Our 1950s

Author: Kuang Chen Pan Liang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-12-19
Features: This is a nostalgic series of books, a grand feast of reminiscence about the politics, films, songs, comic books, and memory fragments of China in the 1950s. Every era has its own unique legends and vocabulary, which are the flesh and blood filling the entire decade. We strive to present the solid and powerful aspects of it, a result of rational consideration, and more so, a reverence and piety for those past years. In the process of summarizing and reviewing, those vivid fragments open up their broad embrace to us: the peaceful liberation of Tibet, the confiscation of bureaucratic capital, controlling soaring prices, the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea, land reform, the Three Anti-Five Anti Campaign, the Great Leap Forward Movement, and the establishment of People's Communes. To define an entire era comprehensively is undoubtedly difficult and also absurd. You cannot find a fixed word to accurately depict those beautiful and tragic years. The 1950s are like an ongoing symphony, with both mournful whispers and joyful shouts, playing different movements in different sections. Therefore, we can only retreat to the sidelines, acting as chefs, serving up a self-considered exquisite banquet of remembrance. Whether it is astonishment or profound sorrow can only be left for the readers to savor when they quiet their minds. In this book, we strive to blend the epic of home and country with folk tales, adding a touch of color and vibrancy to its weight. Thus, within these pages, you can see the village lanes, the splendor of things, the fierce winds and bloody rains, and the melancholic nostalgia, all flowing freely and forming a grand narrative. Wandering through these compiled historical records, many joys and sorrows rush upon us, making us feel as if we are living in the same time as the past and sharing the same history. We hope to walk alongside the readers along the stream of these ten years, building a shared spiritual home on paper.