1
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Man in Black

2
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No, no, stop thinking…

3
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In 1949, I was 13 years old,

4
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in Gansu, in my last year

5
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at the Pingliang Catholic school.

6
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The People’s Liberation Army
came through our town.

7
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We were poor, so I joined up.

8
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One less mouth to feed at home.

9
00:21:42,280 --> 00:21:44,960
So on September 18th, 1949

10
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I joined the PLA.

11
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No. 11 Cultural Troupe,
1st Field Army.

12
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I was in the ranks from 1949 to 1957.

13
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Eight years in all,

14
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the last two in Beijing.

15
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The new Central Military Commission
had opened a school

16
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for conductors of military music.

17
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I was there 18 months,
and having good grades

18
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I was sent to Shanghai
for teacher training,

19
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to train other conductors.

20
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I was there for 6 months.

21
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There I met professors
from the Shanghai Conservatory,

22
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including my future teacher,

23
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a conductor and pianist,
who would later be shot,

24
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Professor Lu Hong-en.

25
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He taught me piano.

26
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The army soon closed the school,

27
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so, rather than go back to Beijing,

28
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I applied to the
Shanghai Conservatory.

29
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The standard was high,

30
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but I got in right away,
with my new work,

31
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Op. 1, Young Soldiers March.

32
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I spent five years there,
from 1957 to 1962.

33
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For 3 years,
I progressed politically,

34
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actively working to build socialism

35
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as a young cadre in the Youth League.

36
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But then all that changed.

37
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I wanted to work on technique.

38
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That seemed crucial to me.

39
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I began to grow apart from the Party,

40
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I was tired of their preaching.

41
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So from that moment,

42
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we started to think differently.

43
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They said, to compose music,

44
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first and foremost
you need correct thought.

45
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and a knowledge of Marxism-Leninism.

46
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Then you can plunge into the world.

47
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Eat, live and work like the masses.

48
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Technique comes later.

49
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For me, without technique,

50
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you can’t even start.

51
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So I broke with the Party

52
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and never joined.

53
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There was no chance
I would get my diploma.

54
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The whole class condemned me
for wrong thinking.

55
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Banging on their desks, saying
I'd end up a Rightist.

56
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A nightmare!

57
00:24:26,080 --> 00:24:30,520
So in those 5 years,
I had changed completely.

58
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That was when I wrote
my first symphony,

59
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the first movement.

60
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I had studied with Professor Qu Wei,

61
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who taught me a lot,
I’ll always be grateful.

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Truly.

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After finishing the first movement

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I joined the
Radio Symphony Orchestra.

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It wasn’t a creative place
and I soon regretted joining.

66
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But I had to stay,
so I worked on my technique.

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That was 1963.

68
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I spent that year composing

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the 2nd and 3rd movements
of my 1st Symphony

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and Yunnan Tone Poem.
Six movements in all.

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Two major works.

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Later I heard
I was the only graduate in China

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to have written two major works.

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As far as I know.

75
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But I still wasn’t sure
if I really had talent.

76
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In October 1963, the Party
asked us for feedback.

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Speak up, they said.
So I obliged,

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with a two-hour speech.

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I said, you’re doing politics,
not art.

80
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Well, they took it badly.
They said I was anti-Party.

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A lot of people agreed with me,

82
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but the Party singled me out.

83
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In six months,

84
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they held ten criticism sessions

85
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so everyone could attack me.

86
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I was expelled from the Youth League,

87
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from the Radio Orchestra,
and finally from Beijing.

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I left town in April 1964.

89
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The Cultural Revolution
began in 1966.

90
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I was in Datong, in a sanatorium.

91
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I’d had a breakdown.

92
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I had nightmares,

93
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I was screaming at night.

94
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Delirious.

95
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They sent me to that place,
and 6 months later

96
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the Cultural Revolution started.

97
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So they hauled me out
to be criticized.

98
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When I got back,
I saw posters everywhere,

99
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“Down With Wang Xilin!”

100
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It was awful.

101
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I was terrified.

102
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Dunce’s cap,
slogans round my neck,

103
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“struggle sessions”,
I had it all.

104
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That was 1966.

105
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Then things seemed to calm down,
so I joined some Red Guards

106
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and was left in peace.

107
00:27:00,720 --> 00:27:01,520
Then in '68

108
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the Mao Zedong Thought
Propaganda Teams

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were back in action.

110
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That year, the violence peaked.

111
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The persecution was brutal.

112
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In that year, I lost my teeth

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and my hearing.

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They came in the night,

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Dragged us from village to village,

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walking us miles
between each beating.

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Riding ahead on a horse and cart,

118
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as we trudged along behind,

119
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hands tied with ropes.

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All day, sometimes,

121
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carrying a sign saying
“Counter-Revolutionary”.

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As I walked, I thought,

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I’m a convict, a political prisoner.

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And I felt some pride.

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Like a rebel, a Decembrist.

126
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And I thought, one day

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I’ll tell this story in a symphony.

128
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That was how
my 3rd Symphony came to me,

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as a convict, being beaten
and persecuted.

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That was the origin
of the prisoner figure

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in the first movement.

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In 1968 and 1969, I was in Datong.

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The abuse continued through 1969.

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They smashed all my teeth.

135
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Then from 1970,

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the propaganda teams
stepped aside

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and the army took over.

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They saw I was a former soldier

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and let me go.

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Clearly I had to leave Datong
as soon as possible,

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I’d never survive
another wave of beatings.

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A theatre troupe in South-West Shanxi

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invited me, and I left for Taiyuan,

144
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where I conducted an opera,

145
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Shajiabang, for the Shanxi Province

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Peking Opera Troupe.

147
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When they realised I could conduct,

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we spoke privately.

149
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I said, get me transferred,

150
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I’ll go anywhere!

151
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Don’t worry, they said,
we’ll handle it.

152
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That’s how I got out.

153
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I knocked around Shanxi
for a year, like a vagrant,

154
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a stray dog,

155
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sleeping in the porter’s lodge

156
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at the opera house.

157
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The dance and theatre troupes
all knew what I could do,

158
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but no-one would employ me.

159
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I had to cower in fear like a dog!

160
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I got a phobia for the colour red.

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I talked in my sleep.

162
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If I saw a portrait
of a Party leader,

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I’d start shaking.

164
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Sometimes, just seeing anyone,

165
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any human being…

166
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For decades after that,
I talked in my sleep.

167
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Until now, these last two years,

168
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with my wife by my side.

169
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I’m 86 years old.

170
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That treatment in my twenties

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gave me nightmares for life.

172
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And my elder sister.

173
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She…

174
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She lost her mind.

175
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In 1957 she was a branded a Rightist,

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sent to do 3 years’
hard labour in Xinjiang,

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then released, but
under constant surveillance.

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When she died, she
was still seeing ghosts.

179
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My brother starved to death in 1961,

180
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in the three-year “natural disaster”.

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I’m the only one who survived.

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So that 1968 experience
of being a prisoner

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inspired Procession,

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the 1st movement
of my 3rd Symphony in 1989.

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I saw the Chinese people as
a long line of prisoners

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with no end in sight.

187
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Then came Slaughterhouse
and Madman’s Song.

188
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I'd lost my mind!

189
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Driven mad, like so many others,

190
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some to suicide.

191
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The terror of forced confessions.

192
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A nightmare.

193
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Denying yourself, over and over,

194
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pleading, with no chance
of forgiveness.

195
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Filling endless thick notebooks

196
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with confessions for them to inspect.

197
00:31:13,160 --> 00:31:15,840
So I named the 3rd movement
Madman’s Song.

198
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My work is full of madmen.

199
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Minds about to shatter.

200
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In my 5th…

201
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the theme is madness.

202
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My 3rd has four movements.

203
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The first expresses captivity.

204
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I saw the Chinese people
as a line of convicts,

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A procession moving through
a wilderness,

206
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soundlessly,

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in chains, their faces
blurred and gray,

208
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stepping silently
through the desolate landscape.

209
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Those images have never left me,

210
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like the convict in the 1st movement.

211
00:31:57,640 --> 00:31:58,840
For the 2nd movement,

212
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I chose a scene of slaughter.

213
00:32:03,080 --> 00:32:06,280
A major act of armed repression.

214
00:32:06,840 --> 00:32:10,400
I was on the square that day.

215
00:32:10,640 --> 00:32:12,920
Around 11, loudspeakers
sounded the alert.

216
00:32:13,200 --> 00:32:15,200
I took my bike and rode home.

217
00:32:16,480 --> 00:32:20,120
So I wasn’t there to see it.

218
00:32:20,280 --> 00:32:21,760
But I pictured the scene

219
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and described it in my music.

220
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The army advancing,
and to either side,

221
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ahead of the tanks,

222
00:32:30,240 --> 00:32:31,880
people scattering, running.

223
00:32:34,440 --> 00:32:36,960
As vividly as if
I was standing there.

224
00:32:37,640 --> 00:32:41,760
Later, I read Li Rui’s poems

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00:32:41,960 --> 00:32:45,560
describing the carnage,

226
00:32:45,720 --> 00:32:47,840
exactly as I had imagined it.

227
00:32:48,640 --> 00:32:52,000
My 2nd movement describes
a bloodbath.

228
00:32:53,000 --> 00:32:56,000
The 3rd is an adagio.

229
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People have been driven mad.

230
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A deathly silence.

231
00:33:01,000 --> 00:33:03,040
Then the madman’s dreary song.

232
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How would that sound?
A madman has no songs.

233
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His mind is gone.

234
00:33:10,560 --> 00:33:14,320
He cries and bleeds in silence.

235
00:33:15,120 --> 00:33:18,280
Snow falls from the sky
without a sound.

236
00:33:18,440 --> 00:33:20,840
Blood flows on the ground
in silence.

237
00:33:21,000 --> 00:33:24,000
All moving silently,
snow and blood.

238
00:33:24,360 --> 00:33:25,600
That's the scene.

239
00:33:42,040 --> 00:33:46,080
As if you want to cry
but tears won't come.

240
00:33:47,600 --> 00:33:48,760
The madman sings,

241
00:33:49,720 --> 00:33:51,080
a steady monotone.

242
00:33:51,240 --> 00:33:52,560
That’s the 3rd movement.

243
00:33:52,760 --> 00:33:54,480
Then the 4th…

244
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A huge popular uprising.

245
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The crowd is vast, seething,

246
00:34:02,680 --> 00:34:06,120
a magnificent, pulsing wave…

247
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I spoke twice to the crowd
on the square.

248
00:34:08,400 --> 00:34:10,360
They hoisted me up on a cart,

249
00:34:12,000 --> 00:34:14,880
They passed me a bottle,
it was empty,

250
00:34:15,040 --> 00:34:17,080
they shouted,
A toast, sir! To victory!

251
00:34:19,120 --> 00:34:21,680
How intensely I felt
the people breathe!

252
00:34:22,880 --> 00:34:25,880
So the fourth movement
is a grand crowd scene.

253
00:34:26,080 --> 00:34:30,440
Yet in the end,
it comes back to the prisoner.

254
00:34:30,800 --> 00:34:32,600
Because I see no future.

255
00:34:33,280 --> 00:34:36,680
As an author, I can’t
give people false hope!

256
00:34:36,840 --> 00:34:38,640
Paint a glorious future?

257
00:34:38,800 --> 00:34:40,240
I don’t see one.

258
00:34:40,720 --> 00:34:43,000
Sell people a fairy tale?

259
00:34:43,280 --> 00:34:45,120
Never!

260
00:34:50,600 --> 00:34:54,120
In 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed.
The Party was dead!

261
00:34:54,680 --> 00:34:55,920
An earthshaking event!

262
00:34:56,160 --> 00:34:57,680
Wonderful news!

263
00:34:58,520 --> 00:35:00,000
No comment
allowed in China.

264
00:35:00,680 --> 00:35:02,840
Fine, I thought,
I will speak in music.

265
00:35:03,320 --> 00:35:07,120
I have my own view of history,
of the twentieth century.

266
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Different from the Government’s.

267
00:35:11,120 --> 00:35:12,600
I can tell you.

268
00:35:13,120 --> 00:35:16,280
Communism in the 20th century

269
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starts as a passionate ideal,
ardently desired,

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and ends in a cruel,
merciless betrayal.

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That’s how I see it.

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So when I started working
on my 4th Symphony,

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I could hardly tell them
what it was about.

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Impossible.

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Could I call it “Untitled”?

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They said, fine.

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So for once, I was free.

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No title, no constraints,

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I could write what I liked.

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It starts in a slow tempo.

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Slow and solemn.

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Just like the 3rd,
but in a very different idiom.

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Very interesting!

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So first, a great disaster!

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followed by total collapse.

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That was the outline
of my 4th Symphony.

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The problems started at the premiere.

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It was a commission,

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with some government funding.

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Not much, 70,000 yuan.

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So I got down to work.

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In rehearsals,

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I said it was untitled
but they asked

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what it was about.

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I shouldn’t have answered.
I said,

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the 20th century
is behind us.

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It has seen historic events.

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Two world wars.

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Millions dead.

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But also, huge strides
in science and technology.

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For me, however,

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the most significant event
of the 20th century

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was the passionate ideal of Communism

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and its cruel betrayal.

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Burning desire,
then ruthless rejection.

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Everyone clapped!

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Of course my remarks were reported.

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And I was instantly blacklisted.

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I was summoned before management

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and reprimanded.

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Wang Xilin, they said,

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your work clearly violates
the Four Primary Goals!

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The project is cancelled!

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Comply or face arrest!

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Why write the piano concerto?

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Out of sheer fury!

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I objected to
the Yellow River Concerto,

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a creation
of the Gang of Four,

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that adapted, or rather disfigured
Xian Xinghai's cantata,

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That was a tribute to
the anti-Japanese resistance.

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A beautiful work.

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The winds that roar…
Beautiful.

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They turned it into a hymn to Mao!

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The 4th movement merged
The East is Red

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and the Internationale
in a heroic march.

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all solely to the glory
of Mao Zedong!

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Nothing left of the original.

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That concerto is played worldwide

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by many different pianists.

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I had to counter it.

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That was my first goal.

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My second goal
was to rehabilitate Lu Hong-en,

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my former piano teacher,
shot by the Party in 1968.

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I studied with him in Shanghai
before entering the Conservatory

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I was just 19 or 20.

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We stayed in touch,

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I attended his concerts.

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They killed him in 1968.

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Death by firing squad

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after a grand public trial
on People’s Square.

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But that devastating news
never reached me.

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In 1968 I was still confined.

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I only learned the details
decades later.

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I wanted to write a concerto
in his honour.

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I knew as early as 1971,
but was afraid to compose anything.

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And I only learned
the details in 2004.

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So my decision

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was spurred by that,
and by the Yellow River piece.

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Two goals.

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How could I describe Lu Hong-en?

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He was solid, unyielding.

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They beat him in prison,

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dislocated his jaw.

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He was 49 when they shot him.

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A conductor,

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and typical of that circle
of Shanghai intellectuals

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who were all shot in those years.

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Another reason for my choice,
in those years

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16 Conservatory professors
committed suicide.

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Gu Shengyin, the famous pianist,

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turned on the gas,
together with his family.

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Li Cuizhen also gassed himself.

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The Yangs,
Zhao Xuesen’s parents.

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They all took their own lives.

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I knew many of them personally.

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What about torture?

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The worst of all was branding
with a red-hot iron.

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The smoke from the burning flesh!

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I used high violin trebles
for the sizzling sound,

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then the rattle of a xylophone

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for the smoke.

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And a tuba.
Wood and brass

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evoke a billowing cloud.

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It took me six months

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trying out different materials,

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to simulate that burning of flesh
in music.

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That’s the ‘disaster’ sequence
of my 4th Symphony.

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I had to portray other
tortures, too.

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The beating of Lu Hong-en.

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What could express that?

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The experience of being beaten?

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I thought of the Peking opera
Wild Boar Forest,

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There’s a character, Lin Chong,

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who is flogged in his jail cell.

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I used Peking Opera
percussion effects,

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It worked perfectly!

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I was able to create
a modern sound form

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to render the violence
Lu suffered in prison.

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I wanted to show the prison bars.

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The iron cage!

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I used the same effect

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as for the shackles,

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bass notes on the piano.

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All that

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to picture the horror
of being chained in a cage.

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How do you know me?

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You knew my father too?

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– I knew your father, yes,

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as I have always known you.

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But the vengeance that I seek

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has other causes too.

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My soul still bears the scars

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of many ancient blows,

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some dealt by other men,

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and some by my own hand.

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– Avenger, do you feel

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the orphan's and the widow’s pain?

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00:43:14,080 --> 00:43:17,320
– Compassion,

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00:43:19,960 --> 00:43:23,640
justice,

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all those ideals,

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that guided us of old

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are nothing now but base

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degraded tokens bought and sold.

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The vengeance that I seek

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00:43:53,280 --> 00:43:55,280
has other causes too.

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My soul still bears the scars

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of many ancient blows,

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some dealt by other men,

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and some by my own hand.

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For love, for love

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00:46:01,360 --> 00:46:07,440
For love, for love, hey ho!

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The blue sword fell
on the avenger and his foe!

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Tyrant follows tyrant,

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how many shall we see
upon the throne?

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One loved the sword

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and he was not alone.

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00:47:39,840 --> 00:47:44,960
Two men were wronged,
two heads for one,

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Another bloody tyrant
was brought low!

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English subtitles:
Robin Setton