Submitted by d4rk in d4rk (edited )

I'm only going to break my Lent fast just for this short article. What I will deal with here will deals with the Film and Ballet called the Red Detachment of Women. This will as current be the most controversial work I have made concerning anything, considering the memes[1][2]. So I will divide it up in order for people to understand my point as much as possible.

Tuhao vs. Zizhu

Before we begin my critique it is important to understand the terms and systems that will be dealt with. First, what is a tuhao? The idea of the Tuhao have persisted from old Imperial language to now being internet slang but I want to bring attention to this one film to show that there was becoming a contrast due to the "winning" of the New Han during the Post-Civil Culture War[3]. So in order to differentiate the two, I will use two names, Zizhu and Tuhao referring to two different and often misconstrued identity, this is on top of your average Capitalist. There is definitely a historical precedent for it's misconstruing[4], but it does not excuse them not being described as separate. The Tuhao is within the Socio-economic class structure of the Old Feudal China. The Zizhu are those Rogue tuhaos, today we could translate as LANEs, Ronin or Warlords. The fact that both, adding the definition of Capitalist so three, are combined is very much Class Reductionism at worse an intensification of Culture War. Such an imbalance would have caused not exactly a separation between Old and New Han so as much as the idea of Chinese Communist embodied in one Culture that is hegemonizing those who read and actualize it.

The tuhao system is of another beast. Again different from the Zizhu. The Tuhao is a family corporation that observes filial piety over farmlands or businesses. In such a family, The Children work in whatever position but will have the same rewards of immense wealth. Whereas those who work under them will suffer as a result of the same filial piety of spreading the money equally whilst working on the same damp. It brings familial economic dynamics to actual laws of economics.

The Zizhu system however is different, since it is in all ways of saying Indospheric. The Zizhu are basically like the LANEs but it's conflation between the Tuhao and Capitalists is what I want to address

The film

When you understand these dynamics you understand a few things that the Maoist media want you to look at and imply. In the first scenes we get to see too many dynamics at play that it is mental gymnastics to even call this good propaganda. I will divide them into two. On the upper angle you have the Secretary and another comrade disguised as Capitalists meeting with a Tuhao. The Tuhao Nan Bantian in this case is a Warlord since the beginning of the Period in my assumption pulling a Limahong and rebelling against the Qing to restore an old order. This is evident in his repair of the Ancestral Hall as well as other traditions.

It would be Hypocritical for me to critique the snake bile wine scene[5] since I did talk about such a critique once, I am restrained as an individual thank you very much. The oppression of the peasants by the tuhao is paralleled to that of the mainland workers via news scenes. Qiong Hua, was a slave, bought, and the entire fiasco. It's that old Bilal problem[6] again, that just because A was released from slavery therefore they're pro A. Definitely not the case ever. The idea of Racist Abolitionists is common sense by this point[7][8][9]. Next we have scenes which depict a different struggle between Public Trooper and People individual. They are different in a way that they are rash and do not follow orders and the rest of the film is an indoctrinating PSA concerning this.

It is overall a horrid show to watch. It was traumatizing even not only to see the torture but the misrepresentation. Any and all propaganda efforts in the future should entail that this misrepresentation and reductionism should never see the light of day.

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