Waste Not Our Youth

It describes that textile workers were brutally oppressed and exploited by capitalists and Kuomintang reactionaries in the old society. After liberation, they raised their class consciousness, showed their labor enthusiasm in labor competition, and created wealth for the country. At the same time criticize conservative and backward thinking and bureaucracy.

Taking place during the period of the Three Kingdoms, 220 A.D., a story about the relationship between the emperor Cao Pi, his first wife Zhen, and his brother Cao Zhi. Zhen falls for Cao Zhi, and upon discovering this disloyalty, Cao Pi orders the execution of Zhen, and the banishment of his brother Cao Zhi.

During the Ming dynasty, a poor worker family, working day and night, is still unable to pay its taxes.