BEIJING - A TV documentary on the life of Li Dazhao, one of the key founders of the Communist Party of China (CPC), was premiered on June 24 at the Beijing Exhibition Center during a display of historical files recording the Party's revolutionary road in China.

The documentary was divided into five episodes, each 20 minutes long. It took three years to finish under the joint effort of the management office of Li's former residence at the capital's Wenhua Hutong and the Li Dazhao Memorial Hall in Laoting county of neighboring Hebei province, Li's birthplace.

The documentary reconstructs with firsthand details Li's short but glorious revolutionary life, from 1916 when he came back from overseas to join the revolutionary tide until he laid down his life for the cause in 1927.

To provide multiple angles and vivid details, the filmmakers interviewed members of Li's family, including Li Guanghua, his only living son, and many experts and officials.

The documentary also shows for the first time film clips of Li delivering a speech in Moscow and footage of other renowned Chinese revolutionaries, such as Bo Yibo and Nie Rongzhen, recalling Li.

Born in 1889, Li went to study politics in Japan in 1913 after studying at a school of law and politics in Tianjin. From 1916, Li served as the library director and economics professor at Peking University, and during that time published a series of articles about the Russian Revolution, making him among the first to spread the principles of Marxism in China.

In July 1921, after years of effort Li and colleagues such as Chen Duxiu founded the CPC, after which they worked even more painstakingly for the country's future.

In April 1927, in a protest against the then Northern Warlords government, Li and some colleagues were arrested by the government and were killed against the public's wishes in Beijing on April 28.

In the opening scene, the documentary depicts Li as "an incorruptible scholar, an obliging teacher, a philanthropic patriot, and a selfless revolutionary pioneer".

It was said that as a professor at Peking University, Li earned 200 to 300 yuan a month, which was a big sum in those days. But Li's family still led a poor life, to the point that his wife had often to pinch and scrape. The reason was, as the documentary reveals, Li often used his salary to finance poor students and Party affairs.

To support the family, as Li Guanghua says in the documentary, Cai Yuanpei, then president of Peking University, had to hand part of his father's salary directly to his mother.

During his last 10 years in Beijing, Li lived in eight different houses, said Wang Jie, director of the management office of Li's former residence in Wenhua Hutong, Xicheng district. Each was rented because he had no extra money to buy a house, Wang added.

Even so, Li would still occasionally invite poor students to live in his home, Wang said.

"Through promoting Li's frugal life," said Ji Wenhui, chief planner of the documentary, "we can promote an incorruptible spirit among Party members."

The documentary will soon be broadcast on television. The Xicheng district government is also considering putting the content of the film into pocket books and spreading them via new media on cell phones.

Meanwhile, a 50-minute outdoor drama called My Father, Li Dazhao, based on stories from Li's life, has just finished 12 popular performances against the backdrop of the Wenhua Hutong residence.

Director Wang Jie said people are demanding extra shows, so the producers are considering enlarging the script and bringing it to bigger stages.

These are all part of Xicheng district's efforts to pay tribute to the CPC's 90th anniversary. The district has designed a "red route" that starts from Li's old house and visits former residences of many big names in modern Chinese history, such as Soong Ching Ling and Guo Moruo.

A supplement to the "red route" will be a series of forums and documentaries that will remind citizens of the lives of revolutionary pioneers who once lived in the district. The memorial season will run until November.

China Daily

(China Daily 06/28/2011 page7)