Change in heaven

Episode number 2 of Series “China Rising”.
The second two part program in the China Rising series which covers the history of Communist China from the mid 1930s to the 1960s. Part one begins in the north of China in Yunan, where the chinese Communists retreated following defeat by the Nationalists in 1934 in a year long walk later known and promoted as the Long March. The program discusses the rise of Mao Tse-tung from a teacher of philosophy to a political leader as the communists regrouped and experimented with political ideas under continued bombardment from the Japanese and from the Nationalists in the form of economic blockades even in their unification against the Japanese. In 1942 the rectification campaign saw the Nationalist’s fostering links with the United States, links which cooled to favour the Communists after a short time until the surrender of the Japanese and the end of the war. By 1947 the Communists had secured a great deal of power in Northern China until civil war came to Yunan and Mao and the red army took to the hills to await the strength and opportunity to take over from the Nationalists. Part two details this counter attack when the People’s Liberation Army became a conventional force of some half a million soldiers which gradually took over China from the North, taking popular land reform ideals with them and becoming stronger as a result. By 1948 the Nationalists were in full retreat and the Communists declared victory in 1949 after they entered Beijing. The program then discusses the short lived links with Russia and the move away from tradition through new laws and social reforms, including a new marriage law and the instigation of uniformity of costume and education. The second part closes with a discussion of the widening gap between the dream and reality of the Yunan Communist spirit as the grim reality behind the ideas of industrialisation in the “Great Leap Forward” and the crushing of opposition through an anti-rightest campaign became evident in the early 1960s. This comphrehensive documentary uses rare archival footage and interviews with the chinese people of the time and engages with the impact this revolutionary period of Chinese history had on their lives. Includes Teachers notes.