MCLC: Yiguandao film (3,4)

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Yiguandao film (3,4)
This film is completely beyond my expectation. Born in China, I have seen many films made in the Mao era for propaganda purposes, this one did combine propaganda with artistic features perfectly. A lot of research has been done on redemptive secret societies in late Imperial and Republican era, but we have very little knowledge on the post-1949 period. The makers of the film must have done some research on the ideology and social structure of Hui Dao Men, the purpose people joined Yi Guan Dao and the way they performed their religious practice in most cases were true. Many redemptive societies did cooperate with the Japanese and KMT government, but it’s impossible to make any judgement since there were thousands Hui Dao Men all over China. The film did exaggerate some bad aspects of Yi Guan Dao and people’s vulnerability towards superstitious ideas, but they are not all unreal. Hui Dao Men was never wiped out in China, even during the heyday of communist political movements.
Yupeng Jiao <yujiao at ucsd.edu>
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Another interesting feature of the film is the shadow over the top half of Mao’s portrait during the party meeting, which isn’t rectified until the final sequence with a similar image in full sunlight, at the outdoor rally. Do list members know of many other instances of an image of Mao being used this way making it to screen or print?
Nick Kaldis <nkaldis at gmail.com>
by denton.2 at osu.edu on February 20, 2015
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