Lin Zexu

The film accurately illustrates an important historical message: that China must not make the same mistakes again when dealing with Western imperialists.

Nate Emery History 404 (University of Idaho) Chinese History in Film Dr. Pingchao Zhu 26 July 2001

Critique of Lin Zexu

I was not impressed with the quality of the script for the film `Lin Zexu' made by the Shanghai Haiyan Film Studio in 1958. Perhaps this is because I had the impression beforehand that it was a film made by the Communist Government, leading me to believe that it was more of a tool than entertainment. One of the things I noticed immediately about the film was its propaganda quality. For instance, everything in the Emperor's Palace was red instead of gold, to include the Emperor's clothing. There was a highly Communist undertone to every aspect of the film. It seems to have been filmed in the shadow of 1958 ideals, rather than early 1840's social accuracy. Primarily, this is evident in the appearance of women throughout the film as equals to men in nearly every portrayal. I find it difficult to believe that the women of that time were actually that liberated. When the canons overlooking the water are to be replaced, women are up in the front, towing the ropes alongside the men. The replacement canons also had the same range as those on the British ships, which they are shelling. This was a little hard for me to believe. The film's historical setting takes us from the years preceding the Opium Wars, on through its end. At a climatic point of the film, the Cantonese who are trading for the opium with the British are overjoyed when the opium chests are thrown into the water. This isn't exactly the behavior I would expect from opium merchants and addicts. The `Cantonese Opium Party' has the mood of an early 80's War on Drugs commercial: everyone appears to be extremely tickled that they were able to join together and throw the monkey off their backs. The proletariat ambiance is one of rising to beat the foreign devils that are keeping them down. In the end of the film, the British violate the truce agreement and land in northern China. The Chinese people band together to make a valiant last stand, and all ends among the backdrop of glorious red smoke. In the end, Lin is exiled, but only after seeing the achievement of the people over the foreign devils, which was his ultimate goal. For some unknown reason, the British military was savvy enough in the 1840's (at least in this film), to conduct night patrols in the rain for no apparent reason. I believe the historical accuracy here to again be misleading, however necessary to the intended plot development, if at all. For a film made in the middle of Mao Tse-tung's era, the film has purpose worlds apart from entertainment. Amidst continuous communist political movements and restructuring, China had isolated itself from the rest of the world. `Lin Zexu' took one of Chinese history's scapegoats and made him a hero for the purpose of communist ideals. It served a greater purpose of unifying Chinese people, giving them a common history, and instilling a sense of nationalism during a time up reform and sometimes upheaval. It served a greater purpose of unifying Chinese people, giving them a common history, and instilling a sense of nationalism during a time up reform and sometimes upheaval. I wouldn't recommend showing this film to students in the course of teaching the chronology or events of the Opium Wars, however I would recommend utilizing it in the discussion of the emergence of the Peoples' Republic of China, or perhaps as a tool to offer differing views of history. In my opinion, `Lin Zexu' is a film, and neither a movie nor a documentary. While it certainly had its place in its own time, viewers must be cautious applying it in today's world If the film were available in the United States in DVD format, it would serve as an excellent teaching tool. The nature of the DVD format would allow the instructor to quickly jump to the desired scenes, and preserve the media for much longer use than a VHS tape.

(for "The Chinese Revolution through Film" taught by Prof. B. Weiner)

Directed in 1958, this movie, Lin Zexu, reflects the imagined myth of that famous person who has a big impact on modern China. In my opinion, the movie depicts two different faces of Lin Zexu. On one side, Lin is a competent official who wins the support from the local community and serves loyally to the Qing emperor. On the other side, Lin is made into a hero of anti-imperialist, anti-colonialism and anti- capitalism. The conflict between these two roles marks the complex interpretation of Lin Zexu and the Opium War.

To some extent, the image of Lin Zexu in the movie is quite similar to traditional well- reputed government officials, such as Bao Zheng and Hai Rui: he sides with ordinary people who suffer from villains (foreigners in this movie), fights with corrupt officials and is memorized by the community when exiled.

In the latter half of the film, after Lin is dismissed from his position (striped off his insignia of rank), staying at home, Lin lies back into the chair silently and a book named Chu Ci (verses of Chu) is spread on the floor. Chu Ci is authored mainly by Qu Yuan, who is a loyal minister who lived in the Warring State period of China and worried about the future of his own state (State of Chu), but is slandered by corrupted ministers and then exiled by the king. Feeling deeply depressed of the fate of himself as well as his state, Qu Yuan commit suicide to end his life. This scene gives a hint to the similarity between the tragic fate of a minister in ancient China and a commissioner in Late-Imperial China, in which both of them fall out of favor with the monarch. There may be a deeper meaning underlying it: though more than thousands of years has passed from Qu Yuan to Lin Zexu, the plot that a loyal minister is framed by a villain near the gullible monarch doesn't change a lot.

However, the Daoguang Emperor rendered in this movie is not that mindless. In general, Daoguang is depicted as an intelligent and benevolent monarch. He cares about the well-being of the ruled people and supports the suppression of opium- smoking enthusiastically at first. It is only after corrupted ministers make falsified evidence to prove Lin's disloyalty that Daoguang doesn't trust Lin Zexu anymore. Why does the director render Daoguang as a positive, or at least a neutral figure? One possible reason may be that presenting Daoguang as an incompetent and insane dictator may make the audience think of the deficiencies of "New China"'s monarch, Chairman Mao.

Yet another more plausible reason may be that it matches a common imagination from ordinary Chinese people that the Emperor is a good one, and most officials are capable, which would have led to a bright future if a handful of bad guys (traitors or the corrupt) didn't sabotage their efforts. For example, the official interpretation of Cultural Revolution matches this imagination: It is claimed by the authority that Mao Zedong is not mainly responsible for this movement because he is tricked by the Gang of Four to start the movement. To put it simple, the ruler usually does good things, sometimes he does bad things but he is not responsible for that because he is tricked by villains.

The other side of Lin Zexu as an anti-imperialist and anti-colonialist hero looks a bit weird in the movie, as it is more like an invention in the 20th century with the development of nationalism. The film starts with a few bas-relief depicting the working and fighting scene focused on labouring people, which is quite similar to the bas-relief on the monument of the People's Heros, indicating the important role played by ordinary people in the movie.

In the very last scene, the Guangzhou people siege and rush to British Army with cold weapon (Sanyuanli Incident), while the exiled Lin Zexu ride a horse escorted by soldiers and looks back to the direction of Guangzhou. This scene is obviously the propaganda of the strategy of "People's War", which is common in communist China. In fact, the final fighting scene between local people and British invader doesn't exist in the original film. Zhou Enlai, the Premier of China, suggests the director to add this scene so that the movie looks more political correct at that time.

Apart from the movie, it is also worth mentioning about the life of the director, Zheng Junli. He has been a famous left-wing actor in Shanghai for years before he becomes a director. He is a friend of Jiang Qing when they are both famous actors in Shanghai. After the shot of the well-received Lin Zexu, he is admitted to the Communist Party of China. Ironically but not surprisingly, Zheng Junli, a competent director who serves loyally for the Communist Party, is persecuted severally during the Cultural Revolution and died in prison in 1969. And Jiang Qing, who is now the wife of Mao Zedong, plays the villain and leads the persecution on Zheng Junli specially. — September 6, 2016

Mostly political propaganda in the era of the start of political turmoil started by Mao: this movie in made in the era of Great Leap Forward, after the Anti-Rightists Movement. Understandably, the crew's attempt to maximize what really happened in the history was mitigated by the general political environment of the time.

One of the example was that in this film, the protagonist's relatives were the opium addicts, too, which was part of the reason he wanted to ban opium. This important part was omitted due to communist pressure to make patriots perfect, but less than a decade later the crew was persecuted for eulogizing feudalism and its officials for the same movie during the Cultural Revolution.