Yellow Earth

Gu Qing, a soldier from the CCP’s Eighth Route Army propaganda department, travels alone from Yan’an to the northern Shaanxi region known as Shanbei in the early spring of 1939. His mission is clear but difficult: to seek out the peasants’ folk songs and rewrite them with communist lyrics that will lift the spirits and morale of the soldiers fighting in the anti-Japanese front. The journey places him in a rural village under harsh conditions, where he is assigned to live with a poor, illiterate family and record their songs to be repurposed for propaganda. The film traces not just a mission, but a meeting between Gu and a family whose daily struggles illuminate the costs of war and revolution.

The old widower father of the household dislikes Gu’s retellings of social reforms promoted by the party, including education for women and the idea that they can choose whom to marry within the province’s south. Yet the family’s dynamics begin to shift through Cuiqiao, the hard-working daughter who listens with a cautious curiosity to Gu’s stories. Her younger brother, Hanhan, forms an easy friendship with the outsider, and Gu gradually learns the harsh realities of peasant life through their eyes. As Gu records songs and exchanges stories, Cuiqiao’s hardships become a focal point of the narrative, revealing the personal toll of poverty and tradition on a spirited young girl who embodies resilience.

At just fourteen, Cuiqiao faces a future already dictated by circumstance: she is told she must marry a significantly older man within a few months, her dowry having been spent on her mother’s funeral and her brother’s engagement. The news lands with crushing weight, and Gu himself reveals that he must return to Yan’an, creating a sense of urgency and separation. The next morning, Hanhan accompanies Gu as they part ways, but Cuiqiao’s will proves stronger than the miles between them. She pleads to go with him, yet Gu explains that she cannot follow without military permission. He promises that he will come back for her, a vow that binds them with hopeful but fragile anticipation.

The wedding day arrives, and Cuiqiao is carried away in a bridal sedan, her future seemingly sealed by the social pressures surrounding her family. Gu, now in Yan’an, witnesses a drum-dance welcoming new recruits and steels himself for the long road ahead. Cuiqiao, meanwhile, tells Hanhan that she longs to join the army, entrusting her father to his care and asking him to pass Gu the hand-sewn insoles she has crafted whenever the two ever reunite. That night, she makes a perilous attempt to cross the Yellow River, singing a song that Gu taught her, but the outcome remains uncertain, leaving her fate suspended between danger and determination.

Time advances to another summer, and Gu returns with a quiet, patient hope that Cuiqiao will yet be found. Yet the little peasant household is now empty, and Gu must seek them in the village instead. He discovers peasants gathered in a ritual of rainfall prayer, led by Cuiqiao’s father, who implores the heavens for relief from drought: “Dragon King of the Sea, let the good rains fall. Send cool wind and gentle rain to save us all!” The encounter exposes a broader sense of communal faith and endurance, as the landscape itself becomes a character in the struggle for survival and dignity.

Among the crowd, Hanhan catches sight of Gu and pushes toward him, but the waves of people, fear, and obligation block the way. The film closes with a resonant memory—Cuiqiao’s song rising above the scene—carrying the conviction that the party’s ideals offer salvation for those who endure. > The piebald cock flies over the wall. The Communist Party shall save us all!

Last Updated: October 09, 2025 at 14:47