Half the Sky
Captures the social history of women in China this century through the stories of 4 generations of women in one family. (1995)
Chairman Mao Tse-Tung’s revolution of 1949 liberated Chinese women from 2000 years of oppression, by men and the feudal tradition: 'Women are 'Half the sky', declared Mao, 'and absolutely the equal of men.' Equal they may have been - but by regimentation, to the point of the virtual abolition of all feminity. They worked and lived as men, wearing the same clothes, sleeping in communal dormitories. Sun Shuyun’s bewitching documentary tells the stories of four generations of women in one family, the Jiangs, whose experiences mirror the dramatic changes in Chinese women’s lives - from Jiang Shi, the 76-year-old grandmother ‘sold’ at the age of 14, as a second wife, to Yan Ming, her 24-year-old granddaughter who works in the Pierre Cardin boutique in Beijing. (1995)