WanQuan water is crystal clear

 (1) 

Yellow and red leaves swirled down from trees, dancing around us with a night breeze in the bright moonlight,  seemed to follow the rhythm of the music of  the Red detachment of Women we were crooning on the way back to our village.  In order to watch the movie of ballet,  mainly for its famous music  that we had  long craved to listen for months, we had tirelessly walked through tens of  miles of rough  mountain road after a long day of hard labor. 

Very soon,  the beautiful and grieving melody of the violin solo,  for Qinghai to pour out her sorrow,  started to long reverberate in the little forest where we Intellectuals Youth lived.  The music , together with many others, such as  the melody of four small swans,  brisk pace of hearty , full of spiccato bowing, all were our  favorites accompanied us through those difficult years.

The image of slender and beautiful  figure of female soldiers in my mind collapsed when I saw the  real photo of those poor girls years later.   However,  my respect to the history and appreciation of the music ,   still remain.

(2)

Any art, and the appreciation of it,  are nurtured by  a specific culture and related to a certain history.

The Red Detachment of Women was produced in 60s, when art was just a tool to serve political agenda,  so it had to bear some moral imperative and propaganda mission at that time, even it borrowed Western ballet art form.

However,  The Red  quite successfully integrated the ballet, a precious  classical art form, into Chinese traditional art and Chinese revolutionary war themes. 

For example, on the one hand, the folk song "Wanquan water", the well known "The Internationale" and even a Hainan Li ethnic music, had catered to Chinese people's aesthetic habits of contemporary.    On  the other hand,  the beautiful  melody of the violin solo,  for Qinghai to pour out her sorrow,  inherited ballet's traditional aristocratic style and grieving beauty.

All  together, they have greatly enhanced the appeal of the music of  The Red,  though at some expense of coordination of the music,   and made it the best red classic of the century, if we put the ideology aside.

(3)  Swan lake and The Red

to be continued ...