(2005) 49 min
INSIDE RED CHINA provides a rare insight into that vast nation's tumultuous past.
In 1957 US Army veteran Robert Carl Cohen was studying Social Psychology in Paris. While visiting the USSR he was assigned by NBC-TV’s Moscow Chief Irving R. Levine to film a group of young Americans touring China in defiance of the US State Dept.’s travel ban. Arriving in Beijing after a 9 day 6,000 mile trip on the Trans-Siberian Railway, he convinced the authorities to permit him to air express his uncensored film via Moscow to NBC in New York. During a 45 day tour he became the first American to film China since the 1949 Communist victory; documenting forbidden things such as bridges, aircraft, tanks, & the “brain washing” of political prisoners. After appearing on the TODAY SHOW & HUNTLEY NEWS, his reports were edited into INSIDE RED CHINA, part of THE SPECIAL OF THE WEEK Series. Highlights of this unique film include: Beijing, Guandong, Shanghai, The Great Wall, Yangtze River, Nanking University, Changchung Auto Plant, Slum & Sampan dwellers, Modern Hospitals & Ancient Acupuncture, Co-op Farms, Chairman Mao Tze Tung, Premier Chou En-Lai, & former Cal Tech & MIT rocket expert Dr. Chen Tzu-Fen, ending with the million marcher National Day Parade before the Forbidden City & its giant fireworks finale. Today, with foreign tourists & business people able to visit a China rapidly filling with modern factories & cities, INSIDE RED CHINA provides a rare insight into that vast nation’s tumultuous past.