China Under Communism is a 1962 educational film from Encyclopaedia Britannica Films that gives viewers a look at life in communist China, with an emphasis on the nation’s difficult struggles in the area of economic development. American academic John Strohm, the first Western journalist allowed into China after World War II, hosts the film. He shows a map of China and redraws his route there. The film then starts showing footage of China, starting with a view of a temple at the end of a busy street (01:30), people riding through the countryside, and people working in rice paddies. The Great Wall of China climbs over hills (01:57). Viewers see the tops of the temples and palaces of the Forbidden City (02:12) and the shrine that is the tomb of Sun Yat-sen (02:34). An ox pulls a wooden hand plow as a farmer works the land (02:48). Chinese men spread manure on a field. Children help harvest grain (03:25), and an ox-powered mill grinds wheat into flour. Young members of the Chinese Army mill around a city’s square (04:28). Two members of a rural commune’s militia pose with their rifles (04:53). People work on a communal farm. Large stacks of corn show the crop’s yield after harvest. A woman picks cotton in a field. A man tends to a rice paddy (06:51). A mechanical irrigation system moves water to the farming collectives (07:27). People eat in a commune’s canteen, and children sit and play in the commune’s central nursery (08:06). People participate in a parade (08:50). Despite the lack of mechanized farming equipment, some does exist, like a self-propelled grain combine that sits on display at what appears to be an expo of sorts (09:50). Children climb on a locomotive (10:22). The film shows some of China’s steel production facilities (10:37), including a plant in central China. As part of a national campaign, farmers turn out pig iron (crude iron) in small back-yard furnaces (11:42). The farmers crush rock with hammers, stones, and any other available tools, then melt it down into the pig iron. Men turn a large wheel to wind heavy-gauge copper wire (13:10). Women spin wheels to spool smaller gauge copper wire. A man looks at a production board at the facility he works at (13:55), which measures individuals’ production levels. People look at the few automobiles produced in China that are on display (14:22). A man poses in front of a plant where oil is extracted from coal. Factory workers take part in daily calisthenics (16:00). The film then shows Peking University/Beijing University (16:24), followed by a handful of propaganda posters plastered on street walls (16:38). Members of the Red Army smile for the camera (17:41) as they help build a dam. The film shows a Russian monument (possibly monument to Soviet soldiers in Lushun) and a memorial to China’s fallen war heroes, the Monument to the People’s Heroes (18:18). Viewers see the border crossing between Hong Kong and China, and then the film concludes with a montage of shots of men and women working in factories and on farms, Chinese buildings, and groups of young people.
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