August 30, 2004, 10:30 AM
Theme of 'Hero' shows heart of China's government
Last Friday, “Hero,” widely distributed by Miramax, opened to very positive reviews. The movie, released in 2002 and directed by Yimou Zhang in Hong Kong, is finally in American theaters.
The central theme of the movie, however, is not compatible with American ideals. This theme is that the good of the many outweigh the good of the one. I wrote a description of the movie which can be found here.
Its theme is an idea that comes into direct conflict with American individualism. That American ideal is that the individual's value cannot be diminished by the good of the whole.
Thrusts of this ideal can be seen throughout American history: positively with the American Revolution, the structure of our government, and even with the Suffrage Movement, or negatively with the Civil War, the Stock Market crash in 1929, and especially the 60s movement. American individualism is threaded throughout our country's history and is still with us today.
The theme in “Hero” that actively opposes American individualism can be called “Chinese unification.” Thrusts of that ideal, unfortunately, has in recent history taken a sharp turn against human liberty and freedom.
This ideal of Chinese unification led to the Boxer Rebellion at the advent of the 20th century, which led to Wuchang Uprising in 1911 and eventually the May Fourth Movement in 1919. All this gave fertile soil for the Communist Party of China to arise to power in 1921 — leading to the founding of Mao Zedong's PRC in 1949.
The dangerous thrust of Chinese unification could be seen in the planning of Mao's Great Leap Forward and also in how the Chinese leaders directed and later justified (to the West) the military actions against the Tiananmen Square protesters in 1989.
Since the good of the many outweigh the good of the one, such things can be said, “people of the whole nation will also resolutely oppose [the Goddess of Democracy] . . . . The erection of a goddess statue here is an insult to the national dignity and image,” as Xinhua reported on May 30, 1989, ten days after the Chinese government declared martial law in Beijing. The language that points to that idea was the public statement by officials speaking for the “whole nation;” when in fact, a significant number of officials in the military and government supported the student movement far more than the top leadership of the PRC were comfortable with.
According to documents released by the National Security Archive, the Chinese Red Cross estimated that there were “2,600 military and civilian deaths with 7,000 wounded.”
Yet, all this was justified because the student protesters “stirred up the people and made the atmosphere extremely tense” and “lit the fire of rebellion” according to Xinhua, June 14, 1989.
The good of the many outweigh the good of the one, and dissent is not good for the many. So, once the dissenting student demonstrations (starting from 1985) started to widely influence Chinese citizens, Chinese leaders felt justified in their treatment of the protesters.
As Nameless, in “Hero”, was executed to be made an example of, an example to those who chose to dissent, the dissenting student movement was also lifted up as an example to those who wish to resist. Yet, from the international flack the Chinese government got from their actions, they have tried their best to historically erase the events in their country.
According to Jennifer Chou's testimony before the Congressional Human Rights Caucus last June, “To this day, Chinese schoolteachers cannot openly impart to their students the facts about the killings. Tiananmen-themed books and Internet sites are, predictably, banned.”
Perhaps this Chinese ideal, that the good of the many outweigh the good of the individual, may lead to the PRC's justification of action against Taiwan, maybe even against Taiwan's defenders. Regardless of how that ideal threads forward through history, the movie “Hero” shines a spotlight on a mindset foreign to most Americans — a mindset we should be aware of.
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