Film Review The Age Of Awakening: What Is Youth

By Hong Xiaowen

In May 1915, Yuan Shikai signed the "21 articles" of humiliating the country with Japan, which made Chinese society in turmoil. On the one hand, there are the magnificent warlords in the official residence; on the other hand, the ragged and poor people who are struggling to survive are the vagabonds who can't eat enough, the folk artists who sing minor songs in the street, the old man who sells pear paste sweets diligently, the rickshaw puller who claims to live a humble life, and the young parents who are forced to beg in the street because they have no money to cure their children. In the opening picture of the TV series "the age of awakening", almost all people are covered with dust, wearing worn-out long shirts, leaving untimely long braids, numbly and fatally living, the sky is chaotic and bleak. At that time, China was eagerly waiting for a new road to light.

Chen Duxiu, Li Dazhao, Lu Xun, Zhang Shizhao, Deng Zhongxia... A large number of revolutionaries and ideologues with enthusiasm for saving the country and the people. The power of new literature enlightens the public thoughts, just like a dawn that cuts through the night, and changes all these things. In 1915, Chen Duxiu returned home to establish the new youth. Until the first National Congress of the Communist Party of China was held in 1921, these revolutionaries had been searching for it. In the drama, many of them have traveled far and wide to find a prescription for saving the country, whether they are revolutionary pioneers such as Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao, or Chen Yannian, Chen qiaonian, Chen Duxiu's sons, and Zhao Shiyan, whose age is similar.

At that time, the political philosophy thoughts of European and American countries were surging, and various theories were popular, but many of them could not be used to guide practice or conform to China's national conditions. Through the reappearance of debates between teachers and students and public speeches, the whole play takes the new culture movement as the main line and combines with historical events, trying to restore the road for China by the people of insight and revolutionaries during the new culture movement, the dissemination process of Marxism in China, and the responsibility and persistence of the early Communists.

Led by revolutionaries such as Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao, the red chamber Reading Club of Peking University, as well as the editorial departments of newspapers and periodicals such as new youth and weekend review, became the base of the new culture movement. Young students and young professors enthusiastically collided with each other's theories such as Marxism, anarchism and experimentalism, in order to find a suitable way for China.

In his speech in the auditorium of Zhendan University (now Fudan University), Chen Duxiu put forward six standard proposals for the contemporary new youth: independent rather than slave, progressive rather than conservative, enterprising rather than retiring, world rather than locked in, utilitarian rather than fictitious, scientific rather than imaginative. A group of young revolutionaries who have ideals and beliefs and are committed to serving the country have responded to and practiced Chen Duxiu's speech with their own practical actions.

What is commendable is that they have read the Chinese and Western philosophical classics, but at the same time they can realize that learning is not just about sitting around and talking about the Tao. They take the initiative to walk out of the study, go to the grass-roots level, step on the mud with their feet, and try to apply the theories they have learned to social experiments one after another. In the play, Chen Yannian, a communist, believed in anarchism and initiated the establishment of the Beijing work study mutual aid group under the influence of Kropotkin's theory of mutual aid. Although it ended in failure, it was a useful experiment in exploring the road of China's modernization; Zhao Shiyan, as one of the earliest followers of Marxism in China, proposed to set up a "civilian education speech group" to inspire people's wisdom, go to the masses to make a series of speeches, so that the common people can realize their class status. With an open attitude, they constantly clarify their beliefs in ideological debates and test the truth in practice, which is where the Communists seek truth from facts and persevere. It was this constant exploration that demonstrated step by step why Chinese history chose Marxism, and that joining the Communist Party of China became the correct choice of the progressive youth at that time.

The future belongs to the youth and the hope is placed on the youth. A hundred years ago, a group of new youths held high the torch of Marxist thought, and explored the future of national rejuvenation in the stormy China. In the early autumn of 1919, Chen Yannian and Chen qiaonian went to work study in France. In montage's time and space overlapping picture, the Chen brothers set foot on the road to France from suits and leather shoes, British style, to return to the country after learning to join the revolution, and then walk to the execution ground full of blood and shackles. The brothers were only 29 and 26 years old when they died, and they had no time to see the victory of the revolution with their own eyes. But in the last moments of their lives, they walked with firm steps and bright eyes, as if they were not stepping on the execution ground, but moving towards the bright future of China.

"It's up to us to govern the country in the future. See you tomorrow, students." Many years later, in order to commemorate Chen Yannian and Chen qiaonian, Hefei, Anhui Province, named a road "Yanqiao road". The names of the two Communists who devoted themselves to the revolutionary cause were engraved on the land of new China in a special way, keeping watch on the new era. Today, Yanqiao road is full of water, high-rise buildings stand beside the road, and primary schools are full of books“ Under the signboard of "Yanqiao road", people come and go, and generation after generation of new youth bathed in the sun, enjoying the happiness brought by the predecessors.

Yanqiao road is very short, only 1.2 kilometers. However, it is known that the end of it is the longest road in Hefei City - busy Avenue.