ARKIPEL

Pohon kelapa merupakan salah satu ikon paling khas dalam lanskap tropis. Secara ekonomi, pohon ini memiliki banyak fungsi: buah, minyak, serat, hingga kayu, sehingga ia kerap disebut sebagai pohon kehidupan bagi masyarakat tropis. Dalam ranah kultural, pohon kelapa juga hadir dalam imajinasi visual tropis yang kerap diasosiasikan dengan kesuburan serta keindahan alam.

Dalam film The Red Detachment of Women (1961, Xie Jin), kehadiran pohon kelapa dan lanskap tropis Pulau Hainan memperoleh makna baru. Alih-alih dekorasi, barisan pohon kelapa tampil sebagai latar ideologis bagi transformasi tokoh dan perjuangan revolusioner. Tubuh perempuan berseragam militer yang bergerak di bawah naungan pepohonan tropis menggeser imajinasi tropis dari citra yang pasif menuju ruang disiplin, perjuangan, dan revolusi. Hainan, pulau tropis di selatan Cina, tidak lagi dipandang sebagai pinggiran geografis, melainkan diproyeksikan sebagai pusat ideologi dan geopolitik.

Secara geografis, Pulau Hainan kerap dianggap wilayah pinggiran dibandingkan pusat politik dan ekonomi di utara, seperti Beijing. Namun justru kedekatannya dengan Asia Tenggara menjadikannya titik strategis dalam peta regional. Hainan adalah gerbang selatan yang menghubungkan Cina dengan jalur laut internasional, sekaligus garda terdepan bagi pertemuan beragam pengaruh budaya, perdagangan, dan militer.

Dalam film ini, pusat ideologi dipersonifikasikan melalui tokoh Wu Qionghua, seorang mantan budak tuan tanah yang berevolusi menjadi prajurit perempuan Tentara Merah. Film menampilkan perjalanan Qionghua yang tubuh dan identitasnya didisiplinkan serta direvolusi oleh ideologi komunis. Adegan pembuka memperlihatkan pengejaran Qionghua yang melarikan diri dari tuannya, Nan Batian. Dalam pelarian, ia bertemu Hong Changqing, anggota Partai Komunis Cina yang menyamar sebagai pedagang. Ketika Qionghua tertangkap, ia diselamatkan Hong Changqing—sebuah alegori tentang pembebasan oleh ideologi komunis.

Qionghua kemudian memutuskan bergabung dengan Tentara Merah Perempuan. Perbandingan kehidupannya di rumah Nan Batian dengan saat ia bergabung dengan Tentara Merah menjadi kunci transformasi Qionghua dalam film. Di rumah tuan tanah, Qionghua adalah objek penindasan dan kekerasan yang tubuhnya dikontrol oleh feodalisme. Saat berada di barisan tentara perempuan, ia dididik dalam disiplin militer dan ideologi kolektif, di mana setiap orang menjalani pola hidup yang sama—dari ranah domestik hingga kemiliteran. Di titik ini, ia seolah terlahir kembali sebagai manusia baru yang berevolusi: tidak lagi menjadi objek dalam tatanan sosial timpang, melainkan simbol perempuan disiplin dan militan. Sebagai penduduk asli, Qionghua secara metaforis merepresentasikan bagaimana rakyat lokal ditempatkan di pusat narasi revolusi.

Peralihan dari ruang feodal ke ruang revolusioner bukan hanya soal narasi, tetapi juga soal bagaimana sinema membentuk pengalaman penonton lewat kontras estetis. Kontras ini tidak hanya hadir secara naratif, diperkuat oleh strategi sinematik yang subtil, melalui pencahayaan dan atmosfer visual. Pada bagian awal, saat adegan masih berpusat di rumah tuan tanah, pencahayaan cenderung gelap dan muram, mengekspresikan relasi kuasa yang timpang. Bahkan, kedatangan Hong Changqing ke rumah Nan Batian digambarkan dalam suasana malam hari. Sebaliknya, ketika Qionghua telah bergabung dengan Tentara Merah, pencahayaan adegan menjadi lebih terang, musik paduan suara, dan koreografi tubuh yang disiplin menghadirkan nuansa optimistis dan penuh harapan.

Lebih jauh, film ini berfungsi sebagai medium komunikasi politik lintas bangsa. Pada Festival Film Asia Afrika (FFAA) ketiga di Jakarta tahun 1964, The Red Detachment of Women ditayangkan bersama 15 film lain dan berhasil meraih penghargaan utama, yakni Penghargaan Bandung, bersama film lain: Niguruma No Uta. Film ini dianggap merepresentasikan semangat Bandung dalam perlawanan terhadap imperialisme dan feodalisme. Bagi Cina kala itu, revolusi dipahami sebagai proses menata ulang tatanan sosial, menggeser kekuasaan feodal tuan tanah menuju masyarakat sosialis yang berlandaskan petani dan buruh. Film ini menegaskan gagasan tersebut lewat konstruksi visual dan melodramatik yang menekankan kontras antara dunia lama dan dunia baru. Figur tuan tanah diposisikan sebagai simbol feodalisme, sementara Wu Qionghua dan Tentara Merah Perempuan hadir sebagai citra masa depan yang disiplin dan kolektif.

Film ini juga tidak bisa dilepaskan dari konteks produksinya, yang lahir pada periode “Seventeen Years Cinema” (1949-1966), ketika sinema dijadikan medium pedagogis negara di bawah naungan Shanghai Film Studio. Film pesanan ini dibuat oleh Xie Jin tahun 1961, sebelum Revolusi Kebudayaan Cina berlangsung. Realisme sosial, melodrama, dan propaganda ideologis dirangkai bersama untuk mendidik masyarakat. Ketika dirilis, film ini mendapatkan sambutan yang hangat dan sangat disukai masyarakat Cina saat itu, hingga dibuat adaptasinya ke dalam pertunjukkan balet model revolusioner. Hal tersebut menjadikan film ini sebagai salah artefak budaya paling penting dalam ideologi komunis Cina.

Geografi politik juga memperkuat makna film ini. Beijing berfungsi sebagai pusat ideologi, sementara Hainan, sebagai pulau tropis di selatan, digambarkan sebagai ruang pinggiran yang diangkat menjadi pusat baru revolusi. Posisi pulau Hainan, secara geografis, dekat dengan Taiwan–yang kala itu menjadi basis Kuomintang (Partai Nasionalis Cina) dan didukung oleh Amerika Serikat. Hal ini menjadikan Hainan arena simbolis untuk menegaskan garis ideologis Cina di masa Perang Dingin. Lanskap Hainan yang berseberangan dengan pusat di Beijing, memperlihatkan bagaimana Hainan sebagai garda terselatan diproyeksikan sebagai pusat ideologis yang berhadapan langsung dengan imperialisme dan feodalisme, sekaligus membuka resonansi solidaritas dengan gerakan anti-kolonial di Asia dan Afrika.

Keseluruhan film penting untuk dibaca kembali sebagai refleksi atas warisan solidaritas Asia-Afrika dengan konteks kekinian. Melalui lanskap tropis Hainan, perjalanan Wu Qionghua, serta simbolisme pohon kelapa, film ini menempatkan revolusi Cina dalam horizon global Asia-Afrika. Partisipasinya dalam FFAA III menegaskan bahwa film dapat menjadi medium solidaritas politik dan budaya.

Referensi:
Bunga P. Siagian dan Lilawati Kurnia, “Festival Film Asia Afrika III: Pengetahuan Perempuan dan Imajinasi atas Kedaulatan Sinema”, dalam Capture: Jurnal Seni Media Rekam, Vol. 14, No. 3 (Desember 2023).

Coconut trees are one of the most distinctive icons of the tropical landscape. In economic sense, these trees have many functions: fruit, oil, fiber, and wood, making them often regarded as the tree of life in tropical communities. In cultural sense, coconut trees are also present in the visual imagery of the tropics, often associated with fertility and the beauty of nature.

In the film The Red Detachment of Women (1961, Xie Jin), the presence of coconut trees and the tropical landscape of Hainan Island take on a new meaning. Instead of mere decoration, rows of coconut trees serve as an ideological backdrop for the transformation of characters and revolutionary struggle. Bodies of women in military uniforms moving under the shade of tropical trees shift the tropical imagination from a passive image to a space of discipline, struggle, and revolution. Hainan, a tropical island in southern China, is no longer seen as a geographical periphery but is projected as a center of ideology and geopolitics.

Geographically, Hainan Island is often considered a peripheral region compared to the political and economic centers in the north, such as Beijing. However, its proximity to Southeast Asia makes it a strategic point on the regional map. Hainan is the southern gateway connecting China to international sea lanes, as well as the front line for the convergence of diverse cultural, commercial, and military influences.

In this film, the ideological center is personified through the character Wu Qionghua, a former slave of a landowner who evolves into a female soldier of the Red Army. The film depicts Qionghua’s journey, whose body and identity are disciplined and revolutionized by communist ideology. The opening scene shows Qionghua fleeing from her master, Nan Batian. During her escape, she meets Hong Changqing, a member of the Chinese Communist Party disguised as a merchant. When Qionghua is captured, she is rescued by Hong Changqing—an allegory of liberation by communist ideology.

Qionghua then decided to join the Women’s Red Army. The contrast between her life at Nan Batian’s house and her life after joining the Red Army is key to Qionghua’s transformation in the film. At the landlord’s house, Qionghua was an object of oppression and violence, whose body was controlled by feudalism. While in the ranks of the women’s army, she was educated in military discipline and collective ideology, where everyone lived the same lifestyle—both in the domestic and military spheres. At this point, she was reborn as a new, evolved human being: no longer an object in an unequal social order, but a symbol of disciplined and militant women. As an indigenous person, Qionghua metaphorically represents how local people are placed at the center of the revolutionary narrative.

The transition from feudal space to a revolutionary one is not only a narrative issue, but also about how cinema shapes the audience’s experience through aesthetic contrasts. These contrasts are not only present narratively, but are also reinforced by subtle cinematic strategies, through lighting and visual atmosphere. In the beginning, when the scenes are still centered in the landlord’s house, the lighting tends to be dark and gloomy, expressing unequal power relations. The fact that Hong Changqing’s arrival at Nan Batian’s house is depicted at night further emphasizes this. In contrast, when Qionghua joins the Red Army, the lighting becomes brighter, with choral music and disciplined body choreography presenting an optimistic and hopeful mood.

Additionally, this film serves as a medium for cross-border political communication. At the third Asian-African Film Festival (FFAA) in Jakarta in 1964, The Red Detachment of Women was shown alongside 15 other films and won the grand prize, the Bandung Award, along with another film, Niguruma No Uta. This film is considered to represent the spirit of Bandung in its resistance against imperialism and feudalism. For China at that time, revolution was understood as a process of restructuring the social order, shifting feudal landowner power towards a socialist society based on farmers and workers. This film reinforces this idea through visual and melodramatic constructions that emphasize the contrast between the old world and the new world. The landlord figure is positioned as a symbol of feudalism, while Wu Qionghua and the Women’s Red Army are presented as images of a disciplined and collective future.

This film cannot be separated from its production context, which was created during the “Seventeen Years Cinema” period (1949-1966), when cinema was used as a pedagogical medium by the state under the auspices of the Shanghai Film Studio. This commissioned film was made by Xie Jin in 1961, before the Chinese Cultural Revolution took place. Social realism, melodrama, and ideological propaganda were woven together to educate the public. Upon its release, the film was warmly received and greatly loved by the Chinese public at the time, even inspiring an adaptation into a revolutionary ballet performance. This made the film as one of the most important cultural artifacts in Chinese communist ideology.

Political geography also reinforced the film’s message. Beijing served as the center of ideology, while Hainan, a tropical island in the south, was portrayed as a peripheral space that was elevated to become a new center of revolution. The island of Hainan’s geographical position was close to Taiwan, which at the time was the base of the Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party) and was supported by the United States. This made Hainan a symbolic arena for asserting China’s ideological line during the Cold War. Hainan’s landscape, in contrast to Beijing in the center, shows how Hainan, as the southernmost frontier, was projected as an ideological center directly confronting imperialism and feudalism, while also resonating with anti-colonial movements in Asia and Africa.

It is important to revisit the film as a reflection on the legacy of Asian-African solidarity in the current context. Through the tropical landscape of Hainan, Wu Qionghua’s journey, and the symbolism of the coconut tree, the film places the Chinese revolution in the global horizon of Asia and Africa. Its participation in the Third Asian-African Film Festival confirms that film can be a medium for political and cultural solidarity.

Reference:
Bunga P. Siagian dan Lilawati Kurnia, “Festival Film Asia Afrika III: Pengetahuan Perempuan dan Imajinasi atas Kedaulatan Sinema”, in Capture: Jurnal Seni Media Rekam, Vol. 14, No. 3 (Desember 2023).