{ "id": "epwg4p3f9q", "slug": "early-spring-in-february", "title": "Early Spring in February (早春二月)", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1960s", "label": "Drama films 1960s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1960s" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1960s.yr-1960-1965", "label": "Released 1960 to 1965", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1960s.yr-1960-1965" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "China · 1946 to 2000: Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "path": [ { "id": "geo.chn", "label": "China", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t1946", "label": "China · 1946 to 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t1946" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t1946.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t1946.culture" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Early Spring in February (早春二月, Early Spring) is Xie Tieli's 1963 Beijing Film Studio drama adapted from Rou Shi's novella February, starring Sun Daolin, Xie Fang, and Shangguan Yunzhu; criticized as a poison weed in 1964, later a classic.", "snippet": "Early Spring in February (早春二月, Early Spring) is Xie Tieli's 1963 Beijing Film Studio drama adapted from Rou Shi's novella February, starring Sun Daolin, Xie Fang, and Shangguan Yunzhu; criticized as a poison weed in 1964, later a classic.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1960s.yr-1960-1965", "markdown": "# Early Spring in February (早春二月)\n\n**Early Spring in February** (早春二月; also released as *Early Spring* or *Threshold of Spring*) is a 1963 Chinese drama and romance film directed and written by Xie Tieli, adapted from the left-wing writer [Rou Shi](https://www.edgepedia.org/rou-shi)'s 1929 novella *February* (《二月》), about a disillusioned young intellectual teaching in a Jiangnan water town in the mid-1920s[1](https://www.xinhuanet.com/politics/2019-12/26/c_1125392376.htm). Produced by Beijing Film Studio and starring Sun Daolin, Xie Fang, and Shangguan Yunzhu, it was first released in mainland China on July 1, 1963[2](https://www.cfa.org.cn/cfaen/gz/dymlcx/dy/2023060214360123279/index.html) • [3](https://m.1905.com/m/film/info/61048.shtml). Condemned as a \"poison weed\" in 1964 and screened nationwide for public criticism, it was rehabilitated after the [Cultural Revolution](https://www.edgepedia.org/cultural-revolution) and is now ranked among the classics of the \"seventeen years\" of Chinese cinema between 1949 and 1966[4](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_24506787) • [5](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/bk/2015-07-13/82106.html).\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Original title | 早春二月 (Zaochun eryue); English titles include *Early Spring*, *Early Spring in February*, and *Threshold of Spring*[3](https://m.1905.com/m/film/info/61048.shtml) • [6](https://www.chinesefilm.us/films/earlyspringinfebruary.html) |\n| Source | Rou Shi's novella *February* (《二月》), written in 1929; the \"early spring\" of the film title was added in adaptation[1](https://www.xinhuanet.com/politics/2019-12/26/c_1125392376.htm) • [7](https://www.nfzz.net.cn/node_d14524272f/f5b529f5e7.shtml) |\n| Director and studio | Xie Tieli (谢铁骊), Beijing Film Studio (北京电影制片厂)[2](https://www.cfa.org.cn/cfaen/gz/dymlcx/dy/2023060214360123279/index.html) |\n| Principal cast | Sun Daolin as Xiao Jianqiu, Xie Fang as Tao Lan, Shangguan Yunzhu as the widowed Lady Wen[2](https://www.cfa.org.cn/cfaen/gz/dymlcx/dy/2023060214360123279/index.html) |\n| Release | July 1, 1963, mainland China; Mandarin; color[3](https://m.1905.com/m/film/info/61048.shtml) |\n| Setting | Around 1926, in the fictional Jiangnan town of Furong Town (芙蓉镇)[8](https://confucius.nstu.ru/files/global/magazines/2018/Confucius-02%2847%29-2018.pdf) |\n| Later honors | Entered in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes in 1979; named one of the ten outstanding films of Chinese cinema's 90 years in 1995[5](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/bk/2015-07-13/82106.html) • [9](https://www.cntv.cn/program/dajia/20060316/101841.shtml) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Story\n\nAround 1926, the young intellectual Xiao Jianqiu (萧涧秋), weary and uncertain of his own future, comes to the remote town of Furong Town to teach at the middle school of his old friend Tao Mukan (陶慕侃)[8](https://confucius.nstu.ru/files/global/magazines/2018/Confucius-02%2847%29-2018.pdf) • [10](https://www.le.com/ptv/vplay/77833902.html). On the ferry he meets the Widow Wen (文嫂), whose husband died in the revolution, and out of compassion helps her family, enrolling her daughter Cailian in school[2](https://www.cfa.org.cn/cfaen/gz/dymlcx/dy/2023060214360123279/index.html). He is also drawn to Tao Lan (陶岚), the schoolmaster's independent-minded sister. Gossip and slander spread through the town; to shield the widow from disgrace Xiao offers to marry her, but public scorn proves too much and she drowns herself in the river. Xiao leaves Furong Town, and Tao Lan follows him[2](https://www.cfa.org.cn/cfaen/gz/dymlcx/dy/2023060214360123279/index.html).\n\nThe film's title card carries a dedication: \"In memory of Comrade Rou Shi, martyred thirty-three years ago.\" Rou Shi, the author of the source novella, had been executed in secret as a Communist activist in 1931 by the Kuomintang government[7](https://www.nfzz.net.cn/node_d14524272f/f5b529f5e7.shtml) • [11](https://www.coursearchive.unsw.edu.au/documents/ada/ARTS2453_2020_1.pdf).\n\n## Adaptation from the novella\n\nXie Tieli began adapting *February* after the 1961 film creation conference, and the veteran screenwriter and cultural official [Xia Yan](https://www.edgepedia.org/xia-yan) (夏衍) took a close interest: he proposed changing the title from *February* to *Early Spring in February*, a name suggesting that spring is coming but the cold of winter has not yet passed, and he annotated the shooting script extensively[12](https://www.qizetaobao.com/wwwroot/bjdyjxh/publish/article/985/86410.shtml). Xie later said the film contained 474 shots, of which Xia Yan carefully revised 143, his comments concentrating on conveying the atmosphere of the era through the characters' bearing, on restraint and implicitness, and on the truthfulness of details[4](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_24506787). A separate account puts Xia Yan's revisions to the shooting script at more than 160 places[5](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/bk/2015-07-13/82106.html).\n\nThe adaptation also altered the novella's tone and ending. The film softened the original's despondent mood: the piano piece Xiao plays, in the novel his own composition *Youth No More*, became the film's *Wandering Song* (《徘徊曲》)[13](https://www.1905.com/mdb/film/61048/feature/). In the novel, Xiao, trapped by contradiction and driven by the widow's suicide, flees Furong Town; the film instead has him awaken through hardship and resolve to throw himself into the tide of the times, with Tao Lan following[13](https://www.1905.com/mdb/film/61048/feature/) • [3](https://m.1905.com/m/film/info/61048.shtml). A 1964 [People's Daily](https://www.edgepedia.org/peoples-daily) critique listed these changes in detail, arguing that the film strengthened Xiao's progressive credentials, for example having him read *New Youth*, while blurring the love relationship between Xiao and the widow that the novel had depicted[14](https://cn.govopendata.com/renminribao/1964/09/17/6/).\n\n## Style\n\nThe film is noted for a poetic, restrained visual manner. Xie Tieli deliberately reduced the story's dramatic plot in favor of a lyrical narrative built from combinations of scenes[8](https://confucius.nstu.ru/files/global/magazines/2018/Confucius-02%2847%29-2018.pdf). The cinematographer Li Wenhua (李文化) drew on traditional ink-painting techniques, and the film's imagery of winter and rain in Jiangnan, water-town bridges, plum groves, and courtyards has been widely praised as painterly[8](https://confucius.nstu.ru/files/global/magazines/2018/Confucius-02%2847%29-2018.pdf) • [4](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_24506787). The art director Chi Ning (池宁) designed not only the sets but also the costumes, which closely follow the women's fashions of the mid-1920s, such as the wide inverted-sleeve qipao worn with a long vest that was current in Shanghai and Jiangnan around 1926[4](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_24506787).\n\n## Reception and censorship\n\nAt the preview screening the film was immediately labeled with the charges of \"writing middle characters\" and \"bourgeois theory of human nature\", and it was soon denounced as a \"great poison weed\"[5](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/bk/2015-07-13/82106.html). In August 1964 the Propaganda Department directed that *Early Spring in February* be shown publicly across the country so that it could be criticized; the campaign followed lines set by a People's Daily article of September 15, 1964, which attacked the film's treatment of the intellectual hero as a figure of bourgeois individualism and humanitarianism[15](https://m.fx361.com/news/2018/0303/18210367.html). The criticism made the film unusually widely seen: Xie Tieli recalled that more 35 mm prints were struck for it than for almost any film at the time, because even small cities were required to screen it[9](https://www.cntv.cn/program/dajia/20060316/101841.shtml). Audience response was enthusiastic rather than hostile; when the film opened in Shanghai in September 1964, ticket-buying crowds grew so large that scenes briefly got out of control[4](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_24506787). Being held up as a target of criticism had one lasting benefit: the film was preserved intact[4](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_24506787).\n\n## Rehabilitation and standing\n\nAfter the Cultural Revolution the film's reputation recovered. In 1979 it was entered in the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival, which one Chinese account describes as the first appearance of a mainland Chinese film at Cannes[5](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/bk/2015-07-13/82106.html). In 1995, for the ninetieth anniversary of Chinese cinema, it was named one of the ten outstanding Chinese films[9](https://www.cntv.cn/program/dajia/20060316/101841.shtml). Since the 1980s it has been treated as a representative work of the \"seventeen years\" cinema, valued for its humanist theme, its Jiangnan setting, and its portrait of an intellectual searching for his path between tradition and modernity[4](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_24506787) • [5](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/bk/2015-07-13/82106.html).\n\nThe story has continued to invite adaptation: in 2019 the director Li Liuyi announced a stage version of Rou Shi's novella, which premiered at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in January 2020[1](https://www.xinhuanet.com/politics/2019-12/26/c_1125392376.htm).\n\n## Versions and runtime\n\nSources give different running times for the film: 120 minutes (1905.com and IMDb), 113 minutes (China Film Archive), and 109 minutes (Filmaffinity, which also notes a 109-minute VHS edition)[3](https://m.1905.com/m/film/info/61048.shtml) • [2](https://www.cfa.org.cn/cfaen/gz/dymlcx/dy/2023060214360123279/index.html) • [16](https://www.filmaffinity.com/us/film885807.html). The film was shot on location in Suzhou[3](https://m.1905.com/m/film/info/61048.shtml).\n\n## References\n\n1. [柔石小说《二月》将搬上话剧舞台, Xinhua News Agency (2019)](https://www.xinhuanet.com/politics/2019-12/26/c_1125392376.htm)\n2. [Zaochun eryue / Early Spring / February / 早春二月（2K）, China Film Archive](https://www.cfa.org.cn/cfaen/gz/dymlcx/dy/2023060214360123279/index.html)\n3. [早春二月 详细资料, 1905电影网](https://m.1905.com/m/film/info/61048.shtml)\n4. [《早春二月》中的服饰与1920年代的女性时装风格, The Paper (2023), Chen Lei, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences Institute of History](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_24506787)\n5. [人生与艺术的多重变奏——缅怀谢铁骊导演, 中国作家网/文艺报 (2015), Rao Shuguang](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/bk/2015-07-13/82106.html)\n6. [Early Spring in February, chinesefilm.us](https://www.chinesefilm.us/films/earlyspringinfebruary.html)\n7. [早春二月, 南方杂志 (2025)](https://www.nfzz.net.cn/node_d14524272f/f5b529f5e7.shtml)\n8. [中国电影《早春二月》, Confucius Institute magazine, NSTU (2018)](https://confucius.nstu.ru/files/global/magazines/2018/Confucius-02%2847%29-2018.pdf)\n9. [电影往事：谢铁骊, CCTV.com (2006)](https://www.cntv.cn/program/dajia/20060316/101841.shtml)\n10. [早春二月 在线观看, 乐视视频](https://www.le.com/ptv/vplay/77833902.html)\n11. [Chinese Cinema course reader, UNSW School of Humanities and Languages](https://www.coursearchive.unsw.edu.au/documents/ada/ARTS2453_2020_1.pdf)\n12. [文联故事丨谢铁骊与《早春二月》](https://www.qizetaobao.com/wwwroot/bjdyjxh/publish/article/985/86410.shtml)\n13. [早春二月 幕后花絮, 1905电影网](https://www.1905.com/mdb/film/61048/feature/)\n14. [革命还是倒退？——评影片《早春二月》的改编, 人民日报 1964年9月17日 第6版](https://cn.govopendata.com/renminribao/1964/09/17/6/)\n15. [20世纪60年代前期社会主义文艺的建构与问题——以《早春二月》的改编与接受为中心, 杜英, 文艺研究 2018年第6期](https://m.fx361.com/news/2018/0303/18210367.html)\n16. [Early Spring (1963), Filmaffinity](https://www.filmaffinity.com/us/film885807.html)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 1960s › Released 1960 to 1965*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/early-spring-in-february", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/early-spring-in-february.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Early Spring in February (早春二月)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/early-spring-in-february. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Early Spring in February (早春二月)](https://www.edgepedia.org/early-spring-in-february)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/early-spring-in-february](https://www.edgepedia.org/early-spring-in-february). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Early Spring in February (早春二月)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/early-spring-in-february. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Early Spring in February is Xie Tieli's 1963 Beijing Film Studio drama adapted from Rou Shi's novella February, starring Sun Daolin, Xie Fang, and Shangguan Yunzhu; criticized as a poison weed in 1964, later a classic." }