A Comparative Study of Ba Jin's Story "Tuanyuan" and Its Film Adaptation Yingxiong Ernu

Ba Jin wrote the story "Tuanyuan" ("Reunion") in 1961. It describes a family reunion during the Korean War and the spirit of Chinese soldiers who fight in it. Then Mao Feng and WuZhaoti made the film adaptation Yinxiong Ernu (Heroic Sons and Daughters) in 1964. When the Cultural Revolution began, however, both of them were critiqued politically: "Tuanyuan" was denounced as propaganda for pacifism, and Yinxiong Ernu was accused of over-emphasizing the horrors of war. This article compares the two texts in detail and makes the case that while, on the one hand, "Tuanyuan" shows us how Ba Jin painstakingly negotiates with the dominant political ideology to accommodate his long-held humanism, on the other hand, Yinxiong Ernu toes the political line more compliantly but does not manage to save itself from political critique due to its connection with the original author Ba Jin. It is obvious that during the Seventeen Year period (1949-1966) hardly any writers or artists could find a safe place under the Chinese Communist regime.