2016

Behemoth

On Mongolia’s vast plateau, heavenly green grasslands are being covered by the gloomy dust of a growing mining industry. Herdsmen and their families have no choice but to move away as grazing meadows dwindle. Day and night, miners are busy picking out coals from mountains of rocks. In nearby ironworks, men bake in the scorching heat like the condemned in ‘Inferno’.

The Chinese Mayor

Mayor GENG Yanbo announces a bold five-year plan to return the city of Datong to its former glory. In the hope to transform one of China's most polluted cities into a cultural and tourist destination, the city government is to forcibly demolish a hundred thousand households and relocate half a million people to give way to the restoration of ancient relic walls.

Of Shadows

Of Shadows shows the creative world of shadow theatre and the puppeteers whose way of life balances between a centuries-old rural narrative tradition and the modern, urban idea of a cultural heritage that has to be preserved. It is a touching portrait of a travelling theatre company in the northwest of China, where the age-old art is still kept alive.

Rooms with Mao's Images

This film was shot in Gulang, Gansu Province, where I made two other films. When I return to the footage I shot there, I realise that I have been to many peasants’ houses with MAO Zedong's picture on the walls. Although MAO's era has ended decades ago, he remains as a strong folk belief, a divinity in this atheistic country. This film is literally about the people living in those houses.

Yellowing

Besides the student leaders who have been actively involved in the 2014 Umbrella Revolution in Hong Kong, there have been many unsung heroes supporting the movement in different ways. This film contains twenty memorandums which recorded the story of a group of young people struggling to fight for their own future, with ups and downs along the way.

Yun Zi

With two ill-healthed parents unfit for heavy manual labour and a nine-year-old brother still attending primary school, a pair of teenage twin sisters dropped out of school to contribute to the financial difficulty of their family. One day, when their parents went to work in a neighbouring village, the sisters become responsible for all the household tasks.

A Filmless Festival

This film documents the preparation and forced cancellation of the 11th Beijing Independent Film Festival in 2014. The footage used for the film was captured by members of audience, festival workers, participating filmmakers and members of the press who witnessed the ‘the darkest day’ in the history of Chinese independent film.

Investigating My Father

My father was a landowner’s son and an ex-Kuomintang Air Force pilot, who remained in mainland China after 1949. For survival, he tried to transform himself from a man of the ‘old society’ to a man of the ‘new society’. As his son, I started investigating his ‘history before 1949’, which he had kept away from me. This film documents the process of my investigation over twenty years.

Trash Village

This is the fourth film in my Zoujiacun series. In 2013, I went back to my village again and was surprised to find trash everywhere. A group of children and I tried to improve the environment and began a tough fight against the trash as well as other villagers. The lonely lives of 95-year-old Mrs SHA and her 49-year-old son, Xizhu, are also in this film.

Foolish Village

As someone who left her village for college, I was always judged by the village people whenever I returned. But Xizhu, who was called a ‘fool’, and Zengxiang, who was looked down by others, walked into my life and made me think about my village in a new way. In this ordinary village, who are the ‘normal’ people? In those ‘normal’ people’s eyes, am I another fool?

You are here