|
It was perhaps the largest youth movement in human history. In 1968, China's Communist leader Mao Zedong sent more than 17 million teenagers "up to the mountain, down to the village" to learn from the peasants. His goal was to build the perfect socialist society. Many "sent-down" youth participated eagerly, driven by revolutionary zeal and devotion to Chairman Mao. Others saddled with "bad" family backgrounds (offspring of "rightists," "reactionaries," "intellectuals" and other "class enemies") were forced to go. Many stayed in the villages for a decade or more. This documentary returns with three members of China's "sent-down" generation, now US citizens, to the remote villages where Mao sent them three decades ago. They also bring along their American-born children, exposing them to the harsh realities of life for China's peasants. Three decades later, profoundly influenced by the years they spent living in the villages, they recount the loneliness, despair, and physical hardship they endured in unfamiliar surroundings, separated from their families for the first time. This film explores the revolutionary forces of China's past that continue to shape that nation today.
|
