A Life in Six Chapters (2022)

"A Life in Six chapters" is Louisa Wei's latest documentary, devoted to the writer Xiao Jun. It can be seen as part of a series of works beginning with "Storm under the Sun" on the Hu Feng Affair, and including documentaries on Wang Shiwei, the cultural critic who became one of the first intellectuals to be purged by Mao in the Yan'an period, and the writer Xiao Hong, who after a short marriage to Xiao Jun, eloped to Hong Kong, where she died a tragically early death. Xiao Jun was an eternal maverick, who never became a formal member of the CCP, despite working for many years in its cultural orbit as a writer and journalist. Louisa Wei's film brings him back to life using extensive autobiographical audio recordings he made in the early 1980s, as well as a series of exceptional interviews with his family members, friends, colleagues, and other witnesses of the times. The great events experienced by Xiao's generation feature prominently in the film: the Japanese occupation of Manchuria in 1931, the death of Lu Xun in 1936, the idealistic promises of the CCP base in Yan'an, so often betrayed in reality, Mao's proclamation of the PRC in 1949, the purges of intellectuals in the 1950s and the Cultural Revolution, marked by red guard violence and suicides of prominent writers like Lao She. All are depicted in vivid colors through the testimony of witnesses like Lu Xun's son Zhou Haiying or Jia Zhifang, a victim of the Anti-Rightist purges. As the ideals of a generation were shattered time and again by party politics and violent struggle, Xiao Jun remains an eternal optimist, unwilling to dwell on past wrongs or tragic episodes, like the loss of his daughter in the Cultural Revolution. The film effectively uses archival images and carefully selected music from each era to situate Xiao's story against the great tapestry of history. This moving film will be of great interest to audiences concerned with China's modern history, as well as the complex negotiations between intellectuals and politics.