Film studies: Loving Zhou

Hyperbole dominates the publicity material for the quaintly named Qing Gui Zhou Enlai (rendered in English as In Love with Zhou Enlai in a Chinese Culture Ministry website): He was the 'the most caring premier in the people's eyes', the 'loyal guardian of the country's interests', 'the perfect embodiment of our national culture'.

This is hardly surprising, as the film was aimed at celebrating the 110th anniversary of Zhou's birth on March 5. The film was produced by the Central Newsreels and Documentary Film Studio, an arm of China Central Television.

Zhou has been the subject of a long line of glowing screen tributes, but Qing Gui Zhou Enlai is probably the first to zero in on his private life. Its title sounds like something conjured up for a soap opera. The blurb describes him, first and foremost, a 'tender husband in his wife's heart'. His marriage to Deng Yingchao is used as the pivot around which his life is examined in the film.

It's highly probable the producers had romantic serials in mind when they were making the film. After all, 21st century Chinese audiences no longer feed solely on ideologically rigid material as after-work entertainment. Even the most fervent patriots among the new generation today are hardly likely to identify fully with the archetypal national icons propaganda departments cook up.

As scepticism about squeaky-clean heroes grows, it's understandable that even those trying to commemorate Zhou - the Teflon man of 20th century Chinese history - would opt for soft-sell as a strategy.

Qing Gui Zhou Enlai is being shown in Hong Kong as part of a Zhou-worshipping showcase put together by the South China Film Industry Workers Union. The films illustrate the evolution of the mainland's celluloid eulogies to the late premier.

Nearly all films about Zhou seek to highlight qualities such as tirelessness, patience and compassion which, according to official hagiography, he displayed in abundance and which helped steer the country away from the abyss during the many political maelstroms of the Mao Zedong era.