(11 of 13)
"I must put in a good word for her. You Americans have been unfair to Garbo by failing to give her an Academy Award.* I believe this is the fault of those in power in the United States and not of the American people. When I was in Yenan a correspondent by the name of Brooks Atkinson used to discuss Garbo with me."
Brooks Atkinson had become well known in America as drama critic of the New York Times, I commented.
"No wonder he talked with me at such length about literature and art! Is he still in New York?"
"Yes, though retired."
"If you see him, please tell him that I still remember him. If you see Garbo, tell her I send her my regards. Greta Garbo is 'Great Garbo'! Her interpretation of 19th century bourgeois democratic works is outstanding. There is a rebellious side to her character. She has an air of dignity; she is not affected; and she does not theatricalize."
One evening after a late dinner in Canton and a gracious promenade around a hall in her villa, Chiang Ch'ing revealed that she had a treat in store: Garbo's Queen Christina. Her face was glowing with anticipation. That Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film of 1933 was an old favorite of hers. She had ordered it flown down from Peking for the evening's entertainment.
Her eyes danced as the lights were flicked off one by one, and as we sat in the dark she remarked that no matter how often she saw this film she was entranced by it. Projected onto a portable screen, the film creaked and jerked with age, the actors' movements speeding unnaturally or grinding slowly. The sound track—it was the original one—was practically inaudible. Nor were there Chinese subtitles, a lack that did not daunt Chiang Ch'ing, who knew the screenplay perfectly from beginning to end. In fact, her running Chinese narration murmured into my ear was far clearer than the English dialogue.
Why was it permissible for her to enjoy such bourgeois stars as Garbo while strictly prohibiting the Chinese masses doing the same thing? Chiang Ch'ing's response to that question:
"Those bourgeois democratic films are to be reserved for private showing," she declared flatly. If the people could view them they would criticize them bitterly on political grounds. Such public exposure and attack would be most unfair to Garbo because she is not Chinese. The same was true for Chaplin, almost all of whose films she saw in the 1930s. Modern Times she recognized as a diatribe against dictatorship. Others of his films seemed to be pitched against Stalin and, most powerfully, against Hitler, which makes them "progressive." It is all right to screen these films "among ourselves" (the leaders), who decide on their strong and weak points. But those private showings cannot be publicized.
SKIRTS AND ORCHIDS
Western movies were not Chiang Ch'ing's only nonproletarian indulgence. Indeed one night she seemed far more bourgeois than revolutionary.
Once she signaled over her shoulder to her bodyguard, who promptly delivered a large oblong box of undecorated cardboard. Laughing like a girl, she lifted the cover and pulled out, as if by magic, one long, pleated black skirt after another.
"I like skirts," she announced as she handed out one each to her female