Scenes 11 to 20
A paperboy, enticing people to buy his newspaper, shouts that Jiang Jieshi officially invited Mao Zedong to come to Chongqing to take up negotiations.
The political top circle of the CCP (Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Zhu De, Liu Shaoqi and Ren Bishi) is discussing the situation. Everybody sits, except Mao. Mao declares that though they should not give way to any of Jiang’s demands, the negotiations could be an opportunity to avoid a civil war. [He obviously has a different opinion concerning the negotiations than Jiang in the preceding scene: Mao really seeks peace for the Chinese people]. Although Liu Shaoqi considers a trip to Chongqing as too hazardous, Mao says that it is his historical duty to grasp the chance to re-found the Republic in peace and democracy.
Jiang addresses one of his confidants in his office and states that he has sent an invitation to Mao, but that he did not receive a personal answer. Instead, the telegrams were answered in the name of Zhu De, and only the sixth telegram was directly from Mao. Writing only a very few lines, Mao did not explicitly confirm whether he accepts the invitation. Jiang bemoans that Mao first wants him to answer Zhu De’s proposals, and only after that could a direct communication between the two leaders begin. Jiang, in the end, sighs and warns that nobody would really understand Mao Zedong.
Jiang Jieshi and his wife Song Meiling 宋美龄 are sitting in the garden and talk about Jiang’s political alliances. His wife condemns the Russian Communists and their whole communist system; she thinks Jiang should not rely on them but only on the Americans, who are trustworthy. Jiang, however, does not even trust the Americans, as “no foreigner can understand China”. Therefore he is not willing to take any advice from neither Stalin, nor Truman or Hurley. He is just glad that he has their military support.
Two paperboys, one selling the “Central News” (Zhongyang Ribao) 中央日报, the other the “New China” (Xinhua Bao) 新华报, are arguing over which paper is better, the first being the official organ of the government, the other an organ of the Communists. A young female journalist, Miss Tong Xin 童欣 from the “Zhongyang Ribao”, buys a paper. [She is not a historical character]. As she walks along the streets, she witnesses a discussion at a lunch table. Two men and a young woman are reading the papers and argue about the articles from the individual papers. The first man says the articles in the “Zhongyang Ribao” are biased, just promoting Jiang Jieshi. The second man is favouring a “one party - one ideology” approach to unite the country under the leadership of Jiang Jieshi. The young woman, though, claims that the GMD does not have any good intentions – so why should Mao come to Chongqing? Then the second man quotes the “Dagong Bao” 大公报, one of China’s oldest newspapers, which just suggests the two parties should find some path to peace. The discussion then revolves around the question whether Mao would ever dare to come to Chongqing – the question of his coming becoming more and more a question of his security as well. [During the scene it becomes clear by the mimics of the young journalist that she clearly stands on the side of the GMD. The importance of propaganda through newspapers and of papers as a means of communication between the two parties are highlighted in this scene as well.]
Jiang Jieshi walks through his garden with Chen Cheng. He tells him that he wants one of his secretaries to work out a third telegram to invite Mao and he makes clear that this third telegram will also be the last one. If Mao does not react this time, he would get blamed by the people for the failure of negotiations. [The threefold invitation has a ritualistic overtone].
The CCP leaders are sitting around a table outside; Mao Zedong, who right at the beginning
of the scene declares he decided to go to Chongqing, seems very relaxed. Mao thinks there is more to gain
than to loose in going; Zhu De, on the contrary, thinks there is more evil than good in Jiang’s offer.
Ren Bishi warns there are rumours that Mao could be assassinated, but Mao remains calm. He jokes that even
though the price for his head might be high, Jiang would not have the kind of money to buy it – especially as
his currency devalues more and more [alluding to the galloping inflation at the time]. Rhetorically he asks
whether he was any worse than Liu Bang 刘邦 or Guan
Yunchang 关云长 [= Guan Yu] [thus comparing himself to the
founder of the Han dynasty who presumably emerged from the peasant class, and to a famous general who tried to
defend the Han dynasty, in the end was executed and became a kind of deity in China. With this statement he
underlines the legitimacy of his position]. The speaker from the off adds that at that very moment Jiang
published the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and Alliance, thus heightening the pressure on the Chinese Communists.
A messenger boy now hands the third invitation telegram from Jiang over to Zhou Enlai. Mao, the only one standing,
declares that he wants to accept, though the others oppose it for fear that they might loose him. Mao explains
that most probably Jiang might think that he was afraid to get detained in Chongqing and become a second
Zhang Xueliang 张学良. [General
Zhang followed Jiang to Nanjing in 1936 after the Xi’an Incident and had been put
under house arrest afterwards for almost the rest of his life]. He, however, does not want to
be accused of being responsible for a civil war by refusing to accept the invitation to negotiate.
Mao Zedong and Liu Shaoqi have a walk. Mao tells Liu that he has to take over the leadership of the government while he, Mao, is in Chongqing. [Soft music in the background and the two men walking through the park at their headquarters at slow speed create a cosy, somewhat private atmosphere between Mao and Liu.] Liu speaks about Stalin’s telegram, in which he states that a civil war could possibly extinguish the whole population of China – which is why he came to the agreement with the GMD. Liu, however, holds that Stalin behaved rather high-handedly, and Mao does not believe Stalin’s argument either. Liu says that while Mao is in Chongqing, he will always ask him for instructions if any important decisions would come up. But Mao – showing how deeply he trusts Liu – says that while he is away, Liu and the others will be the Centre, and all should simply follows the instructions of the Centre. In this moment of historical importance, Mao thus transfers all the power to Liu, patting his shoulder, and he tells him the people and the party will always thank him for taking on this responsibility. [Liu, as always in the film, appears rather weak and frightful, whereas Mao is ever optimistic and confident. Still, the stress on Liu’s role is remarkable.]
Jiang Jieshi and Chen Cheng walk through Jiang’s garden, and discuss the military situation. Jiang is especially interested in the situation in Shanghai, Nanjing and Hangzhou. Chen Cheng reports that as soon as the generals of these districts heard that Jiang would let bygones be bygones, they were able to gather troops again. Without much ado, the GMD has been able to draw together an additional million of soldiers. It was not even necessary to pay any army provisions. Chen Cheng also tells Jiang that he has told this to the public in order to threaten Mao and to frighten the Communists off. Jiang, though, is very irritated by the naivety of Chen. He says that Mao cannot be frightened by simple threats like this. Instead, the GMD should demonstrate they are welcoming Mao Zedong. [A short scene is fitted in here, in which a paperboy once again announces that Mao would come to Chongqing]. Later, Jiang meets with Zhang Zhizhong and tells him that he wants to send him to Yan’an as his special envoy; Hurley would accompany him. It was the wish of the Communists that Zhang would personally come to meet Mao. When Jiang remarks that Zhang obviously seems to be liked by the Communists, Zhang fears that Jiang might think his loyalty to him would not be absolute. But Jiang assures him that the only reason why Mao wants Zhang to meet him is that it would be much safer for Mao to sit in a plane if a high representative of the GMD is with him. [The scene underlines the absolute Confucian loyalty Jiang’s staff members have towards him. They call themselves “students”. Mao’s authority in Yan’an, in contrast, is shown as more of a cooperative type].
[Since Chongqing Negotiations is a film that has been produced largely in order to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Mao’s birthday 1893, it is small wonder that his outstanding position is highlighted as often as possible. This scene can therefore be seen as a special tribute to Mao. The chairman, standing on top of a hill and admiring a sunset that paints the sky and mountains red, is overlooking the vast landscape of the country he soon is going to govern. In the second part of the scene, Mao is sitting at his desk, late at night, while everybody else is already asleep. He writes until his wrist hurts, working out plans for a better future. His frugality, that stresses his bonds with the proletariat and the poor people, is shown by his rummaging in his ashtray to find an old cigarette butt that he can smoke again after realising that there are no cigarettes left in his box. A calm and romantic music underscores the “holiness” of Chairman Mao’s person.]
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