October 22, 2009
Chinese Film Week highlights work by award-winning director
Chinese Film Week, October 26-31, offers discussions and screenings of award-winning writer and director Peng Xiaolian’s films, as well as an appearance by Peng herself.
“Originally we were just going to show some Chinese films in the library,” said East Asia Library Director Zhijia Shen, “but as Professor Yomi Braester and I planned out the week and worked on selecting films, we thought of Xiaolian Peng and chose her films to be the focus of the week.”
Peng’s writing, producing and directing have earned notable awards for decades—starting with the Chinese Academy Award for Best Children’s Film in 1987 after the U.S. release of Women’s Story and Me and My Classmates. Her other awards include: Best Picture and Best Director for Shanghai Story at the Golden Roosters, Best Foreign Film Award at Hollywood AOF Film Festival for Kids in Shanghai and the Audience Award for Best Feature Film for Shanghai Women at the Turino, Italy Women’s Film Festival.
Peng “has a very unusual personal background,” said Shen. “Her father was one of the high-ranking Chinese communist leaders who were persecuted during a political movement in the 1950s. After the Cultural Revolution, Deng Xiaoping restored reputation to all who had been persecuted, but many were already dead—including Peng’s father, who died in 1968. Storm under the Sun, one of her documentaries to be shown during the week, tells the story of her father’s generation.”
Her recent film Kids in Shanghai is the first film to describe the life and experiences of children from countryside migrant workers now in the city, Shen said. Peng also has a sister who lives in Seattle, and one of the film’s protagonists is portrayed by Joseph T. Li, an American-born Chinese boy, whose father, Hengda Li, teaches dance in Seattle.
Kids in Shanghai will be screened on Tuesday, October 27 and Storm under the Sun will be shown on Thursday, October 29.
The week-long event is part of a larger celebration of the 30th anniversary of the normalization of U.S.-China relations and is presented jointly by UW Libraries and the UW China Studies Program.
“The UW Libraries collaborated with the Consulate General of China in San Francisco to create a series of four events to mark the 30th anniversary. The Chinese Film Week is the second event of the series,” said Shen.
The Chinese Film Week schedule is as follows:
Monday, Oct. 26
6-7 p.m. — Grand Opening
- Two Women Film Directors – Prof. Yomi Braester, Professor, UW Department of Comparative Literature and Program in Cinema Studies
- Introduction to My Films – Peng Xiaolian
7 p.m. — screening of Shanghai Story (in Mandarin Chinese with English Subtitles), 220 Odegaard
Tuesday, Oct. 27
6-8 p.m. screening of Kids in Shanghai (in Mandarin Chinese with English Subtitles)
- Q&A with Peng Xiaolian, director; and lead actor, 220 Odegaard
Wednesday, Oct. 28
6-9 p.m. screening of Shanghai Women (in Mandarin Chinese with English Subtitles), 220 Odegaard
Thursday, Oct. 29
Noon-12:30 p.m. Peng Xiaolian: A Tribute to My Father: The Making of Storm under the Sun
- 12:30-2 p.m. screening of Storm under the Sun (in English)
- Q&A with Peng Xiaolian, director, 220 Odegaard
Friday, Oct. 30
6-9 p.m. screening of Red Persimmons (in Mandarin Chinese with English Subtitles), 220 Odegaard
Saturday, Oct. 31
6-9 p.m. screening of The Doors, directed by Li Shaohong (in Mandarin Chinese with English Subtitles), 220 Odegaard
The final two events of the 30-year celebration are:
- Nov. 5: A traveling exhibit from the Consul General in San Francisco, 30 years of U.S.-China Relations, which will open in 102 Suzzallo.
- Nov. 12: A symposium, “Past and Future of U.S.-China Relations” in collaboration with the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies, The China Studies Program, the Global Asia Institute, and the University Libraries.
The celebration kicked off with a June 1 presentation of books from the Chinese Government to the UW Libraries.
