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IN PINGYAO, FILMMAKER JIAZHANGKE ADDS A BRAND-NEW FESTIVAL TO A BURSTING PORTFOLIO- BUT WHERE DOES AN ART-HOUSE MOGUL FIT INTO TODAY'S CHINA?
Every grand narrative needs its symbolism. And as far as signifiers go, the wall remains as convenient a metaphor as any for encapsulating China's past and present, both as they appear in the eyes of foreigners and as they shape-shift within the nation's own self-image. Of course there's that famous wall you can spot from outer space, an emblem of former glory that, historians tell us, was actually pretty lousy at keeping out invaders. There's the digital one that blocks Google, Faccbook, and Twitter but that savvy netizens have grown adept at circumventing. And then, on a more local level, there's the turtle-shaped structure that encircles the old town of Pingyao; the Ming Dynasty relic became one of the most haunting backdrops in modern cinema when Jia Zhangke used it in his 9.000 masterpiece, Platform.
For all the small-scale realism of his best-known films, Jia doesn't shy away from populating the screen with imposing, recognizable landmarks, mining them for drama and making them resonate in unexpected ways. In Platform, the Pingyao wall stands in for a weighty cultural inheritance, one that becomes all but incomprehensible with the inception of Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms in the late 1970s. At the same time, this wall also sets the stage for matters of the heart. In two of the most memorable scenes, a young couple pace back and forth around its parapets, playing hide-and-seek with feelings that have nothing to do with military fortification or ancient civilization. History cuts an impressive figure, but how can it hold its own alongside the push and pull of human emotion, let alone the realities of a society that has spent the better part of a century in the throes of perpetual demolition and reconstruction?
Last October, Pingyao hosted a brandnew festival, launched by Jia, in the shadow of this same wall. Though Jia may not be anyone's idea of a showman, his decision to establish a boutique film festival here has to qualify as some kind of bold, out-of-the-box gesture. Pingyao has been a popular tourist destination since UNESCO named it a world heritage site in 1997, but...