Premier Zhou and the First Hundred Flowers Award
Hundred Flowers Award, a popular film, was born shortly after the New Overseas Chinese Conference. What is the relationship between the founding of Hundred Flowers Award and Premier Zhou? It has always been a topic of concern to people. There are many versions of the story between the first Hundred Flowers Award and Premier Zhou Enlai. Some people say that Hundred Flowers Award was established at the initiative of Premier Zhou, while others put it more vividly, saying that it was named by Premier Zhou himself. The narratives of several "Hundred Flowers Award" witnesses may uncover this dusty history.
Cui Boquan, who witnessed the ups and downs of Hundred Flowers Award and served as the president of Popular Film magazine, talked about his views on this period of history. In his impression, Premier Zhou did put forward at the "National Feature Film Creation Conference" that the key to a good film is to listen to the opinions of the audience. The mention of the Prime Minister will certainly have an impact on the establishment of Hundred Flowers Award, but the Prime Minister did not directly mention the establishment of the film award, let alone personally named "Hundred Flowers Award". Tang Jiaren, former deputy editor-in-chief of Popular Film, agrees with this. He thinks that the Premier's speech has certain enlightening significance for the China Film Workers Association (the predecessor of the Chinese Film Association, hereinafter referred to as the China Film Association) to set up the mass award, but as a prime minister of a country, he didn't and can't personally name "Hundred Flowers Award".
From this perspective, the Overseas Chinese Congress and Premier Zhou's speech are the historical background of the birth of "Hundred Flowers Award", but this historical background is not the same as "Hundred Flowers Award" itself. Wang Xiong, who worked in the Secretariat of the Chinese Film Association at that time, had participated in the statistical records of "Hundred Flowers Award" and had a clear record of the origin of "Hundred Flowers Award". According to his recollection, Huang Gang, secretary of the Secretariat of the Chinese Film Association, first presented the best film award with the title of "Selecting from Popular Film Readers 1960- 196 1" in September/2. Later, he asked whether it was called "Hundred Flowers Award" or "Award of Workers, Peasants and Soldiers". After discussion by the Secretariat of the Chinese Film Association, everyone unanimously recognized the name "Hundred Flowers Award", because this name not only means a hundred flowers blossom, but also reflects the broad participation of the masses. The results of the discussion were reported to the Propaganda Department and the Ministry of Culture of the Communist Party of China (CPC). After discussion by the leaders, it was finally named "Hundred Flowers Award", and it was decided to be held once a year, and the readers of popular movies selected the best domestic film of the year.
Although Premier Zhou did not directly participate in the specific creative process of Hundred Flowers Award, he had an indissoluble bond with Hundred Flowers Award. He has always loved popular movies and magazines. After receiving each issue, he reads it from beginning to end. The Prime Minister also attached great importance to Hundred Flowers Award, and he attended the first two "Hundred Flowers Award" awards parties with pleasure. On May 22nd, 1962, the mass film editorial department held the first "Hundred Flowers Award" award-winning conference and film workers' gala in the auditorium of Beijing CPPCC. Premier Zhou specially came to the party to express warm congratulations to the winners, and drank Moutai with everyone, encouraging the winners to say, "You should cherish the honor given by the audience!"
On May 29th, 1963, Premier Zhou and Vice Premier Chen Yi attended the party again on the occasion of the second Hundred Flowers Award Awards Conference. When taking photos with all the winners, everyone asked Premier Zhou to sit in the middle. However, the Prime Minister said, "I will not sit in the middle. I should let the old man sit in the middle. " . I quickly stepped aside and sat with Sean, who won the best actor award this time. In his speech to the winners, Premier Zhou proposed that "Hundred Flowers Award should create more good films with diverse themes and styles that meet the needs of the masses" and placed high hopes on "Hundred Flowers Award".
The birth of the first Hundred Flowers Award.
After the name of "Hundred Flowers Award" was confirmed, the award-winning notices were published in 196 1 and 10. The notice stated, "In order to encourage workers, peasants and soldiers to make excellent films and promote the creation of film art," Popular Film "will hold a public selection of domestic films in1960-196/year, and reward excellent films according to the results of the public selection, and judge' Hundred Flowers Award'." At the same time 15 awards, including best feature film award, best screenwriter, best director, best actress, best actor, etc. At the same time, the selection scope, selection time and ballot distribution were announced. As can be seen from the complete expression of the earliest Hundred Flowers Award, there was no box office at that time. "Art belongs to the masses" was a popular view at that time, so of course, art awards should be awarded by the broad masses of the people. Therefore, movie lovers and movie audiences have the final say in a laundry list of awards in Hundred Flowers Award.
In the 1960s, movies played an important role in national life and were the main form of entertainment for the broad masses of the people. For the selection of "Hundred Flowers Award", the audience's enthusiasm is extremely high, and the audience from schools, factories, military and other industries voted enthusiastically, just like the Spring Festival. Many viewers want to vote, but they can't buy popular movies and magazines, so they have to queue up early in the morning to buy them. Many units only have one vote, but thousands of people want to vote, so a special meeting should be held to study the voting problem. For example, Shenyang Glass Factory has 4,000 employees and only one vote. In order to fully express the opinions of the workers, the candidate films and candidate lists were published in red paper. After half a month of pre-selection, discussion and democratic concentration, everyone carefully filled out the ballot papers and sent them out. It can be said that every vote embodies the sincere support of ordinary people for domestic films and their sincere love for outstanding actors. Later, the poet Shao Yanxiang wrote a poem to recall people's concern about Hundred Flowers Award's vote. Please give me a vote/I will exercise this small/but noble power with millions of people.
After just three months' voting, the mass film editorial department won 1 17939 votes. Due to too many recycled tickets and heavy statistical tasks, the editorial department had to invite 300 students from Beijing Women's No.3 Middle School to help. After several days and nights of hard work, all the achievements were finally counted and published in the fourth popular film 1962. The first "Hundred Flowers Award" vote was very concentrated, 15 awards. "Red women soldiers" won the best feature film, revolutionary family screenwriter and Shui Huawei won the best screenplay, Cui Xie, Zhu and Chen Qiang won the best supporting actor and Xie Jin won the best director award respectively ... Popular film 1962 issues 5 and 6, the editorial department released the first "Hundred Flowers Award" album. Because there is no ideal stills on the cover, the editorial department specially invited the famous painter Wang Xuetao to create a picture of a hundred flowers, which is colorful and enchanting. The packaging design of the publication is also quite wonderful: the cover is an independent flower picture, the back cover is a beautiful and perfect picture, and the cover and back cover are all unfolded to form a whole, just like a complete Chinese painting.
On May 22nd, 1962, the first "Hundred Flowers Award" was grandly opened in Beijing CPPCC Auditorium. Guo Moruo, Xie Juezai, Zhou Yang, Xia Yan, Chen Huangmei, Cai Chusheng and other leaders from all walks of life attended the award ceremony and wrote inscriptions for the winners, with Mo Bao as the prize. Among them, the best actress Zhu received an inscription in Guo Moruo's calligraphy: "The water is full of heroic blood, and a Qionghua is particularly red." Cui Wei, the best actor, won Lao She's inscription: "As true as bamboo as snow, as quiet as pine, as divine as dragon". On the same day, Premier Zhou Enlai and Vice Premier Chen Yi also met with the winners and took a group photo. On 23rd and 26th, the winners went to Shijingshan Iron and Steel Plant, troops stationed in Beijing and schools to get together with the masses. Everywhere the actors go, people are crowded, and people are scrambling to see the stars they choose. The winners entered the audience, and "Hundred Flowers Award" also opened the first chapter in the history of the New China Popular Film Awards.
historical heritage
Due to the success of the first "Hundred Flowers Award", the second "Hundred Flowers Award" selection caused a great sensation in the society. The mass film editorial department won more than180,000 votes, a net increase of 60,000 votes over the first session. The selection results were published in the fifth and sixth issues of Popular Film 1963. Since then, the back cover of the 7th issue has published Li Shuangshuang stills starring Zhang Ruifang as the best actress, and the cover of the 8th issue is two brothers stills starring Sean as the best actor. Wang Ping (directed Huaishuzhuang) and Li Shuangshuang won the best director and the best feature film respectively.
Shortly after the second Hundred Flowers Award, the domestic political situation changed suddenly. From 1963 to 65438+February, Mao Zedong severely criticized the literary and art circles: "There are many problems in various art forms-drama, folk art, music, art, dance, film, poetry, literature and so on." At the same time, the national rural "socialist education movement" (that is, "four clean-ups" movement) has been launched with great fanfare. Literary rectification has also been carried out in the field of culture and art, and literary thoughts and works have been examined and criticized. The film industry bears the brunt. Early Spring in February and Northern Jiangnan were publicly criticized, while Xia Yan and Chen Huangmei, who are in charge of film work in the Ministry of Culture, suffered a direct impact and were labeled as "Chen Xia (revisionist) line". In this situation, the first and second Hundred Flowers Award were also criticized by some people.
In order to reform the "Hundred Flowers Award" and make this new award activity survive, the organizers are determined to expand the scope of participation in the selection, go deep into rural areas, factories and companies, and organize people from all walks of life of workers, peasants and soldiers to participate in the selection. The Chinese Film Association and relevant functional units decided that the third "Hundred Flowers Award" would be hosted by the Chinese Film Association and jointly undertaken by the Central Ministry of Culture, the Film Department of the General Political Department of the People's Liberation Army, the Propaganda Department of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, the Propaganda Department of the Communist Youth League Central Committee and the China Film Distribution and Projection Company. Participants are no longer limited to readers of popular movies. Award-winning projects are still *** 15 awards for various films and industries, but the number of award-winning places will be increased according to the number of votes, and they will no longer be labeled as "best" or title, and will be collectively referred to as "Hundred Flowers Award".
In March 1964 and 1, the third Hundred Flowers Award began to call for votes, and the selection ended in early June, with nearly 900,000 votes cast. Tide of the South China Sea, Storm of the Sino-Japanese War and After the Armistice won the feature film Hundred Flowers Award, starring Cai Chusheng, Ouyang, Lin, etc. Wang and Wang won the actress award. The organizer originally planned to award the prize in late June. However, the third "Hundred Flowers Award" was ill-timed. At this time, the ideological criticism of literary and art circles has been in full swing. Some award-winning works are under review and criticism, and some works have been falsely accused of reversing Peng's conviction (for example, the film "Angry Tide" won the music award) ... If prizes are awarded according to the selection results, it will definitely lead to the siege and criticism of "Hundred Flowers Award" and bring trouble to the award-winning creators. Helpless, the Chinese Film Association had to postpone the award ceremony on the grounds that the votes were being counted.
The failure to issue the "Hundred Flowers Award" on time in June aroused the dissatisfaction of the broad masses. If there is no news in July and August, learn to send a letter to ask. In addition, after the literary and artistic rectification, the situation in the film industry has become more and more severe, and there is no hope of awarding prizes. At the end of 1964, the Chinese Film Association had to use the mainstream "left-leaning" view to go against its wishes, falsely claiming that the winning film did not reflect the socialist revolution and construction spirit advocated by the party and did not conform to the current revolutionary situation, and wrote to the superior for approval to cancel the award. In view of the great influence of this award in the whole country, if we suddenly announce the cancellation of this award for reasons that we can't convince ourselves, it will certainly not be understood by the masses. Finally, according to the notice of the system, the Chinese Film Association decided to cancel the awards only internally and reply to letters from individual readers to reduce misunderstandings. At this point, the third "Hundred Flowers Award" organized by many authoritative departments and mass organizations and attended by 900,000 people has faded out of the depths of history.
After the downfall of the Gang of Four, the popular film was reissued on 1979. Hundred Flowers Award, a well-known film, was revived on 1980 under the eager expectation of readers. However, due to the historical conditions at that time, the third "Hundred Flowers Award" held in 1964 failed to bear fruit and adopted an evasive attitude. The restored Hundred Flowers Award is still counted from the third session.
Editor in charge/Zhai Jiannong