Pan Dongzi was a character in a novel entitled 'Sparkling Red Star'; written by Li Xintian. The novel was made into a film in 1974 during the Chinese Cultural Revolution.

Pan Dongzi was the son of a Communist army officer. When the father is called off; he leaves Dongzi a red star as a symbol of the cause. While he is away; a bourgeois landlord; Hu Hansan; returns to Dongzi's village where he exacts revenge upon the peasants who had forced him out. In the process; Dongzi's mother is burned to death in their home.

Hardened by his mother's death; Dongzi joins a band of guerrilla fighters and eventually kills his former landlord. When his father finally returns; Dongzi joins him as the Red Army's newest recruit in the fight against the Japanese during Second Sino-Japanese War.