Labor on Screen: Narrating Chinese Workers from the Cultural Revolution Era to the Economic Reforms

Between the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976 and the onset of economic reforms in 1983, China experienced profound shifts in the relationship between labor and education, and between mental and manual labor. This paper investigates these shifts through a comparative analysis of two Chinese films, Youth Is Like Fire (Dong Kena, 1976) and Merry Bachelors (Song Chong, 1983). Youth Is Like Fire portrays a self-organized team of young workers who, bolstered by the support of some cadres and progressive technicians and propelled by a commitment to self-reliance, overcome the intellectual monopoly on technology and the hierarchical divide between mental and manual work, achieving an innovative breakthrough in rolling mill technology. The film embodies the 1960s “Charter of the Anshan Iron and Steel Company” principles, advocating for “Two Participations, One Reform, and Three-in-one” (cadre participation in productive labor and worker participation in management; reform of irrational rules and regulations; combinations of cadres, technicians, and workers). Conversely Merry Bachelors presents a contrasting scenario set in a shipyard, where young workers partake in formal night school education in a manner that suggests their passive learning and accentuates their comparative ignorance in comparison to their intellectual peers and instructors. This juxtaposition serve to reestablish the hierarchies between mental and manual labor prevalent in 1980s Chinese society and cultural discourse. By analyzing these films, this paper examines the transformation of public discourse on labor, intellectual, and education from the mid-1970s to the early 1980s, highlighting the dynamic interplay between cultural representations and societal changes in post-revolutionary China.