64 'Blossoms Shanghai,' Legendary WWII Spies, and the 1942 Disaster for the CPC Shanghai Intelligence Section
The male protagonist Ah Bao in the hit TV series 'Blossoms Shanghai' has a father in the original novel who worked as an intelligence officer for the CPC underground. Although the novel does not devote much ink to Ah Bao's father, it provokes endless speculation: he was an idealist from a bourgeois family who betrayed his class and devoted himself to the revolutionary cause; after 1949, Ah Bao's father was trapped by his 'historical issues,' repeatedly writing appeals with little effect, and his situation only improved with the arrival of the 'New Era.' The novel's author, Jin Yucheng, acknowledged in his non-fiction work 'Looking Back' and media interviews that the prototype for Ah Bao's father was his own father, Jin Ruowang. Unexpectedly, Jin Ruowang's intelligence career was linked to the legendary WWII spy Richard Sorge, and the fate of him and many of his comrades changed due to the chain reaction triggered by Sorge's arrest in Tokyo in 1942. What exactly happened? Please listen to this episode for the breakdown.
Original Chinese title & description
64 《繁花》、二战传奇间谍与1942年中共上海情报科的灾难
热播电视剧《繁花》的男主角阿宝，在小说原著中有一位曾作为中共地下党员从事情报工作的父亲。虽然小说对阿宝父亲着墨并不算多，却令人浮想联翩：原来，这是一名出身于资产阶级家庭，却背叛了自己的阶级，投身于革命事业的理想主义者；而在1949年之后，阿宝父亲受困于自己的“历史问题”，反复写材料申诉却收效甚微，境遇直到“新时期”来临才算好转。小说作者金宇澄在非虚构作品《回望》和媒体采访中，承认阿宝父亲的原型是其父金若望，而令人意想不到的是，金若望的情报生涯竟和二战传奇间谍佐尔格有关联，而他和诸多战友的命运之所以改变，也源自于1942年佐尔格在东京被捕而引发的一系列反应。详情究竟如何？请听本期节目分解。
Participation credit “本期参与者”：沙青青（微信公众号：13号埋立地，小红书：Sha-13号埋立地）。
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