Zhang Yueping announced the completion of a new feature film on May 18. The latest offering to Chinese cinema, "Great Cold" is a powerful and emotional movie that centers on Chinese comfort women.
Set in the early 1940s across several cities in north China's Shanxi Province, "Great Cold" will tackle the sexual abuse and servitude that Chinese women and girls suffered under the hands of the Japanese Imperial Army before and during the Second World War.
The plot of "Great Cold" heavily drew inspiration on a survey and investigation conducted by Zhang Shuangbing, a former primary school teacher. He was introduced to the world of Chinese comfort women by an encounter with an old woman during a school trip around 30 years ago.
"Helping her with the farm work, I later learned that the woman named Hou Dong'e was raped and put into sex slavery by Japanese Imperial officers," Zhang shared. "At that time, China had no files or records about the comfort women. Shocked by Hou's situation, I made several visits to certain places in Shanxi to record the miserable lives of more female victims, taking down their accounts of humiliation and helping them file lawsuits."
Together with a team of dedicated volunteers, the former teacher traveled around the Shanxi Province and recorded his findings on the current lives of former comfort women. His study was published in a book titled "Women in Japanese Wartime Camps."
"We want to remind people through the familiar or realistic scenes about Chinese comfort women, not to instill hatred, but for peace."
Zhang Yueping gave the title "Great Cold" to symbolize the attitudes of the Japanese Imperial officers who abused comfort women around Asia.
"We named it after the last solar term of the Chinese lunar calendar because of our great hope for the upcoming warmth after the severe cold," said Zhang.
"Great Cold" is slated for release sometime around September this year.