Part I.  Bringing the Rent.  "Filled with anger, young and old tenants of the big tyrannical landlord, Liu Wen-tsai, come to pay their rents in grain [i.e. in kind] under the watchful eye of the landlord's thugs [the one with the dog].  Before the liberation [1949 revolution], the exaction of rent by landlords lay like a mountain on the peasants."
 

The shadows convey a dark and gloomy atmosphere, and the bent forms of the peasants symbolize their years of hardship under the landlord's harsh rule.  Years of suffering are etched on the face of the old woman with the walking stick.
 
 

                        

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