WELLINGTON, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- "I think it was important that the story of Rewi Alley is told to western audience," New Zealand documentary director and photographer Geoff Steven told Xinhua Thursday during the opening ceremony of a photo exhibition named "China 1979 -- a new dawn" in New Zealand Parliament building "Beehive" to commemorate the 120th anniversary of Rewi Alley's birth.
In May and June 1979, a documentary team led by Geoff Steven went to China with Rewi Alley, who is the enduring icon bridging New Zealand and China. The trip followed key places in Rewi Alley's life in China, starting in Guangzhou and travelling to numerous Chinese cities where Rewi Alley had stayed, including desert areas in northeast China.
The length of the journey through China is more than 10,000 kilometers. Steven interviewed Rewi Alley along the way, working on his later published documentary and at the same time took some photos of Rewi Alley, as well as the local life in China. The exclusive photos will be exhibited in the kiwi capital Wellington from Nov. 20 to Nov. 25.
Steven told Xinhua that the reason for the journey is collecting the life story of Rewi Alley and showing them to the western audience. He said that Rewi Alley is well known in China at the time, but not particularly known in his home country of New Zealand, because China was a sort of unknown place for kiwi then. So, Steven decided to tell the story of the New Zealand hero and a friend of China.
The documentary was shown in New Zealand television for numerous time since 1980s. Many audience told Steven that through the documentary, they knew Rewi Alley and they knew the man should be remembered by New Zealanders, especially children and young people.
Steven said that the existence of the documentary is important. Rewi Alley is now well known to the general population in New Zealand. He told Xinhua that "people is still so interested nowadays, because it's a great story, his life is a great story."
The New Zealand director and photographer regarded Rewi Alley as a strong connection between China and New Zealand. The fact that people still celebrating Rewi Alley's birth after 120 years shows that the legacy he left is still remembered.
Rewi Alley, born in 1897 in the small town of Springfield in Canterbury, New Zealand, was a great internationalist fighter and a famous socialist. He went to Shanghai, China in 1927. As a factory inspector, Rewi Alley witnessed the poverty of Chinese workers and peasants first-hand, and started to work with progressive organizations and sometimes secretly with the Red Army.
During the Japanese invasion, he became one of the founders of the Gong He (Gung Ho) movement of industrial cooperatives on unoccupied Chinese territories.
In 1942, he set up a cooperative Bailie School in northwest China's Shaanxi Province. The school, which was moved later to Shandan, Gansu Province, had trained engineers for the reconstruction of post-war China.
When Rewi Alley died in Beijing on Dec. 27, 1987, late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping wrote an inscription in his memory: "Eternal Glory to the Great Internationalist Fighter." He won a posthumous award as one of "China's Top Ten International Friends."
The year 2017 marks the 120th anniversary of Rewi Alley's birth, the 90th anniversary of his arrival in China, as well as the 30th anniversary of his death. To many people like Steven, Rewi Alley is always a hero of both China and New Zealand.
In the opening ceremony of the photo exhibition, Qu Guangzhou, the Charge d'affaires of Chinese Embassy to New Zealand said that the best way to commemorate Rewi Alley is to bear in mind the contributions and values of him, and make joint efforts to build a strong relationship between the two countries and strong friendship between the two people.
