[The Epoch Times, April 25, 2024]Wu Zuguang is a celebrity in contemporary Chinese literary and art circles—a playwright, film director, and calligrapher.
Wu Zuguang was born in a famous family in Beijing in 1917. He was fascinated by drama since childhood. In 1937, when he was 20 years old, he wrote China’s first anti-Japanese drama “Phoenix”. From then on, he never stopped and embarked on the path of drama creation, writing more than ten plays such as “Song of Righteousness”, “Returning Home on a Snowy Night”, and “Lin Chong Runs at Night”.
In 1947, he went to Hong Kong to work as a film director and became one of the pioneers in the Hong Kong film industry.
On the eve of the founding of the Communist Party of China in 1949, he received an invitation to attend the “Founding Ceremony” and was extremely excited. At that time, his friends in Hong Kong sincerely persuaded him to stay and promised him generous job benefits. But he did not hesitate at all and immediately returned to the mainland by sea.
After returning to Beijing, he wanted to be a screenwriter, but the party required him to be a film director. Out of trust, love and gratitude to the party, he obeyed the party’s arrangements and shot a total of four films for Peking opera masters Mei Lanfang and Cheng Yanqiu.
But the good times didn’t last long. Starting in 1957, he entered a troubled period and was punished three times.
Labeled as a “counterrevolutionary rightist”
In the spring of 1957, Mao Zedong called on intellectuals to provide opinions to the party and help the party rectify its work. Wu Zuguang listened to Mao’s report and was very excited, thinking that spring had come for China’s literary and art circles.
After that, reporters, friends, and leaders continued to ask him to provide opinions to the party. His wife Xinfengxia was worried that he would bring trouble out of his mouth and advised him not to mention it.
On May 31, Zhou Yang, Vice Chairman of the All-China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, and Yang Hansheng, Party Secretary of the All-China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, invited him to attend a meeting to provide opinions to the party, and sent someone and a car to pick him up. But at this time, the always docile wife went out of her way and refused to let him go. He pushed his wife away hard and left.
What he was thinking at the time was that he was not doing it for himself, but for the cause of the party.
That day, he spoke at the meeting. His speech was titled “The Party “Stops Leading the Art Work as Soon as Possible”” by Tian Han, a veteran in the theater industry, and published in the newspaper.
Soon, the party rectification movement turned into an anti-rightist movement. His speech became irrefutable evidence against the party. He was labeled as the first big rightist in the theater world and even the entire literary and art world.
After that, he was criticized fifty or sixty times.
Before a denunciation meeting, someone from the task force said to him: “You still have an important issue that you haven’t explained. It’s reached this point and you shouldn’t hide it anymore.” He thought about it for a long time, but he didn’t think of anything. Later, the people on the task force said the word “erliutang”. He couldn’t remember what was wrong with the “second-rate hall”? As a result, he was criticized as a liar, a liar, etc. The task force asked him to write an explanation, but he couldn’t do it.
It wasn’t until one day that Liu Zhiming, the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Culture, published a 30,000-word article “To Completely Smash the “Erliu Tang” and “Little Family” Right-wing Clique Politically and Ideologically” that he knew about the “Erliu Tang” What is the anti-party problem?
From then on, he became a “counterrevolutionary rightist”.
On a snowy day in the early spring of 1958, he was sent to the frozen Beidahuang, thousands of miles away, to undergo labor reform. It’s been three years since I left.
The entire family is implicated
When Wu Zuguang looked back on the past, he wrote: “The thing that causes me the most pain is my family, my mother, wife, children… Let me talk about my wife first, saying that she is the most famous and brightest person on the opera stage in these years. The audience’s favorite actor, this evaluation is by no means an exaggeration. However, because I was labeled as a rightist, Deputy Minister of Culture Liu Zhiming mobilized and threatened her to divorce me, and she flatly refused. After that, she was also labeled as a rightist. Hat, from then on, this crystal-clear ‘Queen of Peking Opera’ became a wretch that everyone could bully.”
“None of the three children are allowed to go to school. The eldest son Wu Gang went to the rural countryside for ‘exercise’. The second son Wu Huan was also sent to Beidahuang after finishing junior high school. He worked as a correspondent for the ‘corps’ for seven years, walking seventy miles a day to deliver messages. After my youngest daughter, Wu Shuang, graduated from junior high school, her class teacher who loved her the most was revoked from her right to enter higher education, so she could only stay at home. As for my parents, when my father was dying of illness, I praised them as the best in history. The good and most honest party and government, but they exiled me thousands of miles away. When my father died, I didn’t know where his son was? And my mother, the most kind, hard-working, and silently shouldering all responsibilities, shouldered the responsibility of the whole family and the family. The responsibility of raising three grandchildren.”
The younger siblings were also implicated: the fifth sister was sent to Fujian, the seventh sister was sent to Yunnan, and the eighth sister graduated from the China Foreign Affairs University, but was assigned to Inner Mongolia. His sixth brother, who was studying in the Soviet Union, was transferred back to China and was severely criticized.
“My family, which was supposed to be the happiest and most perfect, was completely destroyed like this.”
The Cultural Revolution suffered another seven years of hard labor and reform
When the Cultural Revolution broke out in 1966, the theater industry was hardest hit, and playwright Wu Zuguang was doomed.
The anti-Party issue of “Erliu Tang” once again became the focus of attention of the “rebels”. Countless big-character posters, small character posters, slogans, etc. opened fire on “Erliu Tang”.
On the wall of the Union Medical College Hospital near his home, a large slogan “Completely smash the second-tier hall of the counter-revolutionary Petofi Club” was written in large characters almost two meters square. The large characters “Wu Zuguang Erliu Tang” were also written in white on the door of his house. The rebels at the Chinese Ping Theater gave his wife a new title: “Second-rate cousin Xin Fengxia.”
For a period of time, he was forced to stay at home and was not allowed to move freely, but the rebels were free to break into his house and do whatever they wanted. His home was raided many times. One day, a young man named Chen Xiang rode a flat-bed tricycle to his house, carried his books to the car, loaded it up, and rode back.
Another day, the rebel leader Li Zhenyu called him to his office and scolded him sternly. The reason was that he sent a note to his wife, whom he had not seen for several months, which read: “Everything is fine with me. You can reform with peace of mind and obey the Party’s instructions.” Li loudly scolded him for violating discipline. The more he spoke, the angrier he became. Slap him.
He lives in a courtyard house with eighteen rooms, which is a private residence he bought with money. After the Cultural Revolution broke out, Jiang, a member of the Party Committee of Cuihualou Restaurant, and a worker and his family broke into the courtyard and occupied eight rooms. Later, he exchanged the remaining ten rooms for two four-room buildings in Hepingli. Within a few days, a large room was taken away by a female street cadre.
After experiencing home confiscation, control, isolation, and criticism, he was transferred to the “May 7th Cadre School” established by the Ministry of Culture in Tuanbowa, Jinghai County, Hebei Province. Here, he was sent to a labor camp for seven years.
Ordered to quit the party
From being labeled a “counterrevolutionary rightist” in 1957 to being rehabilitated in 1980, Wu Zuguang suffered injustice for 23 years.
By 1980, Wu Zuguang dramatically became a member of the Communist Party of China.
One day, Zhou Weizhi, the acting minister of the Ministry of Culture, talked to him and said: “Due to the destruction of the Gang of Four in the ten years of the Cultural Revolution, the party’s prestige dropped to its lowest point. At such a difficult time, you will think of old friends.” Ask him, because he and he The party has a long-term close relationship. At such a moment, should we consider writing an “application” for joining the party?
Because it was the minister who was talking to him seriously, he had to take it seriously. That night, he called a meeting with his family. After explaining the situation, my wife and two sons agreed, but only the youngest daughter objected. He obeyed the majority and wrote the application.
On August 1, 1987, only seven years after Wu Zuguang joined the party, Hu Qiaomu, then a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China, went to his house in person and read out documents from the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. The document talked about six of his “mistakes”, advised him to “quit the party”, and made the decision that “if he does not listen to the advice, he will be expelled.”
Wu Zuguang said that among these six “errors”, the first three were not consistent with the facts, and the last three were quoted from an article I wrote on the reform of dramatic art, and they could not be used as reasons to persuade me to quit the party. But considering that Hu Qiaomu was old and frail, and came to visit him personally, I agreed to quit the party.
The reason why Wu Zuguang was punished
In fact, it is very simple: just tell the truth.
In 1957, the party asked him to provide advice. His only opinion at the time was: “Party leaders from Yan’an lack cultural standards, but when they become leaders, they immediately give instructions and guide writing. This trend is even more common and prevalent in the literary and art circles, especially in the opera circle: no The situation of pretending to understand and pointing fingers is even more serious; and I have always advocated freedom of creation and writing, and I am very disgusted with this phenomenon of low-level leadership and high-level leadership. My opinion is that politics must have leadership, and the military must have more leadership. To lead; however, literature and art are meant to be read and viewed by a wide range of readers and audiences. Only free writing and performance is the only way, and writers and artists should be given absolute freedom.”
This opinion was considered to be in opposition to the leadership of the party on literature and art.
As for the issue of “second-rate halls” being anti-Party, that is completely out of the question.
In the 1940s, when he was in Chongqing, he and a group of friends from the literary and art circles often gathered at the Bilu, the residence of film critic Tang Yu. One day, Guo Moruo named “Bi Lu” “Erliu Hall”. As a result, a group of friends who often come and go here have become members of the “second-rate hall”. They come freely and go freely. The Anti-Japanese War ended and the people dispersed everywhere.
After the Communist Party of China came to power in 1949, actors Dai Hao and Yu Jingzi rented an old-fashioned large house at No. 34 Guanyin Temple, Dongdan West, Beijing. A group of friends who met frequently in Chongqing’s “Erliu Tang” gathered together again here. When we were happy, we ate, drank, and chatted together. We didn’t form any organization at all, and there was no such thing as being anti-party.
However, when it came to the anti-rightist campaign in 1957, the CCP wanted to punish people and created a “second-rate” right-wing anti-party group based on random associations.
The reason behind Wu Zuguang’s being persuaded to quit the party was that 1987 was the 30th anniversary of the anti-rightist movement. At the end of 1986, Xu Liangying, Fang Lizhi, and Liu Binyan, who had been labeled as rightists, wrote a letter to thirty or forty well-known rightists across the country, suggesting that a symposium be held to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the anti-rightist movement.
After Qian Weichang received the letter, he handed it over to Deng Xiaoping, Chairman of the Central Military Commission, which was tantamount to informing Deng.
When Deng saw the letter, he became furious. On December 30, 1986, Deng summoned Hu Yaobang, Zhao Ziyang and others for a talk. He mistook Xu Liangying who wrote the letter for Wang Ruowang and said angrily: “I read Fang Lizhi’s speech, and it didn’t look like a Communist Party member at all. Why do such people stay in the party? It is not a matter of persuading them to quit, they must be expelled.” He ordered that Wang Ruowang, Liu Binyan, and Fang Lizhi be expelled from the party.
Wu Zuguang is also one of the recipients of the letter, and he has the same view as Fang Lizhi and others. It is said that he was originally going to be expelled from the party, but Hu Yaobang did some work and finally decided that Hu Qiaomu would come forward to persuade him to quit the party.
Conclusion
Wu Zuguang once said that after the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War in 1937, he placed all his hopes on the CCP and believed that the CCP was the hope of the nation and the country.
This was the most important reason why he returned to Beijing from Hong Kong without hesitation in 1949.
In 1957, he served the Party wholeheartedly and expressed his sincerity to the Party, but was “beaten to death with a stick” by the Party, and his whole family suffered. Ten years of the Cultural Revolution, another ten years of suffering.
After the Cultural Revolution, he was ordered to quit the party because he told the truth.
Telling the truth is the most basic morality of being a human being; telling the truth is the most basic right granted to citizens by the Constitution.
However, in China, telling the truth is difficult and difficult to reach the sky!
Epoch Times first release
Editor in charge: Gao Yi
Tags: Wang Youqun tragedy Zuguang celebrity literary art circles punished times Erliu Tang Counterrevolution Big
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