Across the ocean

Dongtou: Home of a legendary heroine

Dongtou first became famous thanks to the movie, Haixia, or Ocean Sunglow, which was released in 1975 and told the story of a female militia named Hai Xia fighting against the Kuomintang in the 1940s.

Wang Yuexia, 79, the inspiration for the character of the female militia, was born and raised in Dongtou, where the movie was filmed. The local government preserved her former home and built a memorial hall to her and other militia women on the Dongtou islands. Today, she lives in a quiet fishing village, which has been called Haixia village since the movie was released.

Wang says her village suffered from poverty and the rule of the Kuomintang before the People's Liberation Army arrived in the region in 1952. Wang's father was a poor fisherman and died after being beaten by Kuomintang soldiers when Wang was 10 years old. Wang, her mother and two younger sisters had to survive by eating rotten fish they found on the beach. At the age of 14, Wang was forced to marry a 28-year-old man, because her family had no food for her. Wang said she cried for three days after her wedding day, but she understood why her mother allowed the marriage－there was no other choice.

After the PLA came to the island, Wang joined the local women militia at the age of 17. She helped the PLA troops build trenches, wash clothes and lead the local women to participate in agriculture production. For her outstanding work, Wang was promoted to head of Dongtou's women militia and gave a speech in Beijing in 1960 during a meeting for militia representatives across China. In front of more than 10,000 militia members, Wang told the story of her miserable past and her new life after joining the militia. After the meeting, representatives were received by Chairman Mao Zedong. Wang was seated next to Mao when they were taking a group photo. "Chairman Mao smiled and asked me if he could be a militia member in Dongtou," she said. "I was too excited to answer. All I could remember was clapping so hard that my hands hurt."

After the meeting, the ministry of national defense gave Wang a pistol and 10 bullets on behalf of Chairman Mao to honor her accomplishment. In 1966, a novel called Women Militia on islands was published. It was based on Wang's story and quickly became a bestseller in China.

Wang was later elected as deputy to the People's Congress. When she retired she was the vice-director of the Wenzhou city's standing committee of the NPC.