Moviegoers line up to watch a prescreening of 1921 in Shanghai on Friday. Photo: VCG

Promotional material for 1921 Photo: Courtesy of Maoyan

Even though I was familiar with the story of how the Communist Party of China (CPC) was founded in 1921 through textbooks, TV series and movies, I still couldn't contain the excitement as I watched the delegates of the CPC's first national congress sing "The Internationale" in the movie 1921. 

The commemorative film travels back to 100 years ago to give the audience a big-picture look at these young people, most of whom were only in their 20s, as they founded an independent party that aimed to build a better China and improve life for people who suffered greatly from a corrupt government, tangled warfare among warlords and invasions from foreign countries.  

Early CPC members, only 50 in number in 1921, including Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao, were then elites who possessed rich experience of studying overseas, clear minds and high hopes for an advanced and developed country. 

The movie depicts the history from the perspective of each key figure, like Chen and Li, both of whom didn't make it to the meeting but worked hard to make it happen. A total of 13 members, including Li Da, Li Hanjun and Mao Zedong, attended the first national congress in a house in the Shanghai French Concession in late July, and then moved to a tourist boat on South Lake in Jiaxing, East China's Zhejiang Province, due to an interruption by French police. 

The history depicted on screen was not some plain introduction found in history textbooks, but a living moment taking place right before me. Li Da, Li Hanjun, Liu Renjing… they were just young people, like any other living among us today, who stood firm for what they believed in and what they wanted to accomplish.  

Li Da and his wife Wang Huiwu appear in one remarkable scene that recreates Li's boycott of products made in Japan. As he tries to light a fire to burn some of these products, he is dismayed to find that the match he is about to strike was also made in Japan. In a tone full of misery mixed with anger he says, "China is such a large country and yet we can't even have our own matches." 

Things started to change after the Party was founded. Twenty-eight years later, this Party founded the People's Republic of China, and now we are the world's second-largest economy. 

It has been 100 years, but their spirit lives on. It has motivated us to send a spaceship to the moon, build the world's finest aircraft carrier, the fastest bullet train and win the war against the COVID-19 pandemic. All in all, under the leadership of the CPC, we are living up to our predecessors' expectations to do all we can to better the country. 

When the lights were turned on in the cinema, a line from the film still lingered in my mind: "Hope is arriving, isn't it?"