Original subtitles

Shanghai 2009

I was born in Shanghai in August, 1953 There were four of us in the family

My father was from Guangdong, studying in Shanghai

My mother was born in Zhejiang

So we were migrants

Many families like us

were living in Shanghai's alleys

And the happiest part of

growing up there was having fun

The thing I still remember best

is the start of the Cultural Revolution, and just before that

we were 8-9 and 15-16 at the time

It's a very intense memory

Neighbors used to respect other's privacy

But Cultural Revolution changed that because of all the raids

We suddenly found out which families were spies

which ones were capitalists which ones were revolutionaries

Eventually, the poor Reds were paraded through the streets

There was a capitalist family living opposite us

In Cultural Revolution, they could

only keep one floor of their building

We used to peep at their meals

They had a big mahogany table

servants, too

elegant manners, fine dishes

That way of life ended with the Cultural Revolution

Each alley had a boy

who was top dog

Each with his own gang. This boy was the best fighter

A natural leader, got along well with the others

So we all had to choose who we wanted to play with

It determined whether you'd get bullied

or you'd bully others

Meanwhile in the alleys nearby, there were boys who targeted us

Kind of like the Warring States Period

There was one kid from Zhangjia Park who always went for us

We lived in Da Zhong Li

It would be no different in, say

Xu Dong Li

Anyhow, every lane, every Li

had a couple of so-called

hooligans Lively boys

That is, always fighting each other

Then making up. Then fighting again

Those are my strongest childhood mermories

Anybody

Anybody dare fight me

Come on

Come on, here

Hurry up

Anyone dare

I'm Kang Quan! Who dares

Come in and shoot

My father was Yang Xingfo

He co-organized the Chinese Civil Rights Alliance

to rescue communists and democrats who had been arrested

by the Nationalists

And Chiang Kai-shek was very displeased

He ordered secret agents to

assassinate my father on the morning of June 18th, 1933

My father's office was in a

western-style house with a garden

When we drove out, we had to turn a corner into the road

So the car was driving slowly

This time I was suddenly deafened

There was an explosion

I thought the tire had blown or something like that

But when I stuck my head out

Our car was a convertible

The chassis was metal, and it had a canvas roof

But there was nothing between

the roof and the chassis

So, no protection against gunfire

As the car was taking the turn,it came to a stop

Why?

I saw the driver jump out

He was trying to escape

He was shot twice once in the stomach

Then in the arm blood everywhere

I was too scared to know

what was happening.

At that moment

I grew dizzy and lost consciousness

I came to a bit later

I found myself lying

under a seat. My father was on top of me

I tried to get up

But he was on top of me

I did my best to get up I was only 14

In the 2nd year of junior high school Anyhow, I finally managed to sit up

Then I tried to wake my father

But he didn't repond.

After the assassination, Madame Soong made a speech

telling us to keep going

But the fact was, there was no longer a general secretary

Madame Soong told Lin Yutang, he was a member of the Alliance

to stand in as the general secretary

You know Lin said He said that was asking to be killed

So the organization was disbanded Because nobody wanted

I recall when Tse-ven Soong

came out of the railway station

with his assistant Tang Yulu

They were in similar suits. It was hot

They were in white suits, panama hats

The train pulled in, many people got off

Before they reached the barrier

There was a gunshot

Tse-ven Soong reacted quickly He flung himself to the ground

Lost his hat

so they missed their target Soong' s assistant took one step

and was shot dead

All it took was one shot

One shot was enough to kill him

Anyhow

The assistant had dependents

He was newly married

And his wife was pregnant

As a widow, she'd have many difficulties

Tang, Soong and my father had been classmates in America

They liked strolling along Huaihai Road for coffee-shops

My father used to bring me along

There weren't many coffee-shops on Huaihai Road

Only D.D.S. Not many

Yachts are the big thing these days

But my father had one ages ago

It had a kitchen

A big dining space

And a bedroom too

Like a houseboat in the west

Just like that

And in addition to the houseboat,

he had a couple of speedboats

Very fast

Towed behind the yacht

Not like the speedboats used in competitions today

More like cars, with three seats

in the front and three behind

They had steering wheels,

towed along behind

We rode them all over

went right past the Garden Bridge

We had towelling clothes

Because the big waves would splash us

He was one of the first to have an air-conditioner

They first appeared in the 1930s

Take his Peking Opera performances

Professionals staged Peking Opera for money,

but he was an amateur

Even in rehearsals, he had famous actors in supporting roles

They got paid for doing very little

Everyone came to watch was given a tin of monosodium glutamate

or a box of mosquito-repellent coils

So everyone came to see the shows

not because he was a great actor

but they could get free MSG

or mosquito-repellent coils That was how things went

He liked best singing Peking Opera

only used imported brands

But his costumes were Chinese

He knew how to enjoy life

During the Cultural Revolution

he said he was ready to meet the King of Hell

Because he'd had a good life

Even his clothes could go!

The only thing the Red Guards left him

was a Meiyi brand bed

Those beds were all very costly

But he sold it

He said a bamboo bed is fine

I don't care, I've enjoyed my life

I wish I knew. Someone like you could love me

I wish I knew

you place no one above me

Did l mistake this for a real romance?

My grandfather's name was Zhang Yiyun

He ran a pickle company

Which was rare at that time

Then he went into chemicals

And eventually, he founded the

he founded the Tianchu MSG Company

Back then, there was a boycott of Japanese goods

Tianchu was a big success

It took the Chinese market away

from the Japanese Aji-no-Moto

But Tianchu's raw materials had come from Japan

So he founded Tianyuan Chemical Company

to provide the raw materials That's why the name is similar

And the chemical by-products were used by

another company he founded, Tianli Nitrogen

In the 1930s,his three companies

earned him the nickname Father of Industry.

And that's why

when the anti-Japanese war got going

he could spend a small fortune

to buy a special fighter plane from the German company Siemens

He donated it to the country in the company's name

I wish I knew

someone like you could love me

I wish I knew

You place no one above me

Did l mistake this for a real romance

I wish I knew

But only you can answer

If you don't care

Why let me hope

Could love me

I wish I knew

Suzhou River 1999

Suzhou River 2009

The Sino British Treaty of Nanjing, signed on August 29th, 1842,

made Shanghai port open to foreign trade

Balfour, British Consul in Shanghai, took up his post on November 17,1843.

Shanghai was officially opened to foreign trade

Foreign concessions were established. So were the gangs

Shiliupu (Wharf 16)

My father was Du Yuesheng

He never talked to us about his gang

Except for one thing

He said

At table, you should say

Enjoy the food. Thank you

He also said. Always pass chopsticks to others with the end out

That is the way of the gang

One day he took me out by car

Near the gate of Lafayette Fang, Fuxing Road

One of his bodyguards

opened the car door, jumped out

and lined up beside the car

until it reached the gate.

The gatekeeper made a call

Then my father went in

Not until the door was closed behind him, did the bodyguards

turn the car around and leave

He was afraid of being killed

At 14, his father died

His mother just after she gave birth to a girl, she died too

Since he couldn't afford a coffin, he rolled up Grandpa's body in a mat

He left it in the mud

by the bank of a lake near Gaoqiao

Later a tree grew there

And its roots

wrapped around Grandpa's body

A geomancer said It was a very good omen

He was a naughty boy

He was brought up by Wan Molin's father

He was mischievous

So nobody liked him

Kids clustered around him

He'd say Even I am a tramp,

I will be the leader of tramp

My grandma was called Little Lanying a stage name

They toured around, putting on shows

My mother sang. My aunt did too

Auntie's stage name was Yuying For my mother was Yulan

When they performed in Shanghai

my father saw them

It was in Tianchan Theater, Shanghai Tianchan Theater

Later on, when my father wanted to marry my mother

who should be the matchmaker?

One of gang boss Huang Jinrong's

daughters-in-law named Li Zhiqing

Huang's son actually died before they could marry

So when Li Zhiqing got married, her husband was already dead

So she had to marry

a portrait of her late fiance

She married into the Huang family But she had no husband

So she was in charge of almost everything of the family

She was my father's matchmaker

And my mother had a godmother

She served as mother's matchmaker

My grandmother had one demand

Her daughter must be the official wife

Not a concubine

My father made that promise

Dad's first wife loved him very much

So when he married my mother

the first wife gave him all she owned

Even her marriage license

But dad's second and third wives

both bullied her

Anyhow, father's first wife gave the marriage her blessing

I'll give her our marriage license as a gift

My mother was the official wife

But she played mahjong with the other wives like one big family

At that time most of us had no choice

but to flee Shanghai to Hong Kong

We decided to leave

On May 27th, 1949,

my father left on the ship Haiyan

When it pulled out from Shanghai's Wusong Port

they passed a Shenxin Cotton Mill and he said aloud

Even I have to leave!

To this day, I don't know why he went to France

Hong Kong would have been fine, wouldn't it?

He asked for

One hundred and forty passports

But in Taiwan, it was impossible

They wanted to charge him $150,000

He knew he had only $100,000

There was never enough money

So one day he said

I must die

Otherwise all of you will die

Day by day, his health was deteriorating

It could only end one way

Pudong, Shanghai

The Bund

Nanjing Road set, Chedun Film Studio

My father, Wang Xiaohe

he joined the Communist Party on May 4th, 1942

The Party ordered him to go to Yangshupu Electric Power Plant

In 1948, everything went wrong for the KMT (Nationalists)

There was a surge in protests by students and workers

My father was caught up in all that

The enemy was watching him closely

Eventually they charged him

with destroying a power generator

They arrested him on April 21st

He was given a death sentence scheduled for September 27th

On that day, my mother

I had an elder sister

She born 17 months before me

I was born on October 24th,1948

On September 27th,

my mother was pregnant with me

Despite being so pregnant

she picked up my sister

And went to the prison gate with our Grandma

Many people came along in support

So the traffic around Tilanqiao Prison

was clogged up all day

Some policemen

whipped my mother with a belt

Trying to drive her away

She didn't leave, of course

After all that

the Tilanqiao Prison put up a notice

It said they hadn't got the execution order So it wouldn't be carried out today

My father was being held in Yangshupu

They brought him to Tilanqiao Prison

That prison had a special court

To sentence people in secret

Just for the convenience of the KMT

They convicted and sentenced my father He was executed in Tilanqiao Prison

on the morning of September 30th

Put to death

My father died

around 10 o'clock on September 30th

in Tilanqiao Prison

On that day, a journalist from Ta Kung Pao in Hong Kong

made an interview

He took many pictures

Actually lots of people took photos

when my father was brought outside the prison

and after the closed-court session

I know my father from those pictures

He died three weeks before I was born

So I never met him

I knew him only from those pictures

I miss him so much, though

I never knew my father's love

After the execution, Mother thought of killing herself

A neighbor said it might help if she gave away her two children

Mother really was suicidal but she was paralyzed in bed

She could hardly move, let alone kill herself

One of the underground communists

He is the one in that picture I showed

He often came to see her

Once he told Mother

Bring up the two children

Because they are carrying Xiaohe's blood!

Do bring them up. Don't leave them

On hearing this, Mother said

I absolutely will bring them up!

And so she didn't leave us

Life was really hard in those 8 months

On Liberation Day, May 25th, 1949

the communist army marched along

Nanjing Road

At that moment, she went crazy

She went to Nanjing Road to look for Dad

The communists are here! Xiaohe is back at last!

So she was there. We lived at the corner with Hankou Road

Very close to Nanjing Road

She saw the communist army going by

with a prisoner

So she followed the soldiers

All the way to the Bund

Still looking for Dad

To Liberate Shanghai / Wang Bing / 1959

Shanghai is liberated!

Long live Chairman Mao!

Welcome to Shanghai!

The liberation of Shanghai

marks the thorough destruction of imperialist forces in China!

As well as the complete independence and liberation of the Chinese people!

Let those warmongers

tremble in front of the powerful Chinese people!

Shanghai was liberated on May 27th, 1949

The situation in North China is bad

A dozen columns of the Communist Army have poured in

Several platoons of our army were surrounded

Do you think we can survive?

Red Persimmon / Wang Toon / 1996

I was in my first year of elementary school

It was around 1949

In 1946

No, it was 1948

The war was so violent that

our classes were suspended

We were moved to Shanghai

At the time, I didn't understand why

Of course, now l understand

Why did my whole family

move to Shanghai?

I later understood we were getting ready to move to Taiwan

So we were waiting for a boat

As I recall, while we were waiting, we lived in a park in Shanghai

The park itself was out of bounds

Because all the KMT's senior officials were staying there

We all had to stay in the park We lived in tents and

waited for the boat

I retain those memories

and I put them all in my film Red Persimmon, shot in 1996

A ship called the Zhongxing turned up

It was very big. There was a safety inspection

When we were getting on board

many others were clamouring to board

It was very hard to get on board

There were ten kids in our family

My father wasn't with us, he was still fighting

Mother, Grandma and father's attendants were there

There was an aide-de-camp who controlled the boarding

Grandma was worried we'd separated There were so many kids jostling

for access to the boat Losing sight of their parents

So she tied us all together at the waist

With a rope

From the eldest to the youngest as if we were rice puddings

She held one end of the rope

And Father's attendants

were keeping a close eye on us

Mother went to negotiate with the aide-de-camp

about getting us on board

So we were all tied together by rope

To avoid getting lost

One by one! Hold the rope tight

Later on

Whose phone is that?

Taiwan 2009

I had worked in the U.S. for 8 years

I returned to Taiwan in 1975

I returned to Tsinghua University

During the anti-Japanese war, my father was on the home front

My mother stayed in Shanghai to take care of us kids

I think most Shanghainese preferred to stay

Of course, I was among them

After the war, my father

became a civil servant

Based in Xuzhou

He took over properties which had been seized by Japanese

I think he quit the job fairly soon after

Because so much corruption involved

My father wouldn't have anything to do with bribery

So he couldn't stay in that job

We returned to Shanghai

I remember very clearly

We once received a big biscuit tin

We kids were all delighted

But when Mother opened it

it turned to be filled with gold bars

At that time, our next-door neighbor

He was the boss of the Sincere Co.

And his neighbor

was General Tang Enbo

Until the Siege of Shanghai in 1949

General Tang always had a soldier stationed outside his house

Standing on guard

One day, while I was in primary school

Father came to pick me up

The teacher asked him:"Why are you here?"

He answered, because we noticed

the soldier outside General Tang's door disappeared.

Then he added

I think I'd better take my child home

Then the teacher immediately

sent all the students home

But

people saw

General Tang's house was abandoned

We saw from the windows of our house

loads of people broke into that house

and carried off all his furniture

My grandmother was

the youngest daughter of General Zeng Guofan

My father was the No.1

Secretary of warlord Wu Peifu

My father was killed. There was an 'incident'.

He was shot

The 'incident' was widely reported

Sometimes it wrote that he was alive

Sometimes that he was dead

This went on for months

Two or three months. My family knew nothing about it

The Civil War had cut the communication between north and south

Back then, one of my uncles. The fifth uncle from the Yu family

He had a dream about my father and my father was covered in blood

Kneeling down in front of him

Asking him to take care of us

And so this uncle was very kind to my sister and me

When I went on to university for four years, I had no boyfriends

My mother always wanted me to marry as soon as possible

She even started bringing in matchmakers

Every time l'd quarrel with her

The man l married was a friend of a cousin of mine

They and two other young men

were all in the USA

My cousin was already married He lived with his wife

The other three were bachelors. The five of them got a car

They took a trip right across the USA

My cousin was romancing his fiancee

he took a boat all the way to Beijing

He would say

You are my moonlight

The brightest star in the sky

He waxed so lyrical

But once they were married and had two children

he was a different man. Began treating his wife badly

Once we were dining with an uncle

The wife asked him to pass a plate

He answered reach it yourself That's how he spoke to her

So, during their trip, their relationship was quite bad

Seeing the man's behavior

my husband-to-be felt sorry for her

He looked out for her himself

She was very grateful, and told him

When you go back to China,

I promise to introduce you a nice girl

That's how we were invited to a dinner. My younger sister and me

The three bachelors were there

And a young woman named Wu

That's how we first met

Once we'd been introduced, he wanted to invite me out

I couldn't go out with him alone

So I asked my cousin to join us We went out together a few times

Quite a bit later

It was at Christmas

Or New Year's eve. Anyway, that night

My cousin hosted a party in his house

And that same day

my cousin's younger brother met my husband-to-be in a cinema

He said, "You were in Shanghai!"

Come to our place tonight! We're having a party

So we met again

And then, it was nearly midnight

And most of them went out to celebrate

The upshot was

my husband-to-be and l were left alone

He asked me to write to him

I refused

He spent an hour persuading me A taxi was waiting downstairs

Later he wrote to me And I replied

My impressions of Shanghai were formed

when I worked on Flowers of Shanghai

Before, I had no idea about Shanghai

I went to Shanghai in search of locations

By that time, the city was changing A lot had been demolished

No real possibility of location filming

So we decided to focus instead

on interior we could shoot in Taiwan

The novel Flowers of Shanghai is very fascinating

The man who wrote it

came from one of those 'flower houses'

He was there from his earliest years

The book has many characters and each is very individual

China used to be a patriarchal society

It wasn't necessary for men to fall in love

As for marriage

They marry through matchmakers Children followed after the marriage

Sex was basically not a big issue

There was no social occasion which encouraged men to fall in love

It became popular after the founding of the Republic of China

The motif of men romancing women falling in love

Seemed really nice to me

And very interesting

Flowers of Shanghai / Hou Hsiao-Hsien /1999

At the end of the Qing dynasty,

many riches came to the concessions to avoid the army of Taiping

From then on, Chinese and foreigners living together.

Shanghai became a prosperous city

Yuyuan Garden Shanghai

Chung Kuo Cina/ Michelangelo Antonioni / 1972

In 1972, in the Cultural Revolution my boss gave me an assignment

A very famous European director,Antonioni

was coming to China To make a film about China

I heard that he'd been invited by Premier Zhou Enlai

So it was up to us to meet all his needs

So on the second day of filming

We were shooting on Nanjing Road

It struck me that he was filming a lot of bad things

Things that reflected our backwardness

It seemed totally unfair

When it kept happening, I made a protest

I said, if you keep on like this, I'll have to stop you

He said Everything I've seen is very good!

What do you think is not good?

He thought everything was fine

The way I saw it,

they were far from fine

We have very good things,

but you just shoot such backward stuff

Our standards were so different

Two years later, Out of the blue

Our work-unit's military rep arrested me He took me from home to the TV station

Then he spelt it out

Antonioni's movie, China

The leaders of the Cultural Revolution

Such as Jiang Qing, Zhang Chunqiao, Yao Wenyuan and so on

They had watched the film and advised

It is an anti-China, anti-communist and anti-people poisonous weed

I later heard that the 'Gang of Four'

were using the case as a pretext to attack Premier Zhou

and confessions,

even publicly criticized

Back then, we came here

to attend a criticism meeting

We went to all the places where he'd filmed

Such as Shanghai Oil Refinery

And everywhere we went, we were criticized and denounced

I was called a small traitor, a small spy

A counter-revolutionary! And so on

At that time, l was just 30 years old

How could I be so politically mature?

Even now I have no clear idea

about what exactly Antonioni had shot

I've never seen the film

To this day,

I don't know exactly what's in it

One day, in 1955 or early 1956 The general union instructed me

to attend a forum

At the door, Liu Shuzhou, the then deputy mayor of Shanghai.

The chief of United Front Work Ministry They were waiting for me

You're late, the Chairman is already here

I thought they meant the forum chairman I said I'd hurry

So I rushed in, left my coat in the cloakroom

I drew open the curtain and the door,

and saw Chairman Mao standing up Mayor Chen Yi also stood up

I was completely dumbfounded

I was so shocked It felt as if I were dreaming

Nothing was making sense I didn't know what I was doing

I just clasped his hand, and gazed at him

That was all l could do

I was dumbfounded and weak at the knee

Chairman Mao found it improper that I kept hold of his hand

He told me to take a seat

Then Chairman Mao asked me

Where do you come from?

I said I was Shanghainese

I was from Pudong He said Pudong is a good place

He asked what I did l told him I was a spinner

He said Great! Textile workers are very important

People all across the nation depend on you for clothing

Spin more, so all of us will have clothes!

It was after nine o'clock We went to the theatre

It was an opera performed in a cinema

Chairman Mao watched the opera

I sat beside him

He was very attentive. He even read the brochure

The actors were so nervous

because Chairman Mao was there

The actors were tumbling One somersault after another

Suddenly one of them somersaulted off the stage

How nervous everyone was

Right away, they did it again

Then, in 1959 I attended the World Youth Festival

That was held in Vienna

We stopped traffic on the streets of Vienna

They were excited at seeing Chinese They hadn't seen Chinese people before

Chinese people look lovely to them

They expected us to look like the photos in the museum

With pigtails and little bound feet!

We looked nothing like that

They felt they had seen the real Chinese

All Vienna was agog

They gave us a big thumbs up

China! China! Hurrah! Everyone gave us a thumbs-up

At that moment, I felt

very proud to be Chinese

So when I came back to work I put my efforts to increase production

I later played myself in a movie

Comrade Huang Baomei

You want to see me?

Are you Huang Baomei?

Yes

A humble person who had suffered

becomes a national Model Worker

Respected by others

What a huge change!

Huang Baomei / Xie Jin / 1958

I was no more than 14 years old when I started working here

The factory was named Yufeng Mill It was run by the Japanese

After Liberation in 1949, it became Shanghai No. 17 Cotton Plant

I went abroad for further study in 1960

After that, l came back to work

until I retired in 1987

I've always been a staff of this plant

One January, I heard from my elder sister in Shanghai

A letter asking me to come to Shanghai because she had something to tell me

My elder sister never summoned me like that

So I took a train to Shanghai

She's in the Conservatory of Music A student in the Vocal Department

She lived on the campus

When I arrived at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music

She was very pleased to see me

She took me to her piano room

Then she closed the door. Hugged me, and burst into tears

Seeing her cry, l understood

I didn't need to ask something had happened to my mother

My mother was Shangguan Yunzhu

She was born in Jiangyin

In 1938, during the anti-Japanese war she fled to Shanghai

At that time, my mother

was no more than 19 or 20 years old

Like all country girls come to Shanghai

nowadays, she had to find a job

And she found one on the Huaihai Road

It was called He's Photo Studio

She worked on the till

The studio was run by He Zuoming

A photographer at Shanghai Film Studio

He managed the business himself

My mother worked there as billing clerk

Movie stars came in to take their photos

Jin Yan, Gu Yelu, for example They all had their pictures taken

My mother got to know them and asked if she could work in movies

They were polite. They told her, You can if you speak good Mandarin

So she went on to study at an acting school

Two Stage Sisters / Xie Jin / 1964

Isn't that the former 'queen' of Yue Opera, Shang Shuihua?

My mother's first husband

was the art teacher at her high school

His name was Zhang Dayan

Zhang Dayan disapproved

of her new profession

There were some arguments. Finally he divorced my mother

She and Yao Ke married and she gave birth to my elder sister

Next, they organized a theatrical tour of northern China

The troupe performed in Tianjin and Beijing for several months

Due to transport difficulties in getting back

So she went to northern China with my elder sister and her nanny

When she got back to Shanghai

found that Yao Ke was being unfaithful He had a love affair with someone

So my mother divorced Yao Ke

After the divorce, she lived with the actor Lan Ma for a while

In 1950, at the Lyceum Theatre

She appeared in the play Song of Red Flag

And got to know my father Cheng Shuyao

I was born to them in 1951

It was on November 22, 1968

that my mother jumped from the 4th floor of her apartment building

She jumped in the early morning

In the place where she jumped there was a food market in the street

She fell into a basket of vegetables She wasn't killed outright

Some people tried to save her She could tell them the apartment number

But she died soon after reaching the hospital

Because she was a counter-revolutionary

Nobody actively tried to save her

She was left to die

So she passed away very soon

My sister asked me to come to Shanghai one reason was to tell me about this

But also, as a college student

she was being sent to work on a farm She was about to leave Shanghai . . .

couldn't be sure she'd ever get back

My elder sister and I had different fathers,

but we'd been very close since childhood

So this could have been a farewell meeting

We'd be in different places

Not sure if we'd be able to meet again

So those were the cicumstances I learned of my mother's death

She told me how she'd dealt with the funeral

Her boyfriend a classmate named Yan Kai

at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music helped her with the arrangements

But Yan Kai was

In 1971

During the factional in-fighting of the Cultural Revolution

he was labeled an ultra-radical Red Guard

He committed suicide in custody He was only 24 at the time

It was another heavy blow to my sister

After his suicide, my sister was interrogated for a month

Because she'd been so close to Yan Kai

Once they let her out

she was very emaciated

At that time, she often visited my father

They kept up a good relationship

She'd long thought of him as her real 'father'

And he treated her like his daughter

Their relationship was solid

At my father's place

she met a boy 10 years younger They fell in love with each other

And she got pregnant

she felt she couldn't stay in Shanghai

She had no work assignment, no income

The two of them talked it over The boy's mother was in Hong Kong

My sister's father Yao Ke was also in Hong Kong

So they decided to sneak into Hong Kong

They traveled to Shenzhen, and tried to get into Hong Kong

During the attempt, the boy was caught

Being pregnant, my sister waited for the boy in a hotel

So she was not caught

But her attempt couldn't be kept secret

The Conservatory brought her back

and publicly criticized her. She was denied any work assignments

In Shanghai, she gave birth to the child

But it was sent out for adoption while she was still in the maternity ward

Hong Kong 2009

My family name is Miao

Many people pronounce it Mou

My original name was Miao Mengying

Back home, I was part of a large family

I am the third among the girls

And the fifth among all the children

At that time, my father was

My grandfather was a Cantonese tea-trader

He was a businessman

We moved from Zhongshan to Shanghai

I left high school was the year

Japanese started the Pacific War by attacking the United States

At that time

I did not want to study any longer

As it happened, the troupe led by Huang Zuolin and Fei Mu

was recruiting new actors I auditioned for them

At that time, there was

the best film investor in Shanghai

His name was Wu Xingzai

His business was making dye, with a nickname The King of Dye

But he was fond of the arts

When we staged a drama Mr. Fei went to the Carlton Theatre

To discuss how to divide the profits

It was Mr. Wu bargained for the share

Mr. Wu believed there should be a studio

for the film company. So Wenhua bought its studio at Xujiahui

You used to live in Shanghai. Lu Jie was the boss of the studio

Lu Jie was the boss

At that studio,they were preparing a project by Cao Yu

Cao Yu (Wan Jiabao) said

his script wasn't finished yet

He needed another month. A month-and-a-half

Huang Zuolin had just finished a film So the studio was empty

Mr.Wu then asked Director Fei to help

He said, Mr Fei

We need to shoot something, otherwise it's too expensive

to keep the studio open

He asked him to come up with something to fill the gap

So Spring in a Small Town was the film made to fill that gap

Everybody told Fei Mu

Mr Fei, Wei Wei isn't suitable for the role

How can she play Zhou Yuwen? Think about it!

He said of course she can play it! Wei Wei is all woman . . .

despite what you think

Director Fei had confidence in me

Then, he talked to me about the role

He said bear in mind

the following words

Inflamed emotions

must be kept under control

He also gave me a task I can talk about it now

The actor Li Wei he'd never acted in a film before

And he was very young

He apparently didn't have a girlfriend And never have love affairs

Director Fei had no idea whether Li Wei had had girlfriends or not

He just asked me

You must give some impact on Li Wei, to help him capture the mood of the film

Otherwise your own performance won't work in the film

I wondered how I should react to that But things started to go out of control

When you play a role in a film, you have to be able to leave it

But Li Wei couldn't do that

Eventually, I had to escape from him, ran away from Shanghai to Hong Kong

I feel completely helpless

on this ruined, empty wall

If I were to ask you to leave with me now

Will you again say: Up to you?

Will you ask?

Spring in a Small Town / Fei Mu / 1948

At that time Spring in a Small Town

wasn't very well received

It was a time of national crisis, and the film was considered

too soft

Also, the film was seen as very

It could be said the film was too gloomy

However

It can be said nobody understood Fei Mu

What weighed on my father's mind

At the beginning of 1949

tensions were building in Shanghai

Prices skyrocketed As I recall, we used golden dollar

And silver dollars So we were running out of money

It was all very difficult

Then my uncle, Fei Yimin

A newspaperman in Da Kung Pao

The paper wanted to set up a Hong Kong branch

To publish a Hong Kong edition of Da Kung Pao

He was asked to take charge of the project

He said to Fei Mu

"Bring your children to Hong Kong and stay there for a while"

So when he arrived in Hong Kong

we'd made no preparations to stay long

Just waiting for the dust to settle in Shanghai

Of course, we misjudged the situation

Anyhow, that was how our whole family

came to Hong Kong from Shanghai

When we arrived

we settled in as best we could We rented a house

And I resumed practising my piano

Father went back to Shanghai again

And on to Beijing

He always had his film career in mind

But at that time, the situation was chaotic

Everything happened

in a lawless, unsystematic way

His stay in Beijing was quite unpleasant

He encountered some people who were hostile to him

So he was getting negative responses

Unhelpful feedback

It all made him very

frustrated

So he came back to Hong Kong again

Today, the old guy invited me to tea

He saw that my health wasn't great, asked me to go to America with him

Days of Being Wild / Wong Kar-Wai / 1990

I know very well . . . at my age . . .

It's hard to find a man I really like

My family came from Wuxi

But l was born in Shanghai and brought up there

I'm Shanghainese

These days, I don't say I'm from Wuxi

I am a native Shanghainese

Well, I moved to Hong Kong At the outset

I had no plan to learn Cantonese

I thought I was just passing through

I wouldn't be staying here long

And I would go back to Shanghai

My mother and I came to Hong Kong together

Because

All along, l've said that

I like what they call the old society But there's one thing I never liked

My father

had a concubine

Chinese people did this strange thing back then

When a man

did really well in life

More often he took two or three wives

Foreigners do this kind of thing too

Not a foreign woman becomes concubine

She's called a lover or girlfriend

In China, such a woman is thought of as a wife, the 2nd wife, the 3rd wife

And that was the case with my mother

In 1949, everything changed in Shanghai

A new era began,my mother brought me to Hong Kong

It was time to make a choice. My father had to choose

In the new situation, he could have only one wife

I think this was quite a good thing

Anyhow, at that time my mother

voluntarily gave up her status She left my father

That's when she came to Hong Kong

To start with, my mother did all kinds of things

It was quite funny

You know black marketeer?

It means selling goods secretly

She managed to get by okay

But it was a kind of 'gray area', not exactly legal

It was a kind of

But suddenly

it was made illegal, outside the law

Everything we had was confiscated

So I began making a living by singing songs

I think I am a really filial daughter

The reason is

It's because my mother went through so many unhappiness

As I see it, she was very unlucky

She married very young

But my father soon lost interest in her

He moved on to other pleasures

My mother was not educated, so many things she didn't know

But she was very smart

She taught herself many things. She was good at needlework

For example, Knitting wool and preparing small dishes

She was an average,traditional housewife

But l don't think her life had been much fun

So when she got in her later years

Her retirement was quite happy by then

I was old enough myself She wasn't that much older than me,

just sixteen years

So she and I looked like sisters And we were good friends

She told me everything So I know a lot about her

That's why I say I don't mind getting old myself

It's only now l've reached this age that I have such experience

I have a sort of love for many young people

These feelings include

a concern for

their future

Young people not able to have such feelings

Because they never experienced

The one I love

has smiling face

Deep in the autumn, she can

No-one

may take away

the light of my spring

No-one

may take away

the hopes I have now

It's ages since l sang it Can't remember all the lyrics

Victoria Harbour Hong Kong

Shanghai 2010

As you can see, I'm doing well now

But, back in 1988 I was completely broke

Very poor

Many problems

I just wanted to improve my life

Just imagine

I had

a son to bring up

My wife and l earned only 72 yuan a month

And we lived in different places

In one year, all we could save 4 yuan per month

Forty eight yuan in the whole year

With 48 yuan

all I could afford was rail fares

So, on March 28th, 1988

I quit my job

And then on April 21st, I began speculating on securities

I went to the first securities exchange in Shanghai

It was at No. 101 Xikang Road

to find the listed price of treasury bonds

In the morning, they were 104 yuan

There were only six cities in the country which traded T-bonds

The opening and closing prices

reported in the Shanghai Communist paper

So I went to Shanghai Library to check it

I found the information I needed In Hefei, Anhui Province

he morning price was 92 yuan And the closing price was 96 yuan

I went to Hefei that night

And I spent the whole 20,000 yuan on T-bonds

I bought them at 96 yuan each

Then I sold them in Shanghai for 112 yuan each

A 14-yuan profit

I invested 20,000 yuan, made 2,800 yuan profit overnight

I couldn't sleep that night

For the first time in 38 years, I had a sleepless night

At that time in Shanghai

the daily turnover of T-bonds totaled only 2 million yuan

My trade represented 700,000 yuan of that

I went to Shanghai Public Security Bureau to get some muscle

I told them

the Reform had made me rich

I wanted to do business elsewhere But I was scared

The police had opened its own

company, l hired a couple of guards

I paid each of them 600 per month

Why did I do that?

At that time, no cheque book or credit card

I was carrying 1 million in cash

And it was very problematic

My case was scanned at the railway station

When they found it filled with banknotes

they thought I must be a robber or a thief

I must be a bad guy

Another time, in Luoyang, I checked in to a hotel

When I opened my case, someone saw it was full of banknotes

Back then, there's no 100-yuan note

So it was all in 10-yuan and 5-yuan. The case was heavier than 50kg

The police car was there within moments

I received a summons. It was really agonizing

Of course, this affected my business

But once l had the guards with me and carried a letter of introduction

all these problems were solved

Shanghai World Expo Park

For the glory of the nation, host a great Expo

I was born on September 23rd, 1982

In Shanghai's Jinshan Zone, Tinglin Town

Back then, my girlfriend got into the best high school

I was afraid they wouldn't admit me

So I tried to figure out my strengths

And I realized I was good at running

I didn't really know this before

Anyhow, that high school admit me

because of my skill as a runner

I can say I had two real strengths

One was running

And the other was I could write well

I wasn't willing to give up my free time,

so I had to write during classes

As a result, I failed many classes

Because, to be frank, I overestimated my intelligence

I thought I could sail through all those exams

even though I hadn't put in the hours

I gradually realized science subjects were much harder

in senior high than they'd been in junior high

Eventually, I gave up

Finally

I thought I would have to quit school

The teachers were about to tell me

that I would be expelled

So before that happened

I applied to withdraw from my studies

One teacher asked me:

you cannot be an anti-social element

how do you plan to make a living?

My answer was I planned to live on royalties from writing

All the teachers laughed at me

I laughed along with them

I received my first royalty payment in Beijing

Triple Doors had a print-run of 30,000

I was given 30,000 yuan in royalties Not enough to buy a car at that time

A few days later, publisher told me the 30,000 had were sold out

They were printing another 20,000

I thought Great, l'll make 50,000 yuan

I started wondering what car I could afford

I checked out the market, no car was priced at 50,000

So I decided to go for an used car

The publisher contacted me again, they had printed another 50,000

So I would get 100,000 yuan in total I was very pleased.

But l still couldn't afford to buy a car

Debate raged on the web about the three leading brands,

Fukang, Santana and Jetta, which was the most powerful?

These were the only available And I couldn't afford any of them

I was particularly fond of the Beijing Jeep 2020

I didn't know what it cost

There's no official website back then So I couldn't find its price

But l guessed it would be between 100 to 200 thousand yuan

So I waited until the print-run of my novel reached 200,000

I took all that money and went to buy one

I was carrying about 200,000 cash

My dream was going to come true

I eventually found a top-line car retailer

I asked how much the Jeep cost

I was so nervous

They told me it would cost 40,000

Then I had second thoughts and didn't buy one

It is mere vanity.

If it cost 190,000 I'd have bought one

Later

I made some careful comparisons I bought a Fukang

I'd looked into it carefully

Jetta wouldn't be a choice, They were used as taxis in Northeast China

Meanwhile, Santanas were used as taxis in Shanghai

I thought I couldn't be seen driving a car used as a taxi

I needed a more individual choice

So I went for a Fukang,drove the car to Beijing for refits

And there l found out Fukangs were used as taxis in Beijing

Later, I approached a racing team

called Shanghai Volkswagen 333

It was the strongest team in China

The boss said

If you join us at least you'll be a help with our publicity

We won't care about your results in the races

This was my first racing car

That year, l won two. Two championships

If I can win a lot of championships. If one day

I finally win a grand championship that I really want

I'll definitely be happy to tell everyone:

I'm actually a writer