Source: CCTV.com

03-18-2008 17:27

Diao Zhenting said, "Beijing Workers' Stadium was full. All the lights blinded us. We were very excited and very nervous. The make-up was applied carefully to present everyone at their best. We performed warm-up exercises. The first item on the programme was 'Happy Youth', so I was first on stage. It's a moment I've never forgotten – the happiest I was between the ages of 18 and 25."

Feng Huaihan said, "After graduation, we were assigned different jobs. I didn't want to stay in Shanghai. I wanted to go to the frontier, for the thrill. The further, the better."

Long Live Youth, filmed in the 1980s, is considered one of the finest depictions of the romance and passion of being young in the 1950s. Towards the end of the film, some graduates head for the frontier. Their happy and innocent smiles confirm the words of engineer Feng Huaihan.

In 1952, Feng Huaihan graduated from Shanghai's Jiaotong University. Almost immediately she embarked on a three-day train journey that took her to Zhangjiakou, where she was to continue her studies at the Communication Engineering College under the Military Commission.

Feng Huaihan said, "I studied German intensively for 9 months; it was all militarized. Memorizing vocabulary was like battling an enemy. One word remembered, one enemy down. But what was I going to do afterwards? Asking such a question wasn't allowed, and no one gave us the answer. All our teacher could tell us was that the country was establishing plants. That was the little bit of information we got. Later, after our graduation, we were all sent to Factory 718."

By the time Feng Huaihan arrived at Factory 718, Workshop 42 was already in operation. Such was the demand at the time that plants were going into operation even before they were fully built.

The workers' union often organized performances as a way of encouraging the workerforce. At Workshop 42, which was the first to go into production, a programme was put on, which proved to be highly popular. It was called 'Let's Talk About Our New Plant', and featured a bamboo clapper. "New plant, let's talk about our new plant: high rising chimneys, pleasant buildings; railways into the plant, trains coming and going; smooth roads busy with trucks; lively production, with inexhaustible materials."

These days Workshop 42 has a new name, "Metallic Cool". It's run by two Shenzhen architects. The name came from the metal warehouse that adjoins it, with the 庫 for warehouse replaced by the homophonic 酷 for Cool.

Most of the workers at Workshop 22 were recruited by Fu Ke. When Mr. Fu came to Factory 798 in 1955, his first task was to recruit the people who would work there.

Fu Ke said, "My director sent me a note: Starting tomorrow, please recruit workers. Go first to Shenyang and then Guangzhou."

It was just a note, but to me it was an order akin to something from Chairman Mao himself.