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Festival insight into Chinese Culture
02/05/08
CHINA NOW is the biggest festival of Chinese culture ever to come to the UK – with over 800 events surrounding it crossing art, music, cuisine and film.
This week, China Now comes to Sheffield with a series of Chinese films screened at the Showroom Cinema.
They include Luxury Car and Sunflowers and both portray the impact of a rapidly-expanding economy on traditional Chinese family values.
Film festival director for China Now, David Gillam, says: "China's so important now. People are realising the impact of the global economy. We need to understand what goes on in China, how people think and the social impact of such rapid change."
Luxury Car, a Cannes Festival award-winner, explores this theme poignantly – mapping a long distance relationship between father and son after the son has left his village to search for work in the city.
The father tries to find him but discovers his powerlessness in relation to the big, modern city.
The father is effectively redundant – a fact that acquires greater tragedy considering the traditional role of the father in Chinese culture.
Gillam explains: "In China the tradition has been that parents know best – but in Luxury Car the father is adrift. His daughter knows much more than he does. The father is lost."
Sunflowers, likewise, explores the theme of a family becoming distant to one another. The film is based on a Chinese family saga unfolding over 25 years.
The plot combines personal memories and moments of recent history to reveal the impact of the momentous social changes that produce a new China.
Gillam explains that the role of these films is important to raising cultural awareness in the UK: "Films do different things – you can send a BBC crew to China and have them film a documentary but life will always be from a Western perspective.
"Films are made from within the culture – they reflect certain issues such as social change."
China Now runs at The Showroom from May 4 – 27.
This week, China Now comes to Sheffield with a series of Chinese films screened at the Showroom Cinema.
They include Luxury Car and Sunflowers and both portray the impact of a rapidly-expanding economy on traditional Chinese family values.
Film festival director for China Now, David Gillam, says: "China's so important now. People are realising the impact of the global economy. We need to understand what goes on in China, how people think and the social impact of such rapid change."
Luxury Car, a Cannes Festival award-winner, explores this theme poignantly – mapping a long distance relationship between father and son after the son has left his village to search for work in the city.
The father tries to find him but discovers his powerlessness in relation to the big, modern city.
The father is effectively redundant – a fact that acquires greater tragedy considering the traditional role of the father in Chinese culture.
Gillam explains: "In China the tradition has been that parents know best – but in Luxury Car the father is adrift. His daughter knows much more than he does. The father is lost."
Sunflowers, likewise, explores the theme of a family becoming distant to one another. The film is based on a Chinese family saga unfolding over 25 years.
The plot combines personal memories and moments of recent history to reveal the impact of the momentous social changes that produce a new China.
Gillam explains that the role of these films is important to raising cultural awareness in the UK: "Films do different things – you can send a BBC crew to China and have them film a documentary but life will always be from a Western perspective.
"Films are made from within the culture – they reflect certain issues such as social change."
China Now runs at The Showroom from May 4 – 27.
