‘Gung Ho’ Alley

Press, 7 May 1980, Page 17

‘Gung Ho’ Alley

•To many, Rewi Alley is New Zealand’s most important expatriate. He is perhaps the most- knowledgeable foreigner about China — from the inside. After more than 50 years, Alley has emerged as a New Zealand hero. : At 82. Rewi Alley is one of the last of the “hundred percenters’’, a survivor from a small group of influential foreigners who have worked since the 1930 s for China’s revolution. Having travelled to Shanghai from New Zea-

land in 1927, Alley became a fluent speaker of Chinese dialects. Five years later he was .the chief safety and factory inspector in Shanghai and was becoming a convinced communist. In 1938 Alley came to head a vast project to move Chinese industry from the coastal cities to the interior. These “Gung Ho” co-operatives became an industrial and economic pilot for communist industry. In December, 1978, Geoff Stevens went to Peking, met Ailey, and obtained approval from Chinese authorities to make the film — a big coup for a New Zealand film crew. The result of negotiations — two documentaries entitled “Gung Ho: Rewi Alley of China” and “The Humble Force” — were filmed during April, May, and June,. 1979, on one of the most extensive trips undertaken in China

by a foreign film crew in recent times. The crew — comprising a director and script writer, Geoff Steven; a cowriter, Geoff Chapple; a cameraman, Leon Narbey; and a sound recordist, Graham Morris — accompanied Alley on a 15,000 km journey in which Alley visited places where he lived and worked during the turbulent years of the revolution. The first of the two documentaries — “Gung Ho: Rewi Alley of China” — captures Alley’s drive and commitment to the little man. Calling the, peasants “China’s gold.” Alley made “Gung Ho” (work together) an international by-word. Later, on the edge of the Gobi Desert, he pioneered a school to teach industrial skills to China’s peasants. Part one of “Lookout — Rewi Alley” will be shown on TVI on Friday.