Media file:
vid. 4.2 b
Title:
Jiang Tao and the Song of the Foolish Old Man, part 2
Source:
Heidelberg catalogue entry, DACHS Archive
Keywords:
Foolish Old Man, Jiang Tao, Cultural Revolution, Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy, Yang Zirong

Jiang Tao and the Song of the Foolish Old Man, part 2

This slightly different video accompanying Jiang Tao’s song ends with an image of the sun rising over forests and waters. The beginning lines of the song, “Hearing it, it sounds just freakish; talking about it, it seems more like a hoax” (听起来是奇闻, 讲起来是笑话), take up the element of doubt, skepticism, and wonder that must have accompanied every telling of the story in all of its variations. Yet, by juxtaposing images of barren steppes with blooming fields, and of technological achievements represented by airplanes, skyscrapers, suspension bridges, and railroads, with a shadow image of the haggard Foolish Old Man, and finally, the sun—it shows that what may sound freakish indeed does and will come to fruition in the long run: Mao’s words of optimism and utopia are proven to be true.