Transformation of China through eyes of Robert Carl Cohen
- By staff reporter Lu Rucai
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"When I was first here in 1957, everyone wore what was called the National Uniform, but today we see all sorts of clothing from every possible part of the world; quite a different scene." Fifty-eight years later, Robert Carl Cohen stood once again in Tian'anmen Square, watching the scene unfolding in front of him and feeling the beauty of it all.
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In 1957, Cohen, together with 40 other young Americans, spent six weeks in China filming and conducting interviews as a special correspondent for NBC-TV. He was the first American photojournalist ever to film a documentary since the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949. In 2015, 85-year-old Cohen returned to retrace the route he took that year, and found that the China he had seen through his lens had experienced a huge transformation.
A Little-known History
Robert Carl Cohen was born in Philadelphia in 1930. He graduated in 1952 and got his Master of Arts in Film in 1954 from UCLA. In 1956, inspired by an advertising campaign, Cohen, along with many other young Westerners, arrived in Moscow to take part in "The 6th World Democratic Youth Day." On this day, numerous young people, including Cohen, received an invitation from representatives of the All-China Federation for Democratic Youth.
At that time, the U.S. government strongly discouraged American citizens from entering China, but insatiable curiosity led Cohen to make the journey, in spite of the travel ban. Of 180 young Americans who received the invitation, only 41 accepted. Amongst them was Cohen, who went as a special correspondent for NBC-TV.
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Cohen shows a picture of a factory he took in China decades ago. |
"As a special correspondent for NBC, I ran the risk of being put on the U.S. government's blacklist. This would mean I wouldn't be able to enter any government department or state-owned enterprise ever again, not to mention the possibility of being labelled a communist spy," Cohen said. "But being able to film the situation inside China, and allow Americans to see the lives of people there, that was a very rare opportunity." With that, Cohen prepared himself to accept all possible consequences and in August 1957, he travelled from Moscow to China.
Cohen carried with him a 19-mm camera and 11 rolls of black and white film lent to him by NBC. He used this camera to document the American Youth Delegation's travels through eight Chinese cities – Beijing, Dalian, Changchun, Wuhan, Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou, and Guangzhou. He shot 300 hours of source material, and parts of the footage were broadcast on NBC's news program shortly after it was sent back to America, offering a few precious images of distant China to an American audience. Cohen thereby became the first American journalist and filmmaker to be granted permission to film a documentary in the New China.
After returning home, Cohen used this film footage to compile a 50-minute documentary called "Inside Red China." In the following decades, this documentary was shown in over 100 universities, libraries and communities in the U.S. and Canada, and Cohen was invited to give talks at these institutions about his experiences of filming in China.
Cohen later revisited China in 1978 and 1988. With camera in hand, he documented the early years of China's reform and opening-up. Through these visits, China gained a special place in Cohen's heart.
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