Last night, a profound event happened to me. The Student Union of China hosted a delegation from the Houston Consulate of the People's Republic of China here in Athens, Georgia. They brought with them a new Chinese film entitled 'Purple Sunset'. We screened it at about 9:00 yesterday evening.
The movie took place in the final days of the Anti-Japanese War. This is what the Chinese call the 14-year struggle against the Japanese between 1931 and 1945. The setting was in Manchuria (called dongbei by the Chinese). This is the area that saw the longest Japanese occupation and most of the worst crimes committed by Japanese soldiers. This is the area that was liberated by the Soviet Army in August, 1945.
An opening scene featured a tank battle between the Soviet and Japanese armies. While this battle was going on, Japanese soldiers were massacring Chinese civilians in firing-squad fashion. One Chinese civilian survived, and was about to be shot when a Soviet tank burst through the wall. This Chinese peasant was saved. Two Soviet soldiers (one male and one female) rescued this Chinese and took him with them. These three became separated from the rest of the Soviet army during the continuing battle with the Japanese. Later, they came to a bridge where they would come upon what would be the third member of the trio that would be the focus of the story.
While the three were crossing the bridge, a grenade was thrown out from a small building at the far side of the bridge. The male Soviet soldier shot indescriminately into the building. They came to the door and found two Japanese middle-school girls. One was dead, killed by the Soviet soldier. They took the other one with them.
The male Soviet was shortly killed by a Japanese mine, leaving us with the three protaganists: a female Soviet soldier, a male Chinese peasant, and a Japanese schoolgirl. The stories of each of the three were revealed in flashes throughout the movie, very effectively I might add. The Soviet soldier was in her home village during Hitler's Operation Barbarossa. She saw the barbarity of war (and of the behavior of many men) at a very early age. She was still pretty young at the time of these goings on in Manchuria, and this was four years after Barbarossa. The Chinese peasant was living in Manchuria during the worst of the Japanese crimes in that northeast Chinese region. He saw his mother used as bayonet practice by a Japanese recruit. He saw friends and countrymen used as target practice, dumped in rivers alive, and beaten, kicked, and tortured. The Japanese schoolgirl was indoctrinated to hate Americans, British, Chinese, Canadians, and Russians (sic). The Soviet woman had reason to hate men, the Chinese peasant had reason to hate Japanese, and the Japanese schoolgirls was trained to hate Chinese and Russians. How would they get along?
The three were alone, stranded, in a warzone in the least populated region of eastern China. The distrust among the three was profound. The Soviet woman expected the Chinese peasant to want to rape the Japanese school girl. She flippantly said to him in Russian "You are a man". He didn't. The Chinese peasant constantly resisted the urge to kill the Japanese school girl. No one could have blamed him for doing so, considering all the Japanese had done to him, his family, and his country. The Japanese schoolgirl also resisted the urge to kill both. However, at one point, when the Japanese schoolgirl fell into quicksand, the Chinese peasant and the Soviet soldier both risked their lives to save hers. From here, the three began to see each other as people, as individual human beings. This is where the lesson is to be learned, and what makes this movie so profound. It also teaches us a lesson relevant to us today.
Many Americans don't understand China and and Chinese, just as many Chinese don't understand the United States and Americans. In the two years I lived in China, I had the opportunity to get to know individual Chinese people. I had the chance to get to know them, to learn from them, and to understand their country. I also had the chance to teach them about my country and the American people. This can be said of the myriad of Americans who live and work in China, particularly those who become conversant in the Chinese language.
I firmly believe that when common people meet, interact, and get to know each other, we begin to understand one another. We begin to look at each other as fellow human beings, and we begin to take off the blinders that have been trained into us. When we look at each other as human beings, then we have the chance for dialogue. When we have dialogue, we have a genuine opportunity for peace, something that the common people all over the world desire.
This film was in Chinese, Russian, and Japanese. On occasians when Russian and Japanese was spoken, there were Chinese subtitles. I wish a film like this could be translated into English so more Americans could be exposed to the profound message that this film provides. Not only was the message profound, but the film was put together in a very effective way. You understand the individual protaganists and their situations, as well as get a feel for what the Japanese did to the Chinese people. The later wasn't overdone however as to take away from the deeper meaning of the story.
Following the movie, I had a chance to converse briefly with the representatives from the consulate. They were good representatives and I am sure they have the same desire for our two great nations what I have, peace and understanding. They way to achieve that is to increase the contact between the peoples of both countries.