustles banyan trees. Fishermen's girls are at the seaside, weaving fishing nets, weaving fishing nets." This is the episode of the movie "Haixia", "Fisherman's Girl by the Sea", which is familiar to people over 50 years old.
I watched Haixia during the Spring Festival in 1977. The important plot, main actors and highlights are still fresh in my memory. Some classic lines, such as, the instructor said to Xiao Haixia, "Your suffering is our suffering"; the old militia Wang Fa said to Sun Tzu Jiwu, "You know whether the fisherman's heart is white or black"; Hai Xia said to the female militia, "Defend the island, defend the motherland. The target is the enemy, we must hit hard, accurately", always make me excited. After 45 years, I will relive the memories of the times carried by the movie "Haixia", with a lot of emotion and endless aftertaste.
　A film: unforgettable
There is a famous saying in Liang Qichao's "Young China": "The elderly often think about the past, and young people often think about the future." On a certain age, it is easy to nostalgia, this is human nature. But there are many things in the past, not all of them are worth thinking about, most of them have become a thing of the past, and those lingering and thinking about the past have accumulated into deep memories, and may even be immortal classics.
On May 4, 2021, CCTV's "Chinese Literature and Art" broadcast a "Salute to the Classics-The Movie" Haixia ". The program invites Wang Haowei, one of the co-directors of Haixia, Cai Ming, who plays Xiao Haixia, Wu Haiyan, who plays Da Haixia, Feng Enhe, who plays Ah Hong, and so on, to recall how Xie Tieli adapted Li Ruqing's novel "Island Female Militia" into a movie in the 1970 s, how the crew selected actors, how the actors reflected the life of island female militia, and all kinds of trivia filming, the program also introduces the prototype of Haixia characters and the relevant situation of modern Haixia. I watched this episode with rapt attention. "Haixia" is the kind of "past" that I often think about in my heart, which makes me can't help but recall the experience of watching this movie.
In 1968, my family moved to a small mountain village adjacent to Wuyuan County and Fuliang County in Jiangxi Province. At that time, watching open-air movies on the drying field was often the busiest day in the village. Film projectionists will be treated like guests when they eat pie at the homes of production team members. The news of the movie spread quickly and everyone knew it in a flash. The children moved stools, chairs, fire buckets and the like to take up positions early in the afternoon, and all the men, women and children went out in the evening. But there are not many such opportunities. If you want to watch a movie, you often have to walk a few miles to the village where the production brigade is located, or even walk more than ten kilometers to the nearby commune in Fuliang County. There is definitely no seat, only standing, squatting or sitting on the floor. When there are many people, we have to go around to the back of the screen to see the "back". In case of wind and rain, there are times when we get wet, but we still enjoy it.
In 1976, our family moved back to the county. In my impression, the county seat is like a "big city" like Tieling, with decent cinemas. During the Spring Festival in 1977, the cinema showed "Haixia". In those days, there was no such thing as a "New Year's movie", and movies were not so relaxing, humorous or funny. A dime of a ticket, but a ticket is hard to find, several hours of long queues to get a ticket. Twenty minutes before the movie was shown, I couldn't wait to check in, find my seat, sit down, sit down properly, and watch the movie quietly. "Haixia" gave me the first experience of watching movies in the cinema. Today's children can't experience the satisfaction and comfort.
2021 is the centenary of the founding of the party. In the study and education of party history, I reread the second volume of "The History of the Communist Party of China" and read that movies such as "Haixia" and "Entrepreneurship" were strangled by the "Gang of Four. The film "Haixia" was reborn after the robbery and was recorded in history because of its great significance of "breaking the ice. For this reason, I respect Haixia even more and have a deeper understanding and feeling.
　An Image: Aesthetic Ideal
"Haixia" takes the life experience of the fisherman girl Haixia as the main line, and at the same time writes about the different personalities and growth paths of several female militiamen, and integrates the hot life of a group of high-spirited female militiamen into the beautiful island scenery, which is refreshing., It caused a huge sensation in the national release. The battle story of the island's female militia became a household name overnight, and the episode "The Fisherman's Girl by the Sea" was beautifully lyrical, picturesque, permeated with a strong atmosphere of life, and quickly sang across the country.
In those days, many young women imitated Hai Xia's appearance of standing guard with a steel gun in her hand to take photos. The artistic image of Haixia can't help but think of Mao Zedong's well-known "Seven Jades · Photo of Female Militia". One day in February 1961, Li Yuanhui, a confidential officer, went to Juxiang Bookstore to deliver documents to Mao Zedong. Mao Zedong asked her, "Xiao Li, did you join the militia?" Xiao Li hurriedly replied, "Yes." She also took out a photo to Mao Zedong to see.
On September 29, 1958, Mao Zedong said in a speech to Xinhua News Agency reporters: "We not only need a strong regular army, but also a large-scale militia division. In this way, when the imperialists invade our country, they will be unable to move." On October 1, 1959, Mao Zedong and other central leaders inspected the capital's militia division and militia squads at the Tiananmen Gate Tower, and Li Yuanhui was among them. She also took photos with full arms. Mao Zedong looked at Li Yuanhui's photo and praised it, "What a hero looks like." He wrote four lines of poetry with great interest: "Sassy and heroic five-foot gun, the dawn of the first light on the military field. The sons and daughters of China are so ambitious that they do not love red clothes and love armed forces." Mao Zedong went on to say: "You young people should have ambition, not Lin Daiyu, but Hua Mulan and Mu Guiying!"
Xu Zhongyuan's article "Mao Zedong's Reading" A Dream of Red Mansions "in the first issue of" Party Documents "in 1994 wrote that in the autumn of 1951, when Mao Zedong met with several Hunan educators, he said: Jia Baoyu is a rich son and needs a maid to take care of her diet and daily life. Lin Daiyu is sentimental and loves to cry. She can only live in Xiaoxiang Pavilion in Grand View Garden, vomiting blood and causing lung disease. How can such people be revolutionary? You run schools and don't train our young people to be like Jia Baoyu and Lin Daiyu. We don't need young people like that. We need strong youth, both physically and mentally strong. "Don't love red clothes and love armed" reveals Mao Zedong's aesthetic ideal of the new Chinese feminine spirit, with the distinctive brand of that era.
I haven't seen the photo Li Yuanhui showed Mao Zedong. It is estimated that it is similar to Hai Xia. Haixia is full of red face, bright eyes, tall and straight posture, capable movements, fresh and simple, from Haixia, people fully appreciate the beauty of women in line with the aesthetic ideals of that era, which is one of the deep reasons why people have a strong emotional resonance with the movie Haixia.
　A spirit: passed on from generation to generation
In the 1930 s, Wang Yuexia was born in an ordinary fisherman's family in Bei'ao Town, Dongtou County, Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province. After the founding of New China, Baidao Dongtou was on the front line of coastal defense in southeast China, and the security situation was very complicated. In 1958, Wang Yuexia took the lead in setting up the Dongtou Women's Militia Platoon. She led the female militia to help the troops wash clothes, farm, raise pigs, and sometimes dig trenches and stand guard with the soldiers. On April 23, 1960, Wang Yuexia attended the National Militia Congress and was cordially received by Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Zhu de and other central leaders. The Ministry of National Defense gave Wang Yuexia a semi-automatic rifle with 100 rounds of ammunition in the name of Mao Zedong. In 1960, the Beisha Women Militia Company of Dongtou County was established. Since then, production training, political studies, theatrical performances, night school literacy, and national defense construction, the female militiamen have used their youth and blood to win glory for the company. Wang Yuexia gave birth to the novel "Island Female Militia" and also made the movie "Haixia".
After the release of "Haixia", the "Dongtou Women's Mitian Company" became famous all over the world, and Wang Yuexia became the "star" of that era ". Since then, the Dongtou women's militia company has another resounding name-"Haixia" militia company. Wang Yuexia and the female militiamen, in turn, took "Haixia" as an example and constantly carried forward the Haixia spirit of "loving the island, advocating martial arts, inspiring dedication. With this spirit, generation after generation of fishermen girls guard the border and guard the island, and work hard.
After the reform and opening up, the women's militia company still took the security of coastal defense as its own responsibility, and insisted on carrying out joint defense activities with joint defense, joint training, joint construction, party, and heart-to-heart activities with the troops stationed on the island. Whenever there is a mission during festivals and peacetime, they do a good job of duty in the designated area according to the joint defense plan and monitor the sea situation. Now in Dongtou, the "Haixia" in the human population is no longer just Wang Yuexia. The mission and task of the "Haixia" militia company also has a new connotation, which has been expanded from protecting the country to safety publicity, hidden danger patrol, traffic coordination, health improvement, poverty alleviation, and so on. Parks, schools, camps and villages named after "Haixia" can be seen everywhere in Dongtou. Organizations and teams such as Haixia mother volunteer service team and Haixia electric power women's service team are blooming everywhere.
Years like a song, gorgeous still. "Haixia" has long been born from the novel characters, military models and movie names, and has condensed into a symbol of the times and a cultural symbol. Haixia has been synonymous with Dongtou female militia, and has gradually evolved into Dongtou's city card and a value orientation of Dongtou people. In Dongtou, if you ask a local grandmother, "Have you ever been a female militia?" She may proudly tell you, "I am Haixia, my daughter is Haixia, and my granddaughter is Haixia, too."
Whether it is a novel or a movie, it was originally just to tell the story of the growth of a fisherman's girl. Li Ruqing and Xie Tieli certainly did not expect that the work would have such a far-reaching impact. This is the classic charm, the power of the spirit.
 

Source: Learning Times