Storm under the Sun

This 2009 documentary by Peng Xiaolian and Louisa Wei tells the story of Mao's 1955 anti-Hu Feng campaign, when he attacked, persecuted and imprisoned a group of leftist writers who had written for the July 1 and Hope magazines in the 30s and 40s.Peng's father Peng Boshan was imprisoned until the Cultural Revolution, when he was beaten to death by Maoist "Rebel Faction" members.
In order to gain the allegiance of Chinese intellectuals before seizing power ,Mao Zedong praised the leading leftist intellectual Lu Xun in the 1930s. But after taking power, when Mao was locking up Lu Xun's friends and colleagues, Mao remarked that if Lu was not dead, he would have to either shut up or be thrown in jail as well.
Hu Feng inherited the leadership of the leftist intellectuals after Lu's death and was a fervent supporter of the Chinese Communist Party. But he was also a writer and unable to except that art should be totally subjugated to Mao's politics.
The director describes the campaign as the practice run for the Anti-Rightist and Cultural Revolution campaigns. She interviews the survivors and their children, who tell interesting and often moving stories. The son of one writer cries when he describes how, when his father was dying in prison during the Cultural Revolution, he felt unable to visit his father, for fear of retribution, or even to accept his father's personal belongings, when offered by the police. Another man describes how when he returned home after 20 years in prison did not recognise his mother; he complains that he received no compensation or backpay for the 25 years of lost employment, even though the Public Security officials who were reinstated after the Cultural Revolution were reimbursed.
Hu Feng could never believe that Mao had turned on him. He thought that Mao had been misled by others. Hu Feng and others wrote a long document to explain their views and presented it directly to the politburo. Mao had it published and used as evidence to incriminate the authors.
This photo was taken on 2011-07-05 at Hong Kong,China

The funeral of Lu Xun in 1936.

A brief synopsis of the film.

A propaganda picture of Mao from the 1950s. He is surrounded by sunflowers. Ai Weiwei recently produced an exhibit of porcelain sunflowers at the Tate Gallery. Ai's father was persecuted in the anti-rightist campaign shortly after the anti-Hu campaign

A cartoon showing the Hu Feng gang as a vicious tiger. On the Tigers body, the writers are accused of individualism.

An early picture of Peng Boshan. Text: Peng was a member of the left Alliance and after the revolution, was head of the Shanghai municipal propaganda department before his arrest.

The Hu Feng file. Hu Feng was released from jail in 1976, but by then he had developed serious schizophrenia. In prison he scribbled notes on the borders of newspapers, but received an additional life sentence when he wrote me a picture of Mao. With no paper, he tried to commit the poems to memory. When he was finally released he had forgotten them.

2000 were imprisoned. After Hu Feng's home was searched and his notes and letters confiscated, over 2000 associates were arrested. Many of them had never met him.

Wang Rong. He couldn't afford to bribe the prison authorities, so he was not allowed home visits during his 20 or 25 year incarceration. When he finally saw his mother after 20 years, they did not recognise each other.

Wang Rong two months before his death. Subtitles: only then I knew she was my mother.

Wang Rong again. Subtitles say that he didn't receive his pay for 25 years.