Shot in gorgeous color, this fascinating communist flipside to fifties Hollywood music biopics chronicles the life and tragic early death of Nie Er, the composer of the PRC’s national anthem.

1930's China. The village of a poor family is taken over by the occupying Japanese army. One son, Zhongliang, leaves his wife and young son to join a medic group for the Chinese Army. The other son, Zhangmin goes into hiding to protect his family. The focus shifts back and forth from the brothers' parents and Zhongliang's wife and son to Zhongliang's newfound life of luxury in a town not too far away. The plight of Zhongliang's mother, his wife, Sufan and her son, Kongeson is contrasted with Zhongliang's rise in a flourishing company.

A college girl and a musician go to the front of the anti-Japanese war and fall in love.

An episode from the life of a metallurgical plant collective. Lu Zhong-kui, an advanced worker appointed as head of the smelting shop, initiates the re-equipment of the open-hearth furnace. The plant director and some specialists warn him that the furnace, built by Americans, is operating at maximum capacity. However, many refer to the experience of the Soviet people and support Lu. And then an accident occurs: steel bursts out of the furnace... This episode is full of drama, as is the entire story about the selfless and persistent struggle of a worker-promoter to fulfill the state plan.

A People's Liberation Army division in Xinjiang in 1951 aids in a water conservancy project.

China 1839. Because the British imports of opium into Southern China are creating such widespread medical and economic problems, the weak Manchu emperor Tao Kuang is forced to take action that precipitates the 'Opium War'.

The story of fifteen-year-old shepherd Gu Xiao, who ran away from his landlord to the mountains. There he met scouts from the People's Liberation Army and helped them find the right path. The shepherd then took part in an important combat operation. For his courage and resourcefulness, Gu Xiao was enlisted into the ranks of the soldiers at the request of the company.

This tale of familial warfare and sacrifice takes place in hard-pressed Shanghai at the end of the 1940s. Hu Zhiqing can barely support his wife and children, and his situation is worsened by the unexpected arrival of his mother, brother and sister-in-law. When he is fired by his unscrupulous boss, the whole family becomes embroiled in one emotional/economic struggle after another.

San mao (3 hairs) was a very popular Chinese comic strip first published in 1935-37, continued from 1948 into the 1990s, about a young orphan boy struggling with life in Shanghai.