Deng Xiaoping

Beijing, May 11 (PTI): China has started filming a new movie on Deng Xiaoping, the architect of modern China, which for the first time will show the untold love story of the late leader and his first wife Zhang Xiyuan.

The motion picture, Deng Xiaoping in 1928 will reflect the saga of Deng in his 20s. The shooting for the film commenced yesterday in Shanghai, China’s largest city. According to the director of the film, Li Xiepu, the movie will for the first time cover the love story of Deng and his first wife, Zhang.

Deng was only 24 years of age in 1928. He married Zhang, his schoolmate when he studied at a university in Moscow, and the couple lived with Zhou Enlai and Deng Yingchao, Zhou’s wife, in a Shanghai foreign settlement area.

Zhou was the sainted long-standing leader of the Communist Party of China and became in 1949 the first Premier of the People’s Republic of China till his death in 1976.

Later in 1928, Deng left his wife when he was sent to work in south China’s Guangxi region. She died the next year at the age of 24, leaving nothing but a picture of herself, Xinhua news agency reported.

Li said the film will be different from the previous one covering Deng’s entire life. It will mainly concentrate on Deng’s preparatory efforts to send top CPC leaders safely to Moscow to attend the sixth CPC congress.