The documentary film "Classmates" restores the "Waishi Hall" of Lingnan University during the Anti-Japanese War. Courtesy of the filmmaker
Gu Lei still remembers a tree. That's what she saw in a village at the foot of Lotus Mountain in Shaoguan, Guangdong. At that time, in order to find the former site of Zhongyuan Middle School, she and her team members surveyed the scene near the village for a day, and asked many people, but they did not know the specific location of the school until they walked into the village.
The first person I met was about seventy years old, and when Gu Lei asked, the other party actually knew the location, and his uncle was a witness to that period of history at that time. Unfortunately, the traces of Zhongyuan Middle School are almost gone, and only the tree remains. Perhaps, it would be more accurate to describe it as a dead tree root. Gu Lei was very emotional, it must have witnessed many tragic scenes at that time.
In June 2024, the documentary film "Classmates", which lasted three years and changed three shooting teams in the middle, will be released. The film tells the story of many colleges and universities in South China moving to the mountainous areas of northern Guangdong to run schools in the flames of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, opening a little-known history of education in South China during the Anti-Japanese War.
As the planning and screenwriter of the film, Gu Lei only learned about this history in 2019. Previously, she was invited to participate in the inaugural meeting of Guangdong Provincial Planners, Architects and Engineers Volunteers, and became one of them. The volunteers' work is mainly to rescue, repair and revitalize the ancient post roads and monuments in Guangdong Province.
After the volunteers discovered this history, Gu Lei received relevant materials from the special archaeological team established later from time to time, and slowly clarified the context of this history. After that, she participated in the production of the documentary "Beacon Retrograde - A Complete Record of the History of Education in North and South China during the Anti-Japanese War". For the production of the documentary film "Classmates" with the same theme, Gu Lei feels that this is a way to maximize public attention to this period of history.
Huang Haibo, the chief producer of the film, only learned about this history four years ago, "I didn't expect that so many people in the art, literature, science, and education circles who had a profound impact on China would live a poor and sometimes dangerous life here, but to a certain extent, it is noble, elegant, and from time to time humorous, full of wisdom in the mountainous education life." He told Southern Weekend.
During that period, more than 30 colleges and universities in South China moved to Shaoguan, Pingshi, Qujiang and other places in northern Guangdong. The remote mountainous area of northern Guangdong brought together a number of famous universities such as National Sun Yat-sen University, private Lingnan University, and Provincial College of Arts and Sciences, as well as famous teachers such as Wang Yanan and Lu Hefu, and northern Guangdong also became the center of education and research in South China at that time.
According to statistics, among the earliest batch of faculty members and academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, at least ten have taught or studied in Shaoguan Pingshi. From 1940 to 1945, among the many colleges and universities that moved to northern Guangdong, Sun Yat-sen University and Lingnan University alone, nearly 6,000 students graduated from northern Guangdong, many of whom later made great achievements in their respective fields.
The scenes restored from the documentary film "Classmates" and the promotional banners of the CUHK Library during the Anti-Japanese War attracted the attention of young students. Courtesy of the filmmaker
In Huang Haibo's view, although the confusion faced by young people today is different from that of the past, it still has resonance, "it is the choice when facing difficulties," he said.
From the very beginning, Gu Lei identified the main audience of the film as young people. One day she chatted with the director and talked about the title of the film, and the other party joked that she could call her "classmates". When she heard it, she felt that the name was direct and fit the content of the film, so she decided on it immediately. There are not only classmates in the film, but also a large number of teachers, "'classmates', it is not only the teacher's title for the classmates, but also the perspective of the classmates (seeing) what they experienced at that time." Gu Lei said.
The English title of the film is "life goes on", which means life goes on. During the interview, Gu Lei mentioned this sentence many times, in her opinion, this is a firm attitude of teachers and students at that time, no matter what happens, they firmly believe that there is a better future, "People's lives are going on, the beauty of life, the power of life, is also continuing." She told Southern Weekly.
Go to northern Guangdong
The documentary film "Classmates" restores the scene of nuclear physicist Lu Hefu and his wife insisting on returning to China despite the dissuasion of everyone. Courtesy of the filmmaker
As one of the first institutions to move to northern Guangdong, Sun Yat-sen University's relocation process has gone through several twists and turns. In 1937, when the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression broke out, the CUHK campus in Shipai, Guangzhou, was bombed several times. The following year, Guangzhou fell, and the school was ordered to evacuate urgently, and the teachers and students took their instruments and equipment to Luoding, Guangdong, Longzhou, Guangxi, and Chengjiang, Yunnan.
When he left Guangzhou, the then Director of the CUHK Library, Du Tingyou, decided to move the library with all the books in the library. He knows that books are the soul of a university. Before the Anti-Japanese War, the CUHK Library had a collection of nearly 300,000 volumes, and after the air raid on Guangzhou in 1937, Du Tingyou had already moved some precious ancient books to the Kowloon Warehouse in Hong Kong.
This time, the school approved a grant of 200 yuan - a sum of money that is only enough to buy 67 wooden boxes. If all the books in the library were to be relocated, about 1,200 wooden boxes would be required. Du Dingyou had to design and produce it himself. He called on the staff to disassemble the doors and tables to make a multi-functional box, which can be opened to be used as a book display shelf or as a table and stool.
In the end, 299 boxes of about 50,000 books were moved westward, and the remaining 200,000 books were scattered and withered in the fire. Du Dingyou was deeply shocked and wrote such words, "The rest of the duties are guarded, the care is weak, the crime deserves death, thinking back to the past, I can't help but cry and cry irrepressibly."
In the two years of Chengjiang, the life of teachers and students was not stable. The price of rice rose, everything was expensive, and the local plague was once prevalent. In northern Guangdong, the Guangdong provincial government has relocated to Shaoguan. Calls for the school to be relocated to northern Guangdong grew among teachers and students, and with the rapidly changing war situation, the relocation became urgent. In September 1940, the acting principal Xu Chongqing led the teachers and students to Shaoguan.
His son, Xu Xihui, later recalled that at that time, it was a difficult period in the Sino-Japanese War, and his father saw the move to Pingshi "as a return to the front line". In "Farewell to the People of Chengjiang", Xu Chongqing also wrote: "Although the staff and students of this school have returned to the front, their spirit and will should be in close contact with the people in the rear, so that the work of saving the country will be more effective. ”
The colleges and universities that moved north also maintained a group of teachers and students who followed. In 1941, CUHK issued an admission guide to students, providing five routes to the Pingshi campus, covering train numbers, fares, and time required to escape air raids. The guide also optimistically wrote: "After the Anti-Japanese War, due to the loss of vast lands, large and small cities fell, so that everyone tasted the taste of displacement. However, in another sense, it makes you a very experienced traveler. ”
Huang Benli, a future academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, also returned to northern Guangdong to study with the support of his grandfather. He clearly remembered that his aunt contacted him with a truck that set off from Guangxi Babu, and had to stop for the night halfway, and when he woke up the next day, he almost couldn't catch the car. "It's not easy," he said, when he was a teenager, "and it's miserable to run that far by myself." When he arrived in Guilin, he encountered another bombardment, but he escaped by luck and bought a train ticket to northern Guangdong at the railway station. The scene was full of devastation, and when he recalled it years later, he still found it "very exciting".
On the other side of the ocean, nuclear physicist Lu Hefu also decided to return to China. At that time, he was on his honeymoon, and in addition to his wife, his colleagues around him persuaded him to stay, but the couple still insisted on returning to China. When taking a flight from Hong Kong to Nanxiong in northern Guangdong, considering that the customs regulations could only carry 20 kilograms of luggage per person, and his books and materials far exceeded the quota, his wife thought of an idea before departure, sewed many pockets into his coat, and stuffed books and scientific research materials into it.
When he crossed the customs, his luggage was not overweight, but his strange walking posture attracted the attention of the staff, and when he unbuttoned his clothes, he saw that there were books inside. At that time, most people carried valuable things such as gold and jewelry, and few people brought books like him. The staff was deeply moved and let them through the customs directly.
"The hardships of life and material deprivation did not shake him." Gu Lei said. Huang Haibo also thought, "When the country is in trouble, what choice should we make?" In his opinion, these teachers and students have already given answers with practical actions.
When I first arrived in northern Guangdong, I was waiting to be revived. Some of the CUHK faculty members live in rented houses of local people, and some directly use local ancestral halls and temples to carry out teaching. In addition, the school also built a number of new dormitories and school buildings, which were basically designed by Yu Binglie, a professor at the school's School of Engineering. The contractor is a local peasant construction team, and the building materials are also taken from the local area, with cedar bark for the roof and bamboo for the walls.
Long Wanyun, a 1943 Chinese student at CUHK, recalls that they lived in a double-decker bed supported by several wooden pillars inserted into the ground, and then built with two combined planks, and dozens of people lived together. The desks are also made of wooden pillars and planks, and the surface is untreated and very rough.
Ye Shuhua, a future academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was studying at the Huaqiao No. 3 Middle School in northern Guangdong. She recalls that at that time, the conditions were difficult, and she ate red rice in a large basket, and about a quarter of the bowl was moldy beans. Every ten days there is a supplementary meal, just two thin slices of meat. The bath was by the river not far from the dormitory. It was in this environment that they continued their education.
"Life goes on"
The documentary film "Classmates" restores the scene of Lu Hefu teaching nuclear physics and other courses in English in an ancient temple. Courtesy of the filmmaker
After returning to China, Lu Hefu became a professor in the Faculty of Science at CUHK and lived in a cramped, cobweb-strewn room in Tangkou Village, Pingshi, Shaoguan, but he never complained about preparing for classes in such an environment. After the birth of the child, Lu Hefu became even busier, he carried the child on his back to chop wood, cook, and finish the housework, so he concentrated on research.
At that time, his class was held in an ancient temple in Pingshi Tangkou Village. Next to the Green Lantern Ancient Buddha, Lu Hefu taught six students cutting-edge courses such as nuclear physics and quantum mechanics in an all-English manner. Lighting an oil lamp at night, he completed the article "The Potential in the Heavy Atomic Nucleus and Its Applications", introducing and predicting the great potential of atomic energy to the Chinese people for the first time.
As one of the translators of the first full Chinese translation of Capital, Wang Yanan also taught students about advanced economics in a simple classroom. At the beginning, Wang Yanan used "Principles of Economics and Taxation" as the basis for preparing the course for the students, and he felt that since the course name was Advanced Economics, the lecture content must be advanced in order to be recognized by the students.
After realizing the problem, Wang Yanan combined the relevant theories of economics with the actual situation in China. In this way, the students were very interested, and even the students from the Economics Department of the College of Agriculture came to take classes. In the classroom, the communication between teachers and students has become more and more in-depth, which constantly triggers Wang Yanan's new thinking.
"Whether I pass or not, it's a fact that I'm always placed in the position of a test taker. It was only in this that I understood the meaning of the so-called educator being constantly educated. He said. As the content of the discussion deepened, his lectures were also enriched, and he later collected and published "The Principles of China's Economy", which was the earliest work to sinicize political economy.
Also in the land of northern Guangdong, musician Ma Sicong gave birth to two masterpieces, "Violin Concerto No. 1 in F Major" and "Symphony No. 1". Nearly half a century later, the painter Xu Xingzhi still remembers a trip to the forest with Ma Sicong in Pingshi, Shaoguan. They walked in that green world, from poetry and pictures to music and drama. When I walked out of the forest again and walked home, the valley was quietly filled with mist, and the sun was setting, leaving a red cloud on the horizon.
"They weren't idle at that time, they were constantly exercising their creativity in every industry, either teaching and researching," Huang Haibo told Southern Weekly. ”
"Free and open", Huang Haibo described the overall academic atmosphere in northern Guangdong at that time. Exchanges occur not only among teachers, but also between schools, such as the sharing of libraries, equipment and equipment, and the secondment of professional teaching materials.
Although the pace and system of teaching and learning in schools have been disrupted, a system of borrowing has developed between schools, and students can apply to borrow from other schools in order to complete their studies. At that time, the President of Lingnan University, Mr Lee Ying-lam, wrote a letter to CUHK, requesting that students from some faculties be allowed to study at CUHK. According to statistics, in the first two months of 1941, there were 42 students in the Faculty of Law at CUHK.
In September 1942, Soochow University was ushered in Soochow University in Qujiang Village, northern Guangdong. Previously, they had been on and off several times. Under the chairmanship of President Lee Yinglin, Lingnan University lent part of the dormitory to the faculty and students of Soochow University for temporary residence. In order to help the latter start classes as soon as possible, Lingnan University also allows students to "come to the university for classes, and professors from the two universities also take courses for each other".
In Gu Lei's view, this is a kind of friendship of "watching each other and helping each other in the same boat" in a special period, although the outside world is in turmoil and turmoil, but in the remote and quiet mountainous areas of northern Guangdong, it is not easy for teachers and students to have a relatively stable and pure academic time.
In his memoirs, a Lingnan University student reminisced about the days of helping each other, and wrote in his memoirs, "Everyone comes from all walks of life and has different family backgrounds, but it is impossible to tell who is the son and daughter of a rich general, and who is a student who is poor and waiting for help." The baptism of war makes us like brothers and sisters and take care of each other. ”
For young students, even in the difficult years of studying, they can still find some certainty. In addition to running, gymnastics, single parallel bars and other physical exercises, their literary and artistic life is also rich.
During his studies at Lingnan University, he co-wrote the drama "Robin Hood and Snow White" with his classmates, which was almost sold out, and was invited to perform at Pingshi Peilian Secondary School, where he won the title of "Prince of the Troupe". Some schools are open to local villagers and are performed about once every two weeks. At each performance, the villagers lined up in several rows to watch the performance, and the students would give them peanuts and cakes to eat.
The seeds of love are also quietly sprouting in the hearts of young people. Sometimes couples go for a walk to the top of the mountain on weekends and come out for tea and chat in the evening. Long Wanyun recalls that at that time, there was a wooden stick used to stop cars at the entrance of the Faculty of Arts at CUHK, and many times, she sat on the wooden stick, and her classmate, her future husband, Huang Jiajiao, stood by the side, and the two kept chatting, even forgetting the people around them.
When Gu Lei looked at the information, she clearly remembered a detail. It was the autumn of 1943, Shaoguan was hit by a rice shortage, and the teachers and students of Lingnan University decided to go to Hunan to buy rice, and the return journey arrived at the Xianrenmiao Railway Station, which was still three miles away from the school, and the mountain road was rugged. Teachers and students used all the tools they could find to transport rice, baskets, buckets, cloth bags, and even trouser legs.
Gu Lei was so impressed by this painful detail that she felt that they had "turned what should have been hard work into a fun solitaire game." After all, students are still students, full of youthful vigor and never-say-die spirit", she said, just like the English title of the film, "life goes on" regardless of the external conditions.
"It's already amazing to keep learning"
The silhouette of the philologist Xian Yuqing restored in the documentary film "Classmates". Courtesy of the filmmaker
At the Pingshi Tangkou Village Observatory, the historian of science Joseph Needham captured China's first female astronomer, Zou Yixin, in a frame. Many years ago, her sentence "I don't want to be a professor's wife, I want to be a professor" is still regarded as the precursor of the times. In the photo, Zou Yixin has her hair pulled up, her posture is elegant, and she is recording observation data next to the observatory, behind which she is overgrown with weeds and barren.
"The heavens of the earth are only like the dust of the sea, and the magnificence in the sky is far from what the tiny earthlings can imagine." Zou Yixin once wrote. As a teacher of the Department of Mathematics and Astronomy at CUHK at that time, Zou Yixin's requirements for students applying for the examination were that "those who are not close to personality should not read, those who are not smart will not read, and those who lack perseverance will not read". Joseph Needham once recorded in his article "Science and Technology in Southeastern China" that Zou Yi's new teaching conditions were simple, relying on a 6-inch equatorial mount.
Even so, she still insists on teaching and researching. In 1941, when a once-in-300-year total solar eclipse passed through most of the central part of the continent, Zou Yixin led some students to Fujian to complete the observation mission. During that period, the CUHK Observatory continued to make cutting-edge astronomical observations.
Ye Shuhua later recalled that it was under the influence of Zou Yixin that he embarked on the road of astronomy. In her impression, Zou Yixin's speech was vivid - Ye Shuhua joked that even the birds in the trees could be deceived by her. Many students were attracted by her interesting courses, thinking that astronomy was fun and math was boring, so more than a dozen people chose astronomy together. Since then, she has been deeply involved in this field herself, and later became the first female director of the Observatory in China.
Gu Lei believes that this is a reflection of the inheritance between teachers and students, "They must have been inspired by the gentlemen at that time." She said, just like Zou Yixin, in that war-torn era, she still insisted on looking up at the starry sky and had expectations for a better future, "If a teacher has this kind of love, her students will also uphold it, and they will also be inspired by the teacher's strength." ”
In addition to Ye Shuhua, there are many students who studied in northern Guangdong and later become leaders in their respective fields. Ng Tsan Tak, the founder of Hong Kong's Maxim's Group, also studied at Lingnan University, which moved to Qujiang Village. His food and beverage management skills were already evident during the Omura period.
At that time, the students' meals were contracted by local merchants or farmers, and the price was high and the taste was poor, and the contractors even increased the price unreasonably. The members of the Super Society, led by Wu Zhande, protested, and Wu Zhande simply led the student government association to manage the canteen, and after one semester, the students' food expenses were reduced by 30% compared with the previous price, and many teachers also came to the canteen to help.
"Actually, they're doing their part, and they're following their own interests, and all of his spiritual callings, and they're walking on this path, (just) it happens to be in northern Guangdong." Talking about how the study experience in northern Guangdong affected the students' later choices, Huang Haibo felt that it should be looked at the other way, "This group of people is so energetic and persistent, what is it that they don't succeed?" ”
But in those days, there were actually a few who could achieve fame in the future. Xu Junzhong, director of the History Museum of Sun Yat-sen University, has visited the old school sites in Yunnan and northern Guangdong several times, and in his opinion, under the situation of lack of library materials and insufficient experimental conditions at that time, the students "can maintain their studies in a certain way, and the learning pulse can continue, which is already very remarkable".
He'd looked at someone's file. In the 1930s, he studied chemistry in the United States and returned to China after obtaining a doctorate. In the turbulent times, he worked as a university professor, a primary school teacher, a newspaper translator, sold soap when he was unemployed, and later worked as a professor at Southwest Associated University for a year without being rehired. He said.
In the winter of 1944, the Japanese army attacked Shaoguan in two ways, and the temporary stability of Shaoguan's colleges and universities was broken again. At the beginning of the following year, the Japanese army approached Pingshi, and Sun Yat-sen University, Lingnan University, Peilian Middle School and other schools were forced to evacuate and evacuate.
After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War in August 1945, Sun Yat-sen University and other colleges and universities embarked on the road of relocation, and the academic lineage continues in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao.
Gu Lei later went to the former residence of Xu Chongqing in northern Guangdong, where only weedy walls and broken tiles remained. She had also been to the farmhouse where Wang Yanan taught the first lesson of the Chinese version of Capital, and it was hard to imagine that he was teaching students in such a cramped and simple room. She especially sighed, "No small humble room can restrain a pure and dedicated heart."
When the film premiered in Hong Kong, some viewers asked Gu Lei what she hoped the film would bring. She said that no matter what era it is, 80 years ago or now, people will always experience some difficult moments, but no matter what they go through, "we should still have an optimistic and beautiful attitude towards life, to pursue, to strengthen our belief in life." That's what I want young people to see. ”
Southern Weekly reporter Weng Rongrong
Editor-in-charge: Liu Youxiang