Pox

I just watched “The Ditch” (夹边沟）by Wang Bing last night and I consider it a masterpiece already. Here’s some chat gpt paragraphs to introduce it: Wang Bing’s The Ditch (Jiabiangou) is a stark and haunting work of cinematic testimony that brings to light one of the most suppressed chapters of modern Chinese history: the Anti-Rightist Campaign of the late 1950s. Set in the Jiabiangou labor camp in the Gobi Desert, the film dramatizes the brutal experiences of intellectuals and perceived "rightists" condemned by Mao Zedong’s regime. These men—many of them teachers, writers, and bureaucrats—were forcibly re-educated through starvation, exposure, and death. The historical context of the film is crucial. Following the Hundred Flowers Campaign in 1956, where citizens were briefly encouraged to voice criticisms of the Party, Mao swiftly retaliated with the Anti-Rightist Movement, labelling hundreds of thousands as enemies of the state. Jiabiangou became one of many sites of unrecorded human catastrophe—out of 3,000 internees, fewer than half survived. For decades, this tragedy was buried under official silence. Wang Bing, already known for his documentary realism in works like Tie Xi Qu, took an immense risk in crafting The Ditch. Shot clandestinely in the remote deserts of western China, the film was made without state approval or funding—a radical act in itself. Its production defied China’s tightly controlled film industry, where all cinematic narratives must pass through state censors. Wang’s decision to eschew conventional dramatic arcs or emotional manipulation is both an artistic and political statement. The film's slow pace, stark visuals, and minimal dialogue reflect the dehumanization of camp life and resist the spectacle typical of state-approved historical epics. The Chinese Communist Party’s influence looms large not just in the story but in its very suppression: the film has never been screened officially in China. The CCP’s control over artistic expression means that films confronting historical trauma—especially those implicating the Party—are silenced. Wang Bing’s commitment to unflinching realism, to bearing witness without embellishment, places The Ditch in the lineage of moral cinema, akin to Lanzmann’s Shoah or Resnais’s Night and Fog. Why does The Ditch matter? Because it retrieves memory from enforced forgetting. It gives voice to the voiceless—not through heroism, but through the stark portrayal of endurance and decay. In an era where historical narratives are weaponized or erased, The Ditch serves as a radical act of remembrance. It is a cinematic gravestone carved for the disappeared, and a warning about what happens when ideology consumes humanity. it’s very obscure and hard to find, so I found the best version I could from the internet and put it in a google drive to share with more people. There’s some visual defects here and there but it’s 1080p. https://drive.google.com/drive/u/2/folders/1moHdg4qLUGts2yF7E8tNEKhkP3ZFHQIT there’s a mp4 file in there for the movie and a srt file for the subtitles.

It still exists, just not as well known. Check out these directors(list made with ChatGPT), it’s not Taiwanese or Hong Kong cinema: 1. Hu Bo(胡波) Key Work: An Elephant Sitting Still (2018) A poetic, bleak, and profound vision of existence in a spiritually hollowed-out world. Core Themes: Alienation, despair, invisible resistance, moral inertia. Style: Long takes, minimal dialogue, maximal weight. Spiritual Kin: Tarkovsky, Béla Tarr, Tsai Ming-liang. If he had lived, he might have been the definitive Chinese auteur of the 21st century. 2. Jia Zhangke (贾樟柯) Key Works: Still Life (2006), Platform (2000), A Touch of Sin (2013) Why He’s On the List: Perhaps the greatest chronicler of China’s modern soul. His films subtly—but powerfully—capture the spiritual and cultural erosion under CCP-led modernization. Core Themes: Displacement, time, memory, erasure, violence beneath the surface. Style: Slow, meditative, rich in symbolism and documentary-like realism. Rebellion Level: A Touch of Sin was censored and banned—it was too raw. Spiritual Kin: Antonioni, Edward Yang, Hou Hsiao-hsien. He speaks softly, but his silence cuts deeper than most shouts. 3. Wang Bing (王兵) Key Works: Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks (2003), Fengming: A Chinese Memoir (2007), The Ditch (2010) Why He’s On the List: The archivist of China’s forgotten souls. His documentaries and narrative films explore repression, labor camps, the death of memory, and state dehumanization. Core Themes: Totalitarian trauma, truth without embellishment, economic decay. Style: Long-form documentary realism, unflinching. Rebellion Level: Extremely high—his work is suppressed and often shown only abroad. Spiritual Kin: Claude Lanzmann, Chantal Akerman, Shoah, Béla Tarr. If Hu Bo is a poet, Wang Bing is a prophet. 4. Lou Ye (娄烨) Key Works: Suzhou River (2000), Summer Palace (2006), The Shadow Play (2018) Why He’s On the List: A stylistically daring filmmaker whose work is visually rich and politically dangerous. Summer Palace depicted the Tiananmen Square protests—banned immediately. Core Themes: Forbidden love, urban disillusionment, political trauma, memory. Style: Dreamy handheld realism, nonlinear structure, sensual tension. Rebellion Level: Banned from filmmaking multiple times. Spiritual Kin: Wong Kar-wai, Kieslowski, Krzysztof Zanussi. He uses love and longing to pierce through national amnesia. Li Yang (李杨) Key Work: Blind Shaft (2003) A gritty, haunting social thriller about miners who exploit CCP negligence. He exposed capitalist corruption within a “communist” system. Core Themes: Exploitation, dehumanization, systemic rot. Style: Documentary-influenced realism with psychological punch. Rebellion Level: Film banned in China. Spiritual Kin: Ken Loach, Michael Haneke, Costa-Gavras. His cinema is a hammer to the State’s polished mask. 6. Zhang Lu (张律) Key Works: Grain in Ear (2005), Yanagawa (2021) Why He’s On the List: A Chinese-Korean filmmaker who brings a calm, lyrical sadness to stories of the marginalized—quietly spiritual, gently devastating. Core Themes: Ethnic identity, loneliness, cultural limbo. Style: Slow, delicate, soft spoken. Rebellion Level: Subtle but radical in subject choice. Spiritual Kin: Tsai Ming-liang, Kore-eda, Edward Yang. He whispers with gravity—his cinema flows like still water hiding depth. 7. Ying Liang (应亮) Key Work: When Night Falls (2012) Based on a real incident of a man executed by the state, this is a direct, emotional condemnation of CCP injustice. He was forced into exile after making it. Core Themes: Surveillance, state violence, maternal grief. Style: Intimate, stripped-down, intensely focused. Rebellion Level: Total. CCP threatened his family. Spiritual Kin: Haneke, Akerman, Andrea Arnold. He risked everything to bring the pain of one mother into the light. 8. Zhang Yimou (early career only) Key Works: To Live (1994), Raise the Red Lantern (1991), The Story of Qiu Ju (1992) Why He’s On the List: Before becoming a director of state spectacles (Hero, The Great Wall), Zhang made visually stunning, humanist critiques of tradition, gender, and political brutality. Core Themes: Oppression in all forms—gender, politics, history. Style: Rich color symbolism, operatic framing. Rebellion Level: His early work was banned and still has bite. Spiritual Kin: Visconti, Bergman, Chen Kaige (pre-sellout). A visual poet turned imperial showman—his early films remain timeless. Honorable Mentions Li Ruijun (Return to Dust, 2022): Recent success about rural hardship; subtly critical. Bi Gan (Long Day’s Journey Into Night, 2018): Hypnotic and formally brilliant, though less political. Chen Kaige (Farewell My Concubine, 1993): Only this one film qualifies—pure tragedy, both in subject and in how far he’s fallen. These film directors aren’t just “good under censorship.” They are Philosophically driven, Visually deliberate, Emotionally raw, Culturally urgent, and Brave They channel despair into poetry, silence into meaning, and censorship into coded cinematic rebellion. They make cinema that grieves, resists, and transcends.

I dislike naive disillusioned westerners who have positive views of china, falls for comically obvious propaganda because of their low media literacy, don’t realize they’re being instrumentalized as useful idiots in a geopolitical narrative war(aka falling for psyops). and unconsciously holds the mentality of "If it's broken here, it must be better over there," idealizing the “Other” to fill a void in themselves.

Metaphor Refantazio

I know people that's currently living there and they literally told me that it's bad, stop this uncertainty please, I hate this stupid postmodernist effect

why do yall fall for the most obvious propaganda? go look at his channel

As a chinese person born in china, thank you so much for saying that, this recent surge of chinese soft power is really getting on my nerves...

https://x.com/whyyoutouzhele this guy posts news about china everyday, shows how much social unrest there is in china that china hides

you guys are hilarious, this guy works for Chinese propaganda, and it's obvious... this is sad to see, how much it's actually working...

Mao's leadership's consequences, try to find a pattern of these behaviors from Taiwanese people

watch victor gao, watch what he's like

I agree that Chinese ppl are better than us at stem education. when I came from china to the u.s as a kid, the math taught here was leagues behind.

from chat gpt I. External Trauma: The "Century of Humiliation" (1840–1949) What to Discuss: How foreign invasions, imperialism, civil wars, and famine broke China’s societal fabric and fostered a collective obsession with survival, unity, and reclaiming power. Why It Matters: This is the root of the country’s obsession with sovereignty, nationalism, and distrust of external forces. Trauma gave rise to a survival-based ideology—communism—that promised order and equality but was implemented under extreme conditions. Key Focus: The Opium Wars, unequal treaties, and the loss of sovereignty. The fall of the Qing Dynasty and internal fragmentation (warlord era). The Japanese invasion, Nanjing Massacre, and WWII’s lasting scars. II. The Birth of Communist China: Ideology Rooted in Trauma (1949–1976) What to Discuss: How Mao Zedong’s leadership and Marxist-Leninist ideology reflected the need for survival and unity at any cost. The macro-level systems (e.g., the command economy, collectivization) mirrored these survivalist ideals but often led to catastrophe. Why It Matters: This period shaped the CCP’s authoritarianism, disdain for dissent, and its belief in controlling every aspect of life to ensure stability. Key Focus: The Great Leap Forward: How Mao’s vision was shaped by his psychology (idealism, paranoia, and survival instincts) and how it caused mass famine. The Cultural Revolution: A reaction to Mao’s fear of losing power, reflecting deep insecurities born from his childhood and political struggles. The cult of personality around Mao: The psychological need for people to project hope onto a single leader after decades of despair. III. Reform and Opening: Post-Mao Adaptation (1976–1989) What to Discuss: How Deng Xiaoping’s pragmatism moved China away from ideological rigidity and toward economic modernization. Trauma still influenced the CCP’s authoritarian governance, but the shift reflected an adaptation to new survival needs. Why It Matters: This period shows how ideologies evolve to meet changing environments, as you noted. Economic survival replaced ideological purity. Key Focus: The shift from collectivism to controlled capitalism. How the Tiananmen Square Massacre reveals the CCP’s fear of instability, rooted in historical trauma. IV. Contemporary China: Xi Jinping’s Era (2012–2025) What to Discuss: Xi Jinping’s rise reflects both his personal psychology (rooted in his experiences during the Cultural Revolution) and the CCP’s collective obsession with maintaining control. Technology has become a new tool for survival-based governance. Why It Matters: Xi’s leadership represents the modern incarnation of trauma-driven ideology, combining nationalism, authoritarianism, and technocracy. Key Focus: Xi’s personal history: His father’s political downfall, his "sent-down youth" experience during the Cultural Revolution, and how this shaped his worldview. Modern surveillance and social credit systems: Tools for maintaining unity and control, reflecting fear of instability. China’s foreign policy: The Belt and Road Initiative and "wolf warrior diplomacy" as expressions of reclaiming lost sovereignty. V. Micro-Level Exploration: Leaders and Citizens Mao Zedong: His childhood, rise to power, and psychological profile (e.g., his idealism, paranoia, and megalomania). Xi Jinping: His formative experiences, political strategy, and psychology as a “prince” who lived through hardship and learned to navigate an authoritarian system. Citizens: How collective trauma and survival instincts have shaped societal values like filial piety, nationalism, and conformity. The interplay of fear, hope, and pragmatism in modern Chinese society. VI. Meta Analysis: Ideology’s Evolution What to Discuss: The broader philosophical insight that ideologies must adapt to survive. Analyze how the CCP has modified Marxism-Leninism for its survival and how that evolution mirrors human psychological dynamics.

please research the Chinese history that Chinese people in china dont know the existence of, and see how when a nation endures unimaginable suffering, like China during the 1900s, its current state is a reflection of collective and individual trauma, and how it's born of survival, shaped by the biases and traumas of the human mind.

Intelligent? In terms of what? Stem education sure, but how many percent of Chinese people know how their government is manipulating them? How many films do they have that can be deemed as high art? They have a government that blames all economic problems to “foreign influences”, they have an education system that is teaching them toxic nationalism, they have a government that censors social unrest occurrences, mass killings, anything that they think is a risk to “social stability” hell even people holding up a white piece of paper will be “dealt with”. You don’t know how unstable the place is right now. And also I’m Chinese so I have plenty of first and second hand experiences.