The characters in The Blue Kite depict many instances of suffering and hardships that the Chinese had to endure during Mao Zedong’s reign. Although the characters in the film are not “rightist” in any means, they are loyal to Mao’s beliefs but encounter many adversities due to his policies. Through the devastating Great Leap Forward, and into his development of the Cultural Revolution, the horrible and graphic truths of the Communist Party are revealed. Chairman Mao’s teachings and influence is shown throughout the entire film, and although you never actually see Mao’s character in the flesh, his power and authority are extremely prevalent. The film makes the viewer question and see how devastating one man’s indirect impact on shaping a country and the kinds of regular people who fell victim.
In Schoppa, he points out that Mao has nothing but hatred for intellectuals and his strong anti-intellectualism was not only aimed at scholars, writers, and journalists but also at scientists, engineers, and doctors as well. So although this family never protests against the party but in fact supports Mao’s ideas they still fall victim to the system. Shujuan is taken to labor reform and later dies because of his time there. In an Interview with Tian Zhuangzhuang in the course reader he says in response to that scene, “In China, the way it is, if you have a struggle meeting like that, and even though none of these people is guilty, you need someone to be proven guilty. Life is strange. You are not directly involved in the struggle, but somehow, by accident, you become the object of the struggle.” This scene makes one question the rationale behind the Maoist Era and how illogical the Chinese were in making many decisions. Just because he went up to go to the bathroom he was then nominated by the group. Politics comes before everything, even the truth.
The reoccurring theme that “politics must come first” is shown many times in The Blue Kite. Chen Shujuan is a schoolteacher and Lin Shaolong is a librarian who are getting married in the beginning of the film. During the ceremony they must first pay respects to a picture of Chairman Mao before they do anything. This represents how important of a figure Mao is in the everyday people’s lives and the central role that politics plays in the peoples’ lives. Mao is held above all, including family. He is treated like their God, being intertwined in everything that the community does. During their wedding they continue to sing pro-red songs about how life is getting better and the workers love labor while the production grows. The ironic thing here is that this line couldn’t be farther from the truth. The Great Leap Forward spurred the greatest famine of all time leading to the downward spiral of Chairman Mao irrationality.
Schoppa highlights that “the core value regarding class was class struggle, which Mao believed would mark society until Communism was attained.” A person was literally branded either a landlord or a peasant, the “people,” who were the targeted individuals for Mao’s teachings. Mrs. Lan is a landlord who feels the reprucussions of her title by the Party taking away her buns because they felt she shouldn’t have had so much flour. She replied back that she had saved up the flour from her rations and doesn’t take advantage of her tenants by offering them low rent. Landlords during this time were seen as the ultimate evil; a capitalist who was benefiting from the “people.” According to Schoppa, once a landlord, always a landlord; once a capitalist, always a capitalist. Mao felt that social orders were a permanent, hereditary status. The theme throughout this film is the brutal and harsh reality of a country, specifically a family that is being constantly betrayed for their loyalty to the Party by the Party. This irrational and crazy time period gives the viewer a glimpse of the harsh realities of the Maoist Era and the innocent, regular people who suffered in the process.