River Elegy 河殇

River Elegy (Chinese: 河殇; pinyin: Héshāng) was a six-part documentary shown on China Central Television in 1988 which portrayed the decline of traditional Chinese culture.
The film asserted that the Ming Dynasty's ban on maritime activities alluded to the building of the Great Wall by China's first emperor Ying Zheng. China's land-based civilization was defeated by maritime civilizations backed by modern sciences, and was further challenged with the problem of life and death ever since the latter half of the 19th century, landmarked by the Opium War. Using the analogy of the Yellow River, China was portrayed as once at the forefront of civilization, but subsequently dried up due to isolation and conservatism. Rather, the revival of China must come from the flowing blue seas which represent the explorative, open cultures of the West and Japan.
River Elegy caused immense controversy in mainland China due to its negative portrayal of Chinese culture. Rob Gifford, a National Public Radio journalist, said that the film used images and interviews to state that the concept of "the Chinese being a wonderful ancient people with a wonderful ancient culture was a big sham, and that the entire population needed to change." Gifford said that the film's most significant point was its attack on the Yellow River, a river which was a significant element of China's historical development and which symbolizes ancient Chinese culture. Using the ancient Chinese saying that "a dipperful of Yellow River water is seven-tenths mud," the authors of the film use the river's silt and sediment as a metaphor for Confucian traditions and the significance of the traditions which the authors believe caused China to stagnate. The authors hoped that Chinese traditional culture would end and be replaced by Western culture. The film symbolizes Chinese thinking with the "yellowness" of the Yellow River and Western thinking with the "blueness" of the ocean. The film also criticized the Great Wall, saying that it "can only represent an isolationist, conservative, and incompetent defense," the imperial dragon on the Great Wall, calling it "cruel and violent," and other Chinese symbols. The ending of River Elegy symbolized the authors' dreams with the idea of the waters of the Yellow River emptying out of the river and mixing with the ocean. Gifford said that River Elegy reveals the thoughts of young intellectuals post-Mao Zedong and pre-Tiananmen Square and the freedoms that appeared around 1988.
Gifford said that while the film did not openly criticize the Communist Party of China; instead it contained "not-so-subtle" attacks on Chinese imperial traditions that therefore would also criticize the contemporary political system. Conservatives in Mainland China attacked the film.
After the events of Tiananmen Square some of the staff members of River Elegy were arrested and others fled Mainland China. Two of the main writers who escaped to the United States became evangelical Christians.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Elegy
www.thechinabeat.org/?p=3607

[@hmcky]

This is one of the best things I've seen recently about China. It was mentioned in Liu Xiaobo's book.

[@bretoncircle]

This is an artistic film. Not a documentary. A book i was reading for a class at university referred to this film and several others as examples of the big changes after the first opening up. The language may be a bit extreme sometimes but its freedom of expression and speech.

[@RoseyM]

Thank you! I was very interested in watching this! Very hard to find these days I hear.

[@Unknownlng]

I can’t believe I have to watch this entire thing for class

[@arthas640]

i used to love video assignments in school. watching a video is more informative and more interesting then a lecture or textbook even when the video is ancient like this. As a kid i actually liked old videos like this because you can see when people got predictions wrong or were proven to be wrong, I once saw a video in class where the teacher had to correct the video because it had been in the school for so long it was made before the theory of tectonic plates were proven to be true.

[@RichardPenman]

This is a condensed version that contains the 6 episodes

[@xuanyuandingding]

Thanks for sharing!:)

[@MrFerra1993]

Ma quanto è bello Andornino

[@charlietallman9583]

This is Really Really good stuff in trying to understanding China.

[@gprichard6316]

Intensely provocative. No wonder it stirred up so much controversy.

[@hanskostka6788]

.. Two of the main writers who escaped to the United States became evangelical Christians... and there we have the problem again

[@mjl.9-19]

Reading commentary on Toward the Republic docu-drama I found this doc... After countless hours of watching Chinese historical drama series (costume) that are produced by China for broad consumption. Other more contemporary dramas "Like a Flowing RIver" and "Mining Town" are very compelling. River Elegy focuses on social econ political history. It seems that accuracy is questionable as iterations of this production, River Elegy, have been censored so I watch with a grain of salt, but nevertheless feel amazed at the relevance of our neighbor in the far East's history is presented. I will look for more docs and dramas with this more mature themes if any have suggestions...?

[@thanatos3008]

Agreed. I'd love to get hold of the full 6-episodes. Torrent links perhaps? I suck at searching in 汉字.

[@jcmcarreira]

Search in archive.org

[@santiagoayala2975]

I got word of this documentary when I was reading the last parts of the book written by Lee Yuan Kew (Singapore's father). It must have been difficult for the Chinese of the era to open their eyes and realize that all that time they all have been deceived by Mao Tse Tung. I can only imagine how that generation from the 80s felt when they found that China had wasted decades and generations for pursuing the Maoist dream, while USA, Europe and Japan were light years away in advance. But they say that to improve, first you have to recognize you are flawed. And I applaud that Chinese generation of the 80s for recognizing their errors, being sincere, honest, brave and protesting for their rights, even if at the end that was a dream that ended in the most violent and sad way possible.

[@user-ge8hn3uj6m]

抽空来看了一下，跪着反思的经典，可能是老八认为的美味

[@dominichenderson9549]

music: 2:00 & 55:31

[@yildiz12321]

Yenişafak Hafızadan gelenler 👍😎

[@lizliang9110]

As a middle age Chinese looking back to 1989, i was 7, I am so glad China did what it has to do. This show even today, is too aggressive and confusing. when people were not fully informed about the multifaceted theories regarding to why China had declined since Qing dynasty, the theory raised by The River Elegy could cause unnessecery negative mind manipulation. If it were showed today in China, no one will get it a shxt, because more positive theories are created by much more informed scholars. So it leaves you wonder, why it was made this way? why?

[@cubbyhoo]

Makes you wonder if it's so bad, why it is banned in China?

[@rca6576]

Wow, the pretzel logic and mind control is so obvious in this post it is nausea-inducing.

[@harryloo8544]

Way too provocative for intellectual and social construct in China back then. Very little substance are offered to back up its many claims. Its a mistake and tragedy CCTV didn't censored it back then.