A series of classic movies featuring China’s major revolutionary events in the modern era will be brought back to screens to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC), reawakening collective memories and patriotic sentiment among the public.
The program will last from April till the year end, with more than 100 classic domestic movies to be shown in cinemas and on TV, according to a notice released by the China Film Administration on its official website in late March.
The films will also be screened in rural areas, urban communities, and school campuses as part of centennial celebrations to honor the CPC’s founding, read the notice.
The movies cover a wide range of themes from major revolutionary events to the founding history of the Party and stories of national heroes, featuring key battles including the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45).
Major cinemas in Beijing and Shanghai began showing some of these films this month, with two to five movies shown each day, the Global Times learned on Monday.
Other regions including South China’s Guangdong Province, Southwest China’s Sichuan Province and Central China’s Henan Province have made arrangements for showings at schools and in residential communities, according to local media reports.
Peking University professor Zhang Yiwu told the Global Times on Monday that reviving classic movies is “a charming and effective way to strengthen Party building, especially for younger Party members.”
The movies will remind the public of the magnificent paths to the founding of the CPC and offer a chance to view the artistic works of the time, as well as giving younger generations who are not familiar with the history a chance to feel its weight, Zhang noted.
The program drew widespread attention from netizens, who flooded the comment sections on China’s Twitter-like Sina Weibo with their own picks of movies, while showing their expectation of being able to review the collective memories of old times.
Some other movie enthusiasts, especially among younger groups, have shown interest in the settings of the movies, which display the unique cultural environments of old times.
“The urban landscape back then reminds people of how far the Chinese have come,” a 29-year-old Shanghai resident surnamed Gao told the Global Times on Monday.
“These scenes are the benchmarks for the modernization efforts of today’s society, showing the achievements of social stability and opening-up.”
Students watch a patrotic film in a school in Yangzhou, East China’s Jiangsu Province, on March 23. Photo: VCG
