Part of the series
Goddess: Chinese Women on Screen (November 9 - December 8, 2012)

Citi Series on Asian Arts and Culture

Hibiscus Town 芙蓉镇
Dir. XIE Jin 谢晋. 1986. China. Color. 130 min. 35mm. With English subtitles.
Featuring LIU Xiaoqing 刘晓庆.

Yuyin (Liu Xiaoqing) and her husband are happily married and run a roadside bean curd stall. During the 1964 Four Clean-ups Movement, they are branded new rich peasants. When their house and business are taken away, Yuyin’s husband commits suicide. Now a street sweeper, Yuyin encounters Qin Shutian (Jiang Wen), an intellectual who has arrived in this town to collect local folk songs only to be also branded a “bad element.” The two fall in love while political turmoil continues to ravage their personal lives. Made a decade after the Cultural Revolution, the film charts the political trajectory of a nation through the experiences of small town individuals.

Check out Two Stage Sisters (1964), also by director Xie Jin and a part of this film series.

This series is part of Citi Series on Asian Arts and Culture. Additional support is provided by People's Republic of China's Ministry of Culture, China Film Archive, and the Consulate General of the People's Republic of China in New York.