Breaking With Old Ideas AVAILIBLE FOR DOWNLOAD!

[Red Heretic]

Synopsis: Breaking With Old Ideas is a Chinese film from 1975 about revolutionizing education in the countryside and trasforming in a fundamental way the way people relate to nature, to society as a whole, and to each other. This revolutionary film is now available for free viewing at You Tube.


Breaking With Old Ideas (http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=breakingwitholdideas)

Let me know what you think comrades!

[Janus]

决裂 is actually a pretty good movie.

Some of the things in there are pretty ridiculous like making a farmer a principal. But giving farmers the ability to go to college is definitely a positive reform especially when education had always been dominated by the elite.

On a sidenote, I once asked my uncle how he got into college and he told me that it was through a hand exam. I always thought that he was simply joking until I found out the truth for myself. :lol:

As with a lot of programs, whenever something is drastically changed later on major problems occur. Since education was in a pretty bad shape during this period particularly with the coming of the Cultural Revolution, later reforms to reimplement the college entrance exams proved devastating to students.

Anyways, I'm gonna watch the rest of the film. It's pretty long. :P

[Red Heretic]

Originally posted by [email protected] 9 2006, 02:53 AM
Some of the things in there are pretty ridiculous like making a farmer a principal.
Uhh, how is that ridiculous?

One of the main aims of socialism is to break down the inequalities between mental and manual labor...

[Janus]

Uhh, how is that ridiculous?
Getting a farmer to teach practical courses on farming methods would make sense but making an uneducated man decide on education syllabuses is another.


One of the main aims of socialism is to break down the inequalities between mental and manual labor...
Right, but I don't see how someone who has had practically no schooling can really make the best decisions for a school.

[Janus]

I laughed out loud at the part where the city kid asks the principal where the lecture halls and libraries are and the guy points at the mountains.

I also like to remark that some of the cheesy parts of the movie particularly the songs don't sound all that much better in Chinese either. :(

Oh and by the way, this movie is set during the Great Leap Forward, not the Cultural Revolution.

[Red Heretic]

Well, the story says he was educated in Yenan. Either way, this is something that should be done in socialism. People from the mental labor sphere must be brought into the manual labor sphere, and people in the manual labor sphere into the mental sphere. It will take tremendous struggle, as this movie shows, but it is absolutely necessary to break down these inequalities to get to communism.

[Xiao Banfa]

Awesome, is there any way that could be burned on to DVD or bought on DVD?
I am always interested in movies from the socialist period in China so if any maoist or chinese comrades have any information, PM me about it.
Cheers tongshimen!

[Red Heretic]

Originally posted by [email protected] 9 2006, 07:11 AM
Oh and by the way, this movie is set during the Great Leap Forward, not the Cultural Revolution.
You misunderstood me. I said the movie was MADE during the cultural revolution.

[Red Heretic]

Originally posted by Tino [email protected] 9 2006, 07:13 AM
Awesome, is there any way that could be burned on to DVD or bought on DVD?
I am always interested in movies from the socialist period in China so if any maoist or chinese comrades have any information, PM me about it.
Cheers tongshimen!
Me and a comrade of mine are currently working to put together a website which will make freely availible revolutionary films from all over the world. This site will hopefully have a higher quality version of this film, and a guide to putting it on a DVD.

[Janus]

Yeah, he was a soldier not a teacher. The education minister (or whoever gave him the job) did so due to party or political reasons not pragmatic ones.

The whole point I was raising is that teachers and principals should be experienced and understand their subject matter. If they do not then it's a case of one blind guy leading another.

There's nothing wrong with trying to mix the two spheres but there's no reason to have an uneducated man actually in charge of deciding what's best for the education of the students. It makes no sense.

Now if he were put in charge of subjects in which he did have a good knowledge and experience then that's a whole matter alltogether.

[Janus]

You misunderstood me. I said the movie was MADE during the cultural revolution.
Oh, you consider the Cultural Revolution to have continued 'till Mao's death?

[Janus]

Don't get me wrong here.

I fully applaud the CCP's efforts to make education whether basic or college more readily available to the lower classes. It was something that was very much needed as Chinese education and even the language itself always had an elitist slant to it. And there's no problem with waving credentials if they're going to catch up later.

The problem is when you get down to the part of what's best for these students and what the party line is. If you wanna make it a labor college, sure that's no problem but there's no reason to dismiss certain educational practices because it was opposed to the party line especially if those methods are actually effective. Certain education failings that were caused by the party's educational decisions and the fact that students did a lot more work in these "labor colleges" than actual studying really screwed them over later on.

By the way, what did you guys think of the hand exam?

[Xiao Banfa]

I'm not sure about the hand exam, I reckon a bit of positive discrimination is good to get socialism on course.

I tried to download the first movie and it cut me off half way through the movie,
at the end there was that "do you want to play or share the movie" thing.

Anybody got any idea why that is?

[Janus]

The loading process is interupted for you? May be something with your Flash Player. Try to update it. If you still have problems ask someone in Tech. Support.

[Monty Cantsin]

Originally posted by Red Heretic+Aug 9 2006, 07:15 AM--> (Red Heretic @ Aug 9 2006, 07:15 AM)
Tino [email protected] 9 2006, 07:13 AM
Awesome, is there any way that could be burned on to DVD or bought on DVD?
I am always interested in movies from the socialist period in China so if any maoist or chinese comrades have any information, PM me about it.
Cheers tongshimen!
Me and a comrade of mine are currently working to put together a website which will make freely availible revolutionary films from all over the world. This site will hopefully have a higher quality version of this film, and a guide to putting it on a DVD. [/b]
This sounds like a really good project how are you going to do it?

[Sugar Hill Kevis]

anyone who wants to download this to their PC, or anything else from youtube/google video and some other sites should check out

http://javimoya.com/blog/youtube_en.php

[working_class_warrior]

Originally posted by Tino [email protected] 9 2006, 08:01 AM
I'm not sure about the hand exam, I reckon a bit of positive discrimination is good to get socialism on course.

I tried to download the first movie and it cut me off half way through the movie,
at the end there was that "do you want to play or share the movie" thing.

Anybody got any idea why that is?
go to a diffrent page then hit back space into the movie.

[Red Heretic]

Originally posted by [email protected] 9 2006, 07:20 AM
Oh, you consider the Cultural Revolution to have continued 'till Mao's death?
Uhh... yeah. When do you think it ended?!

[Red Heretic]

Originally posted by Tino [email protected] 9 2006, 08:01 AM
I'm not sure about the hand exam, I reckon a bit of positive discrimination is good to get socialism on course.

I tried to download the first movie and it cut me off half way through the movie,
at the end there was that "do you want to play or share the movie" thing.

Anybody got any idea why that is?
At one point last night, YouTube went down. The same thing happened to me at the very end of the movie. It should work now.

[Red Heretic]

Originally posted by Monty [email protected] 9 2006, 09:40 AM
This sounds like a really good project how are you going to do it?
We are thinking we are going to use the free hosting of www.archive.org, and link to each film from our centralized site which will list films, allow for contibutions, and have discussion regarding each film.

Using www.archive.org for hosting isn't set in stone yet though. If anyone knows of any other video hosting web pages that allow people to directly download the videos, let me know.

[JKP]

Originally posted by Red [email protected] 8 2006, 11:11 PM
Well, the story says he was educated in Yenan. Either way, this is something that should be done in socialism. People from the mental labor sphere must be brought into the manual labor sphere, and people in the manual labor sphere into the mental sphere. It will take tremendous struggle, as this movie shows, but it is absolutely necessary to break down these inequalities to get to communism.
And if people don't want to do that?

[Red Heretic]

Originally posted by [email protected] 9 2006, 05:13 PM
And if people don't want to do that?
Then it will lead right back to capitalism.

The inequalities between mental and manual labor create a dynamic of dependency on mental laborers, and subordination to them. This dynamic, if it is allowed grow unchecked, will ultimately lead those in the mental labor sphere to become a new bourgeoisie.

If manual laborer are not brought into the spheres of education, science, engineering, and healthcare, then they will always be dependant on those who are in those spheres. The people who are in those sphere will use that dependency to increase their own wealth, and it will ultimately lead to the rise of the class system again, along with all of the horrors that will follow that.

[Janus]

Uhh... yeah. When do you think it ended?!
I consider it to have pretty much ended by 1968.

[Red Heretic]

Originally posted by [email protected] 9 2006, 06:46 PM

Uhh... yeah. When do you think it ended?!
I consider it to have pretty much ended by 1968.
Wha?!! The whole idea behind the cultural revolution was that it would continue until communism was reached... Of course, we all know that it didn't, but that was because it was crushed by the revisionist coup...

[Janus]

Wha?!! The whole idea behind the cultural revolution was that it would continue until communism was reached... Of course, we all know that it didn't, but that was because it was crushed by the revisionist coup...
The Cultural Revolution had pretty much died down by 1968. Mao declared it to have ended in 1969 and except for some more criticize Confucius campaigns, it pretty much had. Though I do suppose that you could say that the arrest of the 四人帮 in 1976 put an end to it for good.

[Red Heretic]

Originally posted by [email protected] 10 2006, 02:21 AM
the arrest of the 四人帮 in 1976 put an end to it for good.
For those who can't read Cantonese... I believe that says "The Gang of Four," who were 4 communists in the party who were leading the cultural revolution against the revisionists. People and China also having a saying "And Mao makes five," meaning that it wasn't just these four communists that were under attack, but Mao's entire socialist programme.