Scene from Red Detachment of Women

[alvie3]

This is one of the model operas that are described in the Wikipedia article about them as being "condemned as an aesthetic and cultural aberration", lol... I'm not sure aberration so much as disaster.

[mistresskasarr]

ROTFLMAO at the description for this vid above :)

[rollerjimbo]

共产党好！社会注意好！ 社会注意国家人民地位高！

yeah the play is campy as fuck, propaganda is still propaganda. does anyone actually hug their nations flag?

but yeah the dancing is perty. gj china. you could compare this to the broadway musical 1776

[destructicon500]

@rollerjimbo No, I don't think anyone hugs their flag. But wearing it on clothing is close enough, if not worse.

[miniworldjackie]

太美了！！！

[ThatsSoRavin]

I am lucky to have the music from this ballet on phonograph record. I never thought I'd get a glimpse of it performed. Very beautiful music and dance.

[mrztesta]

I found this beautiful. It is lyrical, beautifully-made.

[TVOitentas]

Wow! Wondeful, operary, world!

[AmericanStory1]

Chinese Communism is so beautiful.

[SHDC1234]

What a tall, strong, healthy, beautiful and sexy girl

[Atttacca]

damn...stops just when it was starting to really get good.

[pinz2022]

I get the impression you're not missing much. As a child in 1977, I got hauled off to see the Beijing Opera when it was performing in D.C.

I definitely liked the Monkey King, Nobody dislikes the scarf dancing. I managed to withstand the ream-your-ears-out singing. As for "Red Detachment" they only put on the S&M-style Act I and the inspiring Act II where the escaping Wu Quinhua is succored by the comrades.

[kogallie94]

In pre-communist China women were oppressed and exploited, like they are in other Fascist coutries

[SupermansDead93]

@kogallie94 yes, now everyone is oppressed, and therefore equal!

[redword2007]

IN PRAISE OF COMMUNISM (2) The exploiters call it a crime. But we know: It is the end of crime. It is not insanity, but The end of insanity. It is not a riddle but the solution. It is simple But difficult to realise. Bertolt Brecht

[christowie]

Hey !!

lets all go live in Laos or Mongolia!!!

BRecht never saw what happened did he.

[davidsylvester2008]

Brecht saw a good deal. He outlived Stalin. As a German Marxist, persecuted by the fascists, he understood the historical importance of the Soviet defeat of Nazi Germany. He chose to live the final years of his life in East Germany and remained a commited communist until his death.

[christowie]

And was he a fan of secret police?The Gulag?The stultifying beurocracy? The legal system ?

The Red Guard and cutural revolution?

The destuction of Cambodia?

The corruption of free speech?

Don't suppose he had to work in coal mines and live in fear and poverty  either.The truth is the 'communists ' were the mafia.

[jgreen45123]

@christowie, United States and the Western countries are the real mafia. The countless political assasinations that have take place by the Capitalist US government. The political prisoners that are in U.S. The lack of real free speach, the lack of education, lack of a decent place to live, lack of access to proper medical care. You should stop reading the crap that comes from the Capitalist press.

[redword2007]

IN PRAISE OF COMMUNISM (1)

It is reasonable, everybody understands it.

It is easy.

You are not an exploiter, you can grasp it.

It is good for you, enquire into it.

The stupid call it stupid, and

The dirty call it dirty.

It is opposed to dirt and opposed to stupidity.

[christowie]

What's in the bowl?....Drugs?? Blood????

Poison??? .....obviously something to induce brain damage.

[mjiang111]

You are sick!

If you don't like it, just go away.

[KeenanKaos]

Blood doesn't induce brain damage bro, stupid comments do.

[christowie]

Bad theatre and bad politics have damaged your thought processes if you cant see how appalling it is to force[ yes force...under threat of 'reeducaion']these talented astists in TRASHDANCE that would make Andwrw Lloyd Weber blush, that would cause riotous laughter if people could laugh with political guns pointing at them.

We don't have to respect Maoist thought!!! and can laugh at it freelyand laugh at anyone foolish enough to find virtue in it.Set yourself free or your brain dies.

[KeenanKaos]

Okay, the comment wasn't directed to you, it was there to defend you whn mjang111 said "You are sick!

If you don't like it, just go away. "

[christowie]

sorry m8, I misunderstood!

funny thing,watching this 'ballet' was used in 'reeducation' programs.... now that would be torture, imagine having to sit through it even twice without laughing!!!

Its a pants wetter.

I love high school dramas for the same reason; sqirming to suppress laughter prolongs the mirth!

[KeenanKaos]

LOL

[xbpzqrz]

I don't think it's campy, I think its great. A wonderful story about people learning to stick up for themselves and take charge of their destiny.

[jmurray789]

The real red detachment of women did exist on Hainan island in the 1930s, not the 1920s. "The Red Detachment" was first a movie (1965), but not a politically correct one, prior to the Cultural Revolution. Then a ballet-opera was made of it, and this became one of Jiang Qing's 6 permissible model theater pieces during the CR. Hence we remember it as a "revolutionary" and very camp propaganda piece. Still, camp or not, people sound dumb when they glibly dismiss the dancing geniuses here.

[pinz2022]

What really gets me is that now all the old elements are back with a vengeance. In 21st-century China the ruthless landlords, corrupt local officials, exploitative factory owners and their brutal lackeys and cops are stomping the peasants and workers like nobody's business. Everything that is old is new again.

[717399]

w il COMUNISMO

[k4z3n0k1zu]

This is retarded, yet fascinating. I love learning about Mao and Cultural Revolution and all the stuff that goes along with it. I wonder if Li Cunxin was in this.

[kittykayk]

This was in the 1920s. 50 years before the Cultural Revolution.

[madamAU]

its called revolutionary ballet.. fucktard :)

[mousnonya]

Thank you. This helps with my thought reform. Mousnonya

[qqqquito]

This scene is from the Act II of the six-act ballet titled "Red Detachment of Women". When the US president Richard Nixon visited China in 1972, he was shown this ballet.