- 2 days ago
China Leaps Forward 1958 Remastered MagicFilms a division SnowMagicFilms The Very Best In Remastered Rare And Hard To Find Cult Classics And Films
https://magicfilms.ecrater.com/
https://magicfilms.ecrater.com/
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:21Peking at first appeared to be the same city I had known 20 years before when I first came to
00:26China as a young reporter a city of tree-lined avenues of a culture recorded in millennia whose
00:33monuments dated in centuries but I soon learned Peking was full of new sights and sounds the
00:46parade was just a rehearsal for National Day it is Communist China's leading holiday celebrations
00:52go on for two days they were carrying banners supporting Joe and lies demands for the liberation
00:57of Taiwan they were full of enthusiasm Taiwan must be liberated United States get out of Taiwan they
01:04said at that moment the communists were shelling Kim moi in on men peking's red square was quiet only a
01:21few petty cabs and buses moved around the Chinese characters say long live the People's Republic of
01:30China long live the solidarity of the peoples of the world on national day this square would be
01:37filled hundreds of thousands of Chinese would be on hand to watch here the Chinese Communist stage their
01:44biggest rallies the men in the street underneath my hotel window were building a sewer the work went
01:52on 24 hours a day I found out later this was part of a program on Tiananmen Square some men
02:10were reading
02:10anti-american protest letters posted on a cloth bulletin board all over the city propaganda signs and anti-american
02:19posters hate America they said liberate Taiwan but most of all they advertised the leap forward the
02:26nationwide program affecting all Chinese life industry agriculture even sports near Tiananmen there was some
02:34of the militia including a few girls they were playing cards or other games the people's militia is organized by
02:52provinces and military districts reserves for the army are trained although all ages 18 to 45 have to serve most
03:03young Chinese sent to the militia from the youth organizations they are indoctrinated in communism they stand guard take part
03:12in major celebrations appear on many occasions
03:20girls are encouraged to join
03:27these girls are reading recruitment notices
03:34traffic was filling the streets Chinese pedal to work pedicabs are used for carrying small loads men pull heavy loads
03:46there were cars buses carts
03:55I saw Russian cars which the Chinese have begun to make there were wood-burning buses of the type I
04:02had seen in Europe during the war vehicles of all kinds in most places of the city there was a
04:13good traffic control system
04:28this truck was pulling a string of trailers carrying a load of coke for steel making in the leap forward
04:40the people moved among the ancient monuments of their city they were dressed in many different ways men in uniforms
04:49or trousers in
04:50church women wearing trousers or dresses a trip to peking's outskirts past the monument to the people's heroes the catholic
05:04church
05:13and apartment buildings and government offices there were many more apartment buildings than I had seen in the Soviet Union
05:23the new planetarium was open it has become a popular place for visitors to its observatory and exhibition hall
05:36construction was going on everywhere it was mostly hand labor manpower is communist China's greatest resource colorful fabrics in a
05:47peking textile factory
05:55one of three in peking this modern plant employs many women three seven and a half hour ships daily keep
06:03the plant at peak capacity this was the factory canteen these girls lived in dormitory rooms nearby
06:14women get 45 minutes a day away from work to nurse their babies a new maternity hospital part of it
06:25is still under construction
06:28most of communist China's workers and government employees come under an extensive socialized medical program a clinic provides on-the
06:38-job care
06:49I visited a workers family in one of the apartments near the factory five people occupied a small apartment for
06:57which they paid about one dollar twenty cents a month rent
07:04kitchen facilities in a courtyard
07:13the main hall of the agricultural exhibition open may first to display machines and implements China is making for the
07:22leap forward
07:30a display of fabrics for export
07:41visitors arrive from the provinces 500 at a time for a week's tour half a million have visited the fair
07:48since it opened this was a new rice transplanter
07:55they had more than thirty thousand different implements from the crudest hand sickle to this giant combine
08:07they had more than 170 different types of tractors steam coal burning gasoline diesel
08:20they claim to have built many in the last five months
08:31cars of widely varying designs
08:42turbines
08:43turbines of all types were on display
08:48locomotives for China's new railroads
08:54this was the only steam shovel I saw in China
08:57but this was only the beginning they said
08:59the leap forward was only the first step toward China's advanced economic progress
09:06an exhibition of irrigation machinery range from steam power to small gasoline motors
09:12even foot and hand treadle
09:21a solar cooker
09:23a solar cooker
09:24it was a featured exhibit
09:27outside the fairgrounds there was a pool
09:31here
09:32watched by their waiting elders
09:34children play
09:42goldfish in the pools of the summer palace
09:44a reminder of China's past
09:50once these grounds were the private preserve of an empress's pleasure-loving court
09:56she spent part of a naval budget on this marble boat
10:06under the communist regime
10:09these grounds are now a park for China's workers
10:30stone elephants on the way to the Ming tombs
10:33a gate built five centuries ago
10:36entrance to the tombs
10:37burial place of emperors of the imperial days
10:42the communist regime has made it into a park
10:54even put trash boxes in convenient places
11:00construction of a reservoir near the tombs
11:03they were hoisting the stone with an arrangement of ropes and bamboo poles
11:17with almost no machinery they do not lack manpower
11:30this was staging for a concrete arch bridge
11:35thousands of volunteer laborers worked here
11:38many of them were soldiers
11:40a Chinese communist official told me that soldiers are expected to work as well as fight
11:48a commune north of peking
11:53the big new project here is deep plowing
11:57they start with a furrow a foot deep
12:00then go deeper
12:02to about 18 inches
12:07plow deep to bury the American aggressor is the slogan
12:18the commune is virtually self-sustaining
12:21they make their own tools
12:29they do their own repairs
12:364,100 people live on this commune
12:40970 families
12:411,600 workers
12:44a comparatively small commune in communist China
12:47in the year of the leap forward
12:48leading crops are corn millet vegetables
12:53their vegetables are excellent
13:06irrigation pump one donkey power model
13:13these women were threshing millet
13:17children are excused from school
13:19and brought here in a group during the harvest season
13:22education and labor go together in communist China
13:28much of their corn is very poor
13:35some of it was fairly good
13:45everyone, young and old
13:49works during the fall harvest
13:58these are student volunteer workers
14:02young men and women from Peking universities and high schools
14:07on weekends they work on farms and roads around Peking
14:13this group had a loud speaker
14:15with news commentaries about Taiwan
14:18and commercials about why they should work hard
14:20for the great leap forward
14:35donkey carts were main means of transportation out here
14:39people in the area follow these carts picking up vegetables, beans, seeds
14:45nothing can be wasted in the leap forward
14:50a trip to the great wall took us past rows of workers' apartments
15:00we passed camel caravans coming in from the north
15:03loaded with grain, wool and other products
15:06and herds driven to market
15:16how they built it over 2,000 years ago
15:18is still a mystery
15:21the regime has restored some of it
15:23made it into a park
15:27there were even signs out here
15:28support the conservation program
15:31with Lin my interpreter I climbed the wall
15:35then I thought of what China's millions are doing today
15:38and its building did not seem so mysterious
15:49apartments in Shenyang, heart of industrial Manchuria
15:52about 15,000 of Shenyang's workers were housed in this area
15:56these apartments had their own schools, garden plots, canteens
16:01knock on any door they said
16:04this woman had six small children
16:06the family occupied one room
16:08her husband was a lathe operator in machinery plant number one
16:14women have to teach children sanitation
16:17educate them before the state takes over
16:20this little girl holding a fly swatter
16:22is proud of her part in the kill pests campaign
16:29Shenyang developed during the Japanese occupation
16:31when it was called Mukten
16:33in the State Department store
16:35photographs of model employees are posted on a bulletin board
16:43a wide variety of goods were sold in this store
16:47although prices were very high
16:49there were many buyers
16:51a crowd gathered in the street nearby
16:54they were shooting a movie
16:58following the new socialist realism in movies
17:01this scene was shot outside
17:13they even had a script grill
17:18Chinese communist motion pictures
17:20carry much of their propaganda in the leap forward campaign
17:33this is vice director Ye Sunfeng of machinery plant number one
17:42it produces seven to eight hundred lays per month
17:45one of three in Shenyang
17:47it was destroyed during the war
17:49later restored and enlarged
17:57the lays were based on an East German design
18:06completed lays were crated
18:09the crates were then rolled to the railroad loading platform
18:15it was all hand labor here
18:25this is the Shenyang cable factory and director Lin Ming Yu
18:30here 4,500 workers make cable of all sizes
18:34both aluminum and copper
18:38all processes were completed in this plan
18:41which the communists enlarged
18:43following the 1949 takeover
18:45they claim production was twelve times greater
18:48than it had been during the Japanese occupation
18:53and twenty times more than during the nationalist days
18:58posters calling the United States bandits
19:00and telling the people to surpass United States production
19:17other posters call for production to rise like a spooker
19:24this was the plant production chart
19:29red flags are sputniks
19:31you're a sputnik or you're an ox cart
19:33and nobody wants to be an ox cart these days
19:38as in Peking young students lined up for volunteer labor games
19:49these are young pioneers and members of the youth league
20:03outside Shenyang these women moving earth were preparing land for a firebrick factory
20:11the communists have gone all out to get women's interest and participation in all their programs
20:18especially during the leap fall
20:29I found this was the best way to get their cooperation for these pictures
20:41I visited a commune on the outskirts of Shenyang
20:45this was the headquarters of a new commune
20:48it had been founded only five days before my arrival
20:51the chairman Liu Chen Yang, 42, headed 60,000 people working about 65,000 acres
20:58ten factories were also located here
21:02hogs were the most important product
21:04the chairman told me there were 17,000
21:11recent communist agricultural policy in the communes
21:14calls for close planting, deep plowing, plentiful use of fertilizer, and irrigation
21:21the chairman told me that this commune hoped to add 3,000 families
21:26about 18,000 more acres
21:29and to increase food production during the next year
21:37it rained on my return trip
21:40I was stuck fast in Manchurian mud
21:42and had to get help from one of the farmers nearby
21:53the Fushun oil plant
21:59here oil is extracted from coal
22:01built in 1928 by the Japanese
22:03destroyed during the war
22:05it was restored and enlarged
22:07the Japanese produced 225,000 tons of petroleum
22:10in their best year
22:111957 production was 320,000 tons
22:151958 gold, 440,000 to catch up with Britain
22:19chief of office was Dung Guan
22:22he advised me to put on a mask for my tour of the plant
22:30young laboratory technicians of the plant staff
22:32they are among the highest paid of the 7,500 workers
22:37which include 500 women
22:39the Fushun open pit mines
22:44hydraulic mining is much used here
23:00after mining the coal is loaded on cable cars
23:05then haul to the surface
23:24cars are automatically dumped
23:26cars are automatically dumped
23:39some of the raw materials from these mines goes to Anshan
23:45the steel company of Anshan
23:47located 55 miles southwest of Shenyang
23:50it employs over 100,000 including 6,000 women
23:55one-third of communist China's steel production comes from these mills
24:00about 3 million tons a year
24:04under the leap forward
24:05they are trying to increase this to 4 million tons
24:09coal comes from the Fushun mines
24:13the plant also has its own department store
24:15canteen and club
24:17built during the Japanese occupation
24:20the plant has been restored and enlarged
24:22following wartime destruction
24:26all kinds of steel products are made
24:30they have 10 open-heart furnaces
24:32it takes about eight and a half hours to run a batch
24:35through during the leap forward
24:37an improvement over earlier production figures
25:08steel rails and other product are here being run through
25:14they had just opened a Bessema converter
25:29to this production is added the output of many small furnaces like this one
25:34this plant made 30,000 tons of steel a year
25:39and everywhere in China near industrial plants and on communes
25:43small furnaces have added their output to the big mills
25:55the sign says we are determined to liberate Taiwan
26:02en route from Peking to Tianjin
26:04we passed through an intensively cultivated region
26:07crops here were corn and sorghum
26:09as we neared the city
26:11increasing signs of recent industrial growth
26:26Tianjin is a sprawling city of over 2 million
26:30located 70 miles southeast of Peking
26:32it is a major industrial and transportation center
26:36we drove through streets crowded with penny cabs and carts
26:40groups of students and office workers
26:42practicing for the national day parade
26:45the city gave every appearance of rapid growth
27:05new sewer pipes in the city's outskirts
27:09I also saw many new buildings in this section
27:15this is hot chain director of a plant which made paper from blue grass
27:23workers at this plant designed and built the paper making machinery
27:28they were also building a little furnace for the leap forward
27:33the furnace was on the plant premises
27:37the workers were still building it
27:47and they couldn't wait to charge it
27:52just to help in the liberation of Taiwan
27:55they expected to make 14 tons of steel daily in this furnace
28:06these women winding copper wire
28:09belong to a neighborhood co-op of 380 families
28:13in communist China they are considered to be emancipated from housework
28:17to support socialist construction
28:20this co-op was part of a much larger commune
28:24of 12,000 households
28:25communal cooking
28:28save coal which was used for the leap forward
28:31the commune had its own nursery
28:33mothers took turns looking after children
28:47this little boy was singing about the leap forward
28:58this old man was angry over Taiwan
29:00the co-op maintained a home for the agent
29:08I visited some of the rooms occupied by old people
29:12like this woman with bound feet
29:14waters were neat and clean with whitewashed walls
29:19I stopped at a park just outside the city
29:31I visited the Tianxin second worker sanatorium
29:35completed in 1955
29:37the buildings were in the Chinese style
29:39the hospital has 800 beds
29:42patients organize their own entertainment
29:45all workers in Tianxin are eligible
29:49patients attend classes
29:54these girls are knitting as they walk in the gardens
29:58treatment is for mild cases only
30:00and lasts three to six months
30:02south of Tianxin
30:05was the Xuanlin State Farm
30:06one of the few in communist China
30:09everyone exercises at 10 o'clock
30:11this was at the rear of the headquarters
30:26indoctrination lectures are part of all communist programs
30:29Chinese are subjected to constant propaganda
30:32this was formerly swampland
30:35now they reported getting good production
30:38at nearby shinley village
30:40they were experimenting with rice
30:42irrigation here was fairly advanced
30:45these water wheels were run by a 15 horsepower motor
31:08many visitors come to see the experimental plot
31:11where they are working with hybrid rice seeds
31:14they are so proud of it
31:16they even have their own cameraman
31:18they have bamboo poles
31:20to keep the rice from trampling
31:21lights have been installed
31:23to keep it growing 24 hours a day
31:41this is the rice they claim is yielding
31:4411,000 bushels an acre
31:47it was raining in Nanking
31:49when I arrived
31:50the narrow streets appeared little changed
31:52but I learned that Nanking's population
31:55had swelled from just under a million
31:57in 1949
31:58to two and a half million
32:01industrial expansion
32:03was behind this growth
32:08truck and auto parts
32:09were piled high
32:10in the yard of the Nanking auto plant
32:14three years ago
32:15three years ago this plant was making wagons
32:17now it is turning out trucks
32:19and a few cars
32:21machinery is Chinese
32:23Czech and Russian
32:27they were cutting
32:28they were cutting these plastic strips
32:30to be used
32:31in making small cars
32:40this is Chi Kang
32:42he is the plant manager
32:47four thousand workers
32:49four thousand workers
32:50on a primitive assembly line
32:52many are women
32:54and on the plant grounds
32:56a small furnace was also turning out
32:59steel for parts
33:13for the leap forward
33:21down the Yangtze
33:23to the Nanking chemical factory
33:25where ten thousand workers
33:27turn out fertilizers
33:28and commercial chemicals
33:30we could see the factory
33:32as we approached
33:35workers at this plant
33:36had built 80 small furnaces
33:38on the plant grounds
33:40posters with anti-American
33:42and Taiwan themes
33:43were linked with the leap forward production
33:46this was a Buddhist temple
33:48within its confines is the shrine
33:50of the ten thousand Buddhas
33:51fifty priests take care of the temple
33:54and conduct services
33:56this priest told me
33:58that quite a few people
33:59still worship at the temple
34:03I arrived at the catholic church
34:05just as mass ended
34:17it was the only catholic church
34:27in the city
34:28the priest told me that there were
34:31two or three hundred people in the parish
34:38the Sun Yat-sen tomb
34:39it is Nanking's
34:41most prominent communist shrine
34:44rice paddies and water buffalo
34:46on the way to Shanghai
34:47it had rained hard
34:49and the rice was beaten down
34:51some of the rice was green
34:53some ready for harvest
34:55Shanghai Bun
34:57the famous waterfront with modern buildings
34:59the communists have built a park
35:01along the Wangpo
35:04construction in the city everywhere
35:06for the leap forward
35:16the Sino-Soviet friendship building
35:18a cultural center to further
35:20the common bond between
35:21the two communist giants
35:28like Peking traffic
35:29streamed through the streets
35:31I passed many factories
35:33I was on my way to visit a fountain pen plant
35:37I was greeted by the manager
35:39Chi-Fung Liu
35:39pens made here called Hiro
35:42were modeled on the Parker 51
35:44catch up with Parker
35:46was the plant slogan
35:50I saw many young workers
35:52and students here
35:53this was Chungkan Chu
35:54he is saying
35:55get American troops out of Taiwan
35:57this is the Longmachongchen commune
36:07here 586 workers
36:09from 385 families
36:13cultivate about 600 acres
36:31of vegetables
36:33militiamen to guard the commune gates
36:38there was some mechanization
36:40on this commune but most of the work
36:42was done by hand
36:43tractors were used for deep plowing
36:47they reported 7 to 21
36:49crops of vegetables a year
36:52compost and fertilizer
36:54both animal and human
36:55was used in this intensive cultivation
37:05many kinds of vegetables were raised
37:08they also had an experimental plot
37:11where they were trying out new irrigation
37:15corn was raised
37:16and used for feeding
37:19the commune reported
37:20grossing $270,000
37:23worth of products in 1957
37:32poultry of all kinds
37:33was raised
37:42chickens near an old pillbox
37:45reminder
37:46reminder of the Japanese occupation
37:51busy streets
37:52and busy days
37:53in central china's tri-city area
37:56Han Kao Xin Yang Wuchang
37:58together called
38:00Wuhan
38:03in the fourth district
38:05of Wuhan
38:05a big new steel plant was under construction
38:08when completed it will rival
38:10Anshan
38:12workers swarmed on the grounds
38:14underneath wooden scaffolding
38:20they dug and shoveled
38:26they pounded and tamped
38:36ore is shipped in 60 miles
38:39by railroad
38:40it is unloaded automatically
38:42in the plant yards
38:44cars are placed on a turnover
38:46then over she goes
38:55steel making went on inside the plant
38:57while construction continued outside
39:00their goal was
39:01three and a half million tons of steel a year
39:03by 1961
39:06to catch up with Britain
39:08heavy machinery at the plant
39:10was furnished by the Soviet Union
39:12and near the plant these new workers' apartments
39:2040 miles from Han Kao
39:22a new engineering college
39:24had been built on land once used for farming
39:26here 7,500 students
39:29were taught steel making
39:31and mechanical and electrical engineering
39:33following communist policy
39:34of learning and labor
39:36classrooms are run like factory shops
39:38and under the leap forward
39:40students built lathes and electric motors
39:42students are also sent to villages
39:45to help with technical problems
39:47purpose of all education
39:49in communist China is to build socialism
39:55the Wuhan meat processing plant
39:57also built with Soviet help
39:59hogs are shipped to this plant from Hopei province
40:02killed with electric shock
40:043,000 workers use up-to-date equipment
40:13here they are cutting the hogs up with an electric saw
40:21platters are used in packing sausages
40:23forty percent of this production
40:25goes to the Soviet Union
40:27en route to the Sukwan
40:29on this people's commune
40:31there are over 60,000 who cultivate
40:33about 30,000 acres of cotton
40:35rice and wheat
40:37they claim production almost doubled
40:39in this two-crop region
40:40after the organization of the commune
40:43commune farms challenge each other
40:45and everyone is organized for production
41:02on this experimental plot
41:04they claim they were producing
41:061,000 caddies of cotton per acre
41:08this was an increase of
41:10approximately 800 percent
41:12over pre-commune days
41:17young children of working mothers
41:19are cared for at the commune nursery school
41:31older children work on the commune
41:34where they set their own production goals
41:39the commune was building its own furnaces
41:43they intended to build five small factories
41:46to produce 8,000 tons of steel a year
41:49for commune implements and equipment
41:53the commune also operated
41:54its own ore and coal mines
41:56these men and boys were pounding ore
42:13they sifted and shoveled coal
42:15getting ready to charge the furnaces
42:24students of the commune middle school
42:27had their own furnace
42:31nearby was a larger one
42:33belonging to the commune
42:41workers were enthusiastic
42:42they said they were working to accelerate socialism
42:45working for the leap forward
42:47and against American aggression
42:49here one team works on the bellows
42:52another charges the furnace
42:55this was the new bridge across the yangtze
42:58opened in 1957
43:00the steel trust bridge
43:02has a highway on the upper deck
43:03a railway below
43:08a chinese junk blown gently
43:10before the warm south china wind
43:12the smell of the river
43:13and the creaking of the oarlocks of the river sampans
43:16the voices of the people who live on them
43:19this was the old canton
43:29under the communists
43:31canton hummed with leap forward activity
43:34famed because it was once the home of sunyat sen
43:36canton is known as the city of revolutions
43:39from the top of the 14 story oikwan hotel
43:42the pearl river
43:44once jammed with boats
43:45was comparatively empty
43:48the houseboats were still used
43:50to carry passengers and cargo
44:01baskets of fruit piled for shipment
44:03surrounding guantung province
44:05is a rich breadbasket
44:07and canton is also the center of an extensive light industry
44:16on the waterfront
44:18incessant activity
44:20constantly changing
44:26this little boy wears a kapok life preserver
44:29playing along the waterfront
44:30he may fall into the water
44:31and if he does the sack will keep him afloat
44:34excitable and talkative
44:36cantonese are far different from the north chinese
44:38my interpreter had difficulty
44:40in understanding the three commonly spoken
44:43cantonese dialects
44:45under the communists
44:47this colorful waterfront life
44:48has changed drastically
44:51many of the sampan people
44:53are being forced to move
44:55and live ashore
44:56where the communists can better control them
44:59and live ashore
45:12buses ran to the suburbs
45:14buses ran to the suburbs
45:23buses ran to the suburbs
45:33i visited a commune on which vegetables were raised
45:38it was in the wide-flung agricultural section
45:40surrounding canton
45:41this is a two-crop-a-year region
46:01a boy and a water buffalo
46:04a familiar sight
46:12he is spreading manure by hand
46:22here cabbage plants are sprinkled with night soil
46:27all work here was done by hand
46:41sowing seeds in china's good earth
46:47the farms here did not look as though they were ready for a mechanization
46:53it was difficult to believe that the small plots would lend themselves to the use of machinery
46:59here hand labor would probably always remain
47:02at a premium
47:08it is less than a hundred miles from canton to hong kong
47:14in the new territories outside hong kong
47:16the landscape is like that of guandong
47:22water buffalo
47:25and men and women
47:28working
47:29working in rice fields
47:41it was raining when i reached the border checkpoint
47:44i had to walk a couple of hundred yards
47:47and wait at the border station
47:49a couple of hours for a train
47:51this library named after the vice president
47:53was a reminder i was back in the free world
47:56it was september 29
47:58two days before the chinese communist national day
48:02the british had brought out tanks
48:04and soldiers were marching to their posts
48:06in case of incidents
48:11i drove around in a rickshaw
48:13they were forbidden on the mainland
48:16the girls in peking were nothing like this
48:31the sky itself seemed brighter
48:33lighter freer
48:37down on the bay were the many sounds of a big fort
48:41creaking of chinese sailing craft
48:45the big boat whistles
48:50my own was among them
48:57and i stood at the rail and watched hong kong's white buildings
49:00against its steep green slopes
49:03and thought about china's leap forward
49:06you
Comments