Standing on the stand of trees, you can easily imagine that in Malaysia, any man-made development is unavoidable to cut down trees. Trees are the first and most silent victims, and the living areas of the aborigines are damaged by modern machinery. It is also because the trees on a large tract of land have been cut down, which is the most visually obvious. It even cut a wild elephant and was forced to take the highway because of the shrinking forest area. Eventually, it fell and died. Whistling past, such a shocking news picture. And the trees in modern cities--especially the big trees that seem to be old--though fortunately not cut down in the process of urban development, they are not irrelevant to the world--of course, people are also deliberately projecting themselves; When the "May 13 Incident" occurred, these trees became bystanders and witnesses.
"There are some trees" (The Tree Remembers, 2019) / image provided by Liao Kefa
"there are some trees" and Malaysia
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0 It’s not easy to comprehend the historical background, let alone make judgments. Therefore, before discussing the related topics in the documentary "The Tree Remembers" (The Tree Remembers) directed by Liao Kefa, I am afraid we must first clarify the entanglements about Malaysia's post-war history.
But first start in Indonesia. In 1965, Indonesia took place in the "930 Incident", a coup d'etat that seized power within the military. Pro-communist mid-level officers killed six high-ranking army generals. Although the Indonesian President and Prime Minister Sukarno's stance was also biased Pro-Communist, but did not publicly express support. At this time, a power vacuum was created at the top of the army. The anti-communist Suharto (Suharto) promptly replenished and grasped the military force, began to eliminate the rebels and the left-wing Communist Party, and took the opportunity to overthrow it. The Sukarno regime has since launched a nationwide purge against the Communist Party. Since the Communist Party is mostly Chinese, many non-Communist Chinese were also implicated and executed. The massacre lasted for several months. In 1966, the death toll was estimated at half a million or even a million —"probably the biggest political massacre in history," said the late British historian Eric Hobsbawn. .
American documentary director Joshua Oppenheimer (Joshua Oppenheimer) made two documentaries based on the Indonesian massacre: "The Act of Killing" in 2012 and "A Moment of Silence" in 2014 (The Look of Silence). After the film was released, it caused global shock. Many viewers only knew at this time: "So there was such a thing!" Many local Indonesians were recalled: "So there are people who remember!" The survivors or descendants of the victims were surprised: "It turned out that it was done like this at the time!" Unanimously agreed to expel and become independent. This is certainly due to ethnic conflicts within the Malaysian Federation, but it is also related to Indonesia's hostile attitude since the establishment of the Malaysian Federation in 1963.
Sukarno has been regarded as the standard-bearer of the Asian-African national independence movement since the 1950s. He advocated "Greater Indonesia", combining Malaya, Singapore, Sabah and Sarawak, which later formed the Federation of Malaysia and became independent. The state, even Brunei, which did not join the federation, is considered part of Indonesia; he declared in 1962 that “Malaysia is a product of a new colony”, and considered Malaya to be an accomplice of the new imperialists (Sabah, Sarawak and Brunei is located in the north of Borneo , and was a British colony before joining MalaysiaThe southern part of Borneo is now an Indonesian territory, and it was a Dutch colony before independence. Indonesian President Sukarno believes that Sabah and Sarawak should also belong to the "Great Indonesia" like South Borneo. From the perspective of geography, race, and language It seems reasonable, but history did not go this way because of the lingering voice of imperialism), and supported the local Chinese Communist guerrillas in Sarawak and opposed the founding of Malaysia, which led to the deterioration of relations between Indonesia and Malaysia. Since then, Sukarno has become more pro-Soviet and communist, and even briefly withdrew from the United Nations in 1965 to protest Malaysia's membership of the United Nations.
Indonesia’s internal conflicts intensified into the "Thirty Incident" and developed such a political massacre. The idea of "Greater Indonesia" disappeared as Sukarno stepped down. On the other hand, Malaysia seems to have eased the situation after the expulsion of Singapore from the federation, but in fact it did not completely solve the problem. After the Malaysian election in 1969, the "May 13 Incident" also occurred. There were ethnic conflicts between Malays and Chinese. Afterwards, the government directed the police to intervene, but the Malay police's law enforcement seemed to be biased towards suppressing the Chinese, leading to more conflicts. After Malaysia’s independence, Tunku Abdul Rahman, the first prime minister (also respected as the "Father of Malaysia"), declared Malaysia a state of emergency. The conflict continued for months and the number of deaths and injuries reached thousands. Ten thousand people were arrested, and Prime Minister Tunku also announced his resignation the following year.
Then, as the documentary director Liao Ke said in the opening place of "There are still some trees", will be stamped with a chapter on the email from now on, and a slogan written in four languages: "Don't spread rumors", let "May 1st" The "Three Incidents" have become a racial and political taboo for the Malaysian people to be silenced for 50 years.
The tree still remembers, can anyone forget it?
This documentary and Liao Kefa's (co-directed with Chen Xuezhen) drama "Boluomi" (Boluomi) are both works in 2019, although the latter's content is in addition to the life experience of modern Malaysian Chinese immigrants in Taiwan, but also brought into the CPM The historical memory of "There are some trees" is very different from the content of the "May 13 Incident" and the situation of the indigenous people in Malaysia. However, from a certain level, the two should be viewed together, even including Liao Kefa 2016 The documentary "Absent Without Leave" filmed in 2011 can better understand Liao Kefa's shooting philosophy.
"Jackfruit" poster
"Across the river of time, in the same forest, but you have never seen each other." This is Liao Kefa's narration in "Not Leaving", which is about his grandfather and father, grandfather As a result of joining the Communist Party of Malaysia, after years of leaving home in the mountains and forests to fight guerrilla warfare with Japanese and British troops, anti-imperialist and anti-colonialism are the main ideas, but they can cooperate with the British army to fight against Japan. Fighting with the British army, these common experiences are an important reason for the members of the CPM in the film to be able to distinguish between races. "The CPM has never been a single Chinese ethnic group portrayed by the government or the British. There are also Malays and indigenous people in the army. , Indians, Thais, etc." Singaporean scholar Xu Weixian said in his book "Chinese Films in Post-Malaysia: Tuqiang Style, Huayi Style and Author Theory" when commenting on "Indeed."
This is related to the scholars interviewed later in the film "There are some trees" mentioning the ethnic composition and historical process of Malaysia. The "May 13 Incident" is a series of tragic events caused by internal and external factors, including the origin of the Malay privileges of "Malay supremacy", and why this point still has an unchallable political rank ── So far, the "May 13 Incident" has in turn become an excuse for the government to cover up and suppress ethnic problems.
However, the film "There are some trees" only deals with historical factors within Malaysia, including in the process of Malaysia’s pursuit of independence after the war, the British adopted Malays, Chinese, Indians and other indigenous peoples for their own interests. The colonial policy of "divide and rule". Although Malays make up the majority (when Singapore was still in the Federation of Malaysia, Chinese accounted for more than 40%, and they had an economic advantage. It is not difficult to understand why Singapore was expelled from Malaysia without the people’s action led by Lee Kuan Yew.The DPP, a Chinese political party that seemed to have both socialist inclination and a deep threat at the time, Umno was able to rule in Malaysia for a long time), but the Chinese had an economic advantage. After Malaysia became independent, the British handed over power to Malaysia. Comes, Chinese, Indians and other races, but the latter’s citizenship exchanges the privileges of Malays, planting the cause of subsequent ethnic conflicts.
And the historical factors outside Malaysia, in addition to the aforementioned conflicts between India and Malaysia, there are actually cold war factors, Britain, the United States, Australia and other countries have strongly supported the Suharto military dictatorship after Indonesia’s coup. The court ruled that the Indonesian government committed the massacre and other crimes against humanity in the "930 Incident," and even considered Britain, the United States and Australia as their accomplices.
From the perspective of international geopolitics and history, ethnic conflict in Malaysia is a highly complex issue. However, Liao Kefa has mastered the complexity, from the exploration of his own family history in "Never Leave", to the narrative of the history of Malaysia's independence and the Communist Party of Malaysia after the war, to the "May 13 Incident" in "There are some trees" Direct inspection of the details (and even list the timeline) to explore the Malaysian government’s policy on "race" is indeed embarrassing to the Malaysian government. Therefore, Liao Kefa’s films are currently banned in Malaysia.
However, "There are some trees" is not just a retrospect and reproduction of the historical memory of the "May 13th Incident" that disappeared in the minds of the Malay people. Another important issue is the situation of the indigenous people in Malaysia, and even bluntly that the indigenous people have suffered. Exploitation by the Chinese and Malays, the colonists continued to encroach on the traditional areas of the aborigines, cutting trees, opening mountains, and blasting rocks, and it still hasn't stopped. It can be seen from this that Liao Kefa’s narrative strategy does not want people to question or accuse him of vindicating the CCP from the Chinese standpoint or speaking for the Chinese victims of the May 13th Incident. Therefore, he must stand on a watch. The detached position also allows the audience to smoothly substitute their own feelings, so he made a very literary or poetic choice: the tree's position.
standing in the position of the tree, you can easily imagine that in Malaysia, any man-made development will inevitably cut down the tree. The tree is the first and most silent victim, and the aborigines’ living areas are damaged by modern machinery. It is also because the trees on a large tract of land have been cut down, which is the most visually obvious. It even cut a wild elephant and was forced to take the highway because of the shrinking forest area. Eventually, it fell and died. Whistling past, such a shocking news picture. And the trees in modern cities--especially the big trees that seem to be old--though fortunately not cut down in the process of urban development, they are not irrelevant to the world--of course, people are also deliberately projecting themselves; When the "May 13 Incident" occurred, these trees became bystanders and witnesses. It’s not accidental that Liao Kefa will pay special attention to the tree’s position. In the film, he went to shoot scenes where the incident broke out 50 years ago. The old photos overlap the current images. Several buildings are still in existence, but new roads have been opened. After the new building, the street view shop recruits have changed. The only thing that remains unchanged is the trees (of course some are taller and larger). Even Liao Kefa once said in an interview that many birds will gather on the trees in the evening, as if It was the undead who lost their lives in the incident and refused to disperse. Since
has done such a projection, the ending of the film ends with the sound of a tree falling down, which has a special meaning: these trees are still there today, but the country does not allow them to talk about them, and the family does not allow them to ask. Personnel matters are gradually deteriorating. Wait until the tree is connected. If everything falls down, then even the witnesses will be gone. Now the purpose of making this documentary is here. The tree still remembers it, how can one forget it? In the film
, Liao Kefa also cut some clips from the 1956 documentary film "Timeless Temiar" about indigenous Malays, and interviewed an Indian film scholar (who also had personal knowledge of the "May 13th Incident" Experience), scholars said that the content in the film was mostly manipulated by the photographers at the time to cater to the curiosity of Western audiences. For example, the Tami people usually do not ride elephants, but they are arranged to ride elephants or go on the river during shooting. Zhou, as far as possible, was as dangerous as possible, because it was more dramatic and the audience would love to watch it. In order to let the audience understand, Liao Kefa also arranged for an aboriginal to walk through a piece of grass, and at the same time the frame of the scene gradually enlarged and carvedIt is intended to allow the audience to hear his voice pointing behind the camera.
What is interesting is that there is a section in "The Eternal Termia" which mentioned that there is no boundary between dream and reality in his cognition. For example, if a boy sees a girl smiling at him in his dream, he wakes up Will send a flower to the girl.
I can’t help but think of an old Communist Party of Malaysia who also said to Liao Kefa in "I’m Not Leaving": “I’m in China, and I dream in Malaysia.”
In terms of this "the boundary between dream and reality" is very obvious. It can be said to be a function of "modernity". The past is all over. It is like a dream, and "modernity" is reality. ; And my final view of "There are some trees" is also related to this: "modernity" crushes everything, and the natural realm of aborigines' survival will of course be directly developed and flattened in order to meet the resource needs of modern countries. During the various injustices, the indigenous people who are not polluted by the "modern" will eventually be forced to recognize these realities; and the ethnic conflict between Malays and Chinese has been repeatedly affected by the advancement of modern society and changes in international politics. Pushing, deforming, whether it will be flat or even more dramatic in the future, no one can say for sure. But I hope that there will be more video recorders like Liao Kefa, so that more people can remember the lessons of history and live as firmly as the big trees that have not been torn down.
