Renowned figure in the contemporary Chinese literary and art scene, Wu Zuguang is a playwright, film director, and calligrapher.
Born in 1917 into a prestigious family in Beijing, Wu Zuguang developed a fascination with drama from a young age. In 1937, at the age of 20, he wrote China’s first anti-Japanese play, “Phoenix City.” From then on, he embarked on a prolific journey in drama creation, producing over ten plays including “Song of Justice,” “Man Returning Home in the Snowy Night,” and “Lin Chong’s Night Escape.”
In 1947, he went to Hong Kong to work as a film director, becoming one of the pioneers in the Hong Kong film industry.
On the eve of the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, he received an invitation to attend the “grand ceremony of the founding of the nation,” which filled him with excitement. Despite lucrative offers and persuasion from friends in Hong Kong, he immediately set sail for the mainland without hesitation.
Upon returning to Beijing, he aspired to work as a playwright, but the party demanded him to work as a film director. Out of trust, love, and gratitude towards the party, he obediently followed the party’s arrangements and directed four films for Peking opera masters Mei Lanfang and Cheng Yanqiu.
However, his fortunes took a turn for the worse. Starting from 1957, he faced a series of setbacks and was criticized three times.
In the spring of 1957, Chairman Mao Zedong called on intellectuals to provide feedback to the party to rectify and improve. Wu Zuguang, excited by Mao’s speech, believed that a new era in China’s literary and art scene was dawning.
Subsequently, journalists, friends, and leaders continuously asked him for feedback for the party. His wife, Xin Fengxia, worried that he might cause trouble by speaking out, advised him not to provide any feedback.
On May 31st, Vice Chairman of the National Federation of Literary and Art Circles, Zhou Yang, and Party Committee Secretary Yang Hansheng invited him to a meeting to offer feedback to the party, sending people and cars to pick him up. However, his usually gentle wife adamantly refused to let him go. Determined to fulfill his party duties, he pushed his wife aside and left.
He believed that he was acting not for himself but for the party’s cause.
On that day, he made a speech at the meeting. His speech was titled “The Party Should ‘Stop Leading Artistic Work Early’,” and was published in the newspaper.
Before long, the rectification campaign for the party turned into the Anti-Rightist Movement. His speech became damning evidence against him. He was labeled the first major rightist in the drama and even the entire literary and art circles.
Subsequently, he was criticized and denounced more than fifty times.
Before a certain criticism session, the members of the special task force told him, “You still have an important issue to confess. It has reached this point, and you should not hide it any longer.” Despite thinking hard, he could not remember the issue. Eventually, the special task force mentioned the words “Erliutang.” He couldn’t recall what the issue with “Erliutang” was, leading to him being labeled a liar and deceitful. The task force asked him to write a confession, but he couldn’t produce one.
It was only when the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Culture, Liu Zhiming, published a 30,000-word article titled “Thoroughly Crush the ‘Erliutang’ Rightist Small Group Politically and Ideologically,” that he understood what the issue with “Erliutang” actually was.
From then on, he was branded a “counter-revolutionary rightist.”
On a snow-filled day in early spring in 1958, he was sent to the frozen wilderness of Beidahuang to undergo labor reform. This relocation lasted for three years.
Looking back on the past, Wu Zuguang wrote, “What caused me the most pain was my family, my mother, wife, children… Let me start with my wife, she was widely known as the most popular and brilliant actress on the theatrical stage in recent years, praised by audiences. However, due to my rightist label, Liu Zhiming, the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Culture, mobilized and threatened her to divorce me because of my rightist label. She firmly refused. Afterward, she was also labeled a rightist, turning this shining ‘Queen of Peking Opera’ into a pitiful creature that everyone could bully.”
“My three children were forbidden from continuing their education. My eldest son, Wu Gang, was sent to a rural area to ‘toughen up,’ my second son, Wu Huan, completed middle school and was sent to Beidahuang, where he served as a telegraph operator in a military corps for seven years, walking seventy li (approx. 35km) every day to deliver letters. My youngest daughter, Wu Shuang, was denied the right to further education after graduating from middle school, being forced to stay at home. As for my parents, even when my father was critically ill, I praised him as the ‘best and most honest party and government official in history,’ only to have him exiled a thousand miles away without knowing where his son had gone. Plus, my kind, hardworking, quietly shouldering all responsibilities mother had to shoulder the upbringing of the entire family, including three grandchildren.”
His siblings were also affected: his fifth sister was sent to Fujian, his seventh sister to Yunnan, and his eighth sister graduated from the Foreign Affairs College but was assigned to Inner Mongolia. His sixth brother, who studied in the Soviet Union, was recalled to China and harshly criticized.
“What should have been the happiest and most perfect family… was completely destroyed.”
In 1966, the Cultural Revolution erupted, and the theater field was heavily affected. Playwright Wu Zuguang was not spared from the turmoil.
The issue of “Erliutang” being associated with anti-party activities became a focal point for the “rebels” during this time, with numerous big-character posters, small-character posters, and slogans targeting “Erliutang.”
Near his home, the walls of the affiliated hospital of Concord Hospital were plastered with a huge slogan that read, “Thoroughly smash the counter-revolutionary ‘Pierre Dufay Club Erliutang.'” The big gate of his home was also inscribed with the words “Wu Zuguang Erliutang.” The rebel factions at the Chinese Peking Opera Institute bestowed a new title upon his wife: “Erliutang’s sister-in-law Xin Fengxia.”
For a period, he was confined to his home, not allowed to move freely, while the rebels had free rein to enter his home as they pleased. His home was raided several times. One day, a young man named Chen Xiang rode a flatbed tricycle to his house, loaded his books onto the vehicle, and carried them away.
On another day, the rebel leader Li Zhenyu called him to his office and harshly rebuked him. The reason was that he had sent a note to his wife, who he hadn’t seen for several months, with a message saying, “I’m fine, focus on your reform, listen to the party.” Li angrily accused him of violating discipline and, in a fit of anger, even slapped him.
He lived in a courtyard with eighteen rooms, a property he bought with his own money. After the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution, Jiang from the party committee of Cuihua Building Restaurant and a worker, along with their families, forcibly entered the courtyard and occupied eight rooms. Later, he exchanged the remaining ten rooms for two sets of four-room apartments in Hepingli. Within a few days, a female cadre from the street office took away a large room.
After experiencing house raids, control, isolation, and criticism, he was sent to the “Wuqi School” in Jinghai County, Hebei Province, where he underwent reform through labor for seven years.
From being labeled as a “counter-revolutionary rightist” in 1957 to being vindicated in 1980, Wu Zuguang endured 23 years of wrongful accusations.
By 1980, Wu Zuguang dramatically became a member of the Communist Party of China.
One day, Acting Minister of Culture Zhou Weizhi spoke with him, saying, “Due to the destruction caused by the Gang of Four during the Cultural Revolution, the party’s prestige reached its lowest point. In such difficult times, we remember our old friends.” He asked him, considering his long-standing close relationship with the party, whether he should consider writing a “membership application” during this moment.
Given the seriousness of the minister’s request, Wu Zuguang had to take it seriously. That evening, he called a family meeting. After explaining the situation, his wife and two sons agreed, with only his youngest daughter opposing. He followed the majority and wrote the application.
On August 1, 1987, after Wu Zuguang had been a party member for just seven years, Hu Qiaomu, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China, personally visited his home and read out a Central Commission for Discipline Inspection document. The document outlined his six “mistakes,” advised him to “withdraw from the party,” and made a decision that if he did not heed the advice, he would be expelled.
Wu Zuguang said that the first three “mistakes” were not based on facts, and the latter three were taken from an article he wrote about reforming the art of drama, which should not have been used as a reason to advise him to leave the party. However, considering Hu Qiaomu’s old age and delicate health, and his personal visit, he agreed to withdraw from the party.
The root cause behind being advised to withdraw from the party in 1987 was as follows: In that year, the 30th anniversary of the Anti-Rightist Movement was being commemorated. At the end of 1986, Xu Liangying, Fang Lizhi, and Liu Binyan, who had been previously labeled as rightists, had written a letter to around thirty to forty well-known rightists across the country, suggesting holding a forum to discuss the 30th anniversary of the Anti-Rightist Movement.
When Qian Weichang received the letter, he handed it over to Deng Xiaoping, Chairman of the Central Military Commission, effectively informing on Deng.
After seeing the letter, Deng was furious. On December 30, 1986, Deng met with Hu Yaobang, Zhao Ziyang, and others, mentioning that he confused Xu Liangying with Wang Ruowang, angrily stating, “After reading Fang Lizhi’s speech, it doesn’t sound like something a Communist Party member would say. This kind of person should not remain in the party; it’s not a question of advising him to withdraw, he should be expelled.” He ordered the expulsion of Wang Ruowang, Liu Binyan, and Fang Lizhi from the party.
Wu Zuguang was also among the recipients of the letter and shared similar views with Fang Lizhi. It was said that his party membership was also supposed to be revoked, but Hu Yaobang intervened, and eventually, it was decided that Hu Qiaomu would personally advise him to withdraw from the party.
Wu Zuguang once said that in 1937, after the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, he placed all his hopes in the Communist Party, believing that the party was the hope of the nation and the country.
This was the most critical reason why he returned to Beijing from Hong Kong without any hesitation in 1949.
In 1957, he wholeheartedly wanted to contribute to the party, confiding in the party, but the party “struck him down,” leading to calamity for his entire family. The ten years of the Cultural Revolution were another ten years of agony.
After the Cultural Revolution, he was forced to withdraw from the party simply for speaking the truth.
Speaking the truth is the most basic moral principle in being human; it is the fundamental right granted to citizens by the constitution.
However, speaking the truth is difficult in the People’s Republic of China, harder than reaching the sky!
[End of translated news article]