For many in contemporary China, the past is another country – and a hazy, dimly lit one at that. It’s not uncommon to meet young people in China who can recite every dynasty in the nation’s 5,000 year history, yet can barely muster more than a few lines about the Maoist era of the 1950s and 60s. Independent documentarian Hu Jie was no different – by his own admission he knew little about China’s recent past when he stumbled upon the story of the dissident Lin Zhao, executed in 1968 for her outspoken criticism of Mao’s totalitarian ways. As Hu travelled the length and breadth of China looking for those who knew Lin, he felt like he had “found the door of history, opened it and walked in.” The stories he uncovered have been fuelling his filmmaking ever since.

In August two of Hu Jie’s best-known works, Searching for Lin Zhao’s Soul (2004) and Though I Am Gone (2006) will screen at the Melbourne International Film Festival, as part of the program “Street Level Visions: Chinese Independent Docos”. This is a rare chance for Australian audiences to see some of the most challenging films coming out of contemporary China.

Searching for Lin Zhao’s Soul uses interviews with many of Lin’s friends and associates to trace the young writer’s journey from an ardent supporter of Mao’s revolution to an impassioned dissident imprisoned in Shanghai. When she was denied writing materials in jail, Lin composed thousands of words of essays and poems using her own blood. Though I Am Gone tells the story of Bian Zhongyun, the deputy headmistress of a prominent Beijing girl’s school attended by many daughters of the party elite, who was beaten to death by her own student in the opening weeks of the Cultural Revolution in August 1966. Incredibly, Bian’s husband secretly photographed the events leading up to her death and his wife’s battered corpse – images he reveals to Hu Jie’s lens in the course of recounting his wife’s story.

In March 2010 I was privileged to interview Hu Jie via phone at his home in Nanjing for an article in RealTime. It’s an indication of the enduring sensitivity of China’s Maoist past that our conversation was interrupted by police monitoring Hu’s calls. Nevertheless, he persisted with the interview, and I’d like to thank him for taking the time and associated risks to speak to me.

To celebrate the screening of Hu Jie’s films in Melbourne this August, ArtSpace China presents the full 2010 interview for the first time. Thanks to my translator during the interview, who has asked to remain anonymous.

For the lucky ducks in Melbourne …

This year’s Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) includes a special program of films selected from the past decade of China’s digital documentary boom. Curated by Dan Edwards, ‘Street Level Visions: Chinese indie docos’ cuts through the clichés of nightly news bulletins to show us China from the ground-up, through the eyes of some of the nation’s bravest filmmakers.

The program includes landmark films such as Zhao Liang’s Petition, Ou Ning’s Meishi Street, Hu Jie’s Searching for Lin Zhao’s Soul, and the more recent Besieged by Waste by Wang Jiuliang, among others. Filmmakers, Ou Ning and Wang Jiuliang will also be in town for post-film Q&As and other events.

See the MIFF website for more on the films and session times. And spread the word.

Ballet in the People’s Republic has blossomed in recent years, reaching new heights in its shift from left to centre stage.

The National Ballet of China’s recent production The Peony Pavilion (牡丹亭 mudan ting) at the Arts Centre Melbourne is an example of the company’s most valued repertoire: original ballets which reflect Chinese culture and its uniqueness. Stylistically, The Peony Pavilion is highly contemporary, nuanced by global languages of dance and design. At the same time however the production retains the kind of nationalistic sentiment that characterises much of the history of ballet in modern China. In this way, China’s leading ballet company – viewed as a pioneer in a growing field – successfully blends creative and ideological practices.

Liao Yiwu is best-known for his book The Corpse Walker, a colourful collection of interviews with oddballs, crooks, hustlers, toilet-attendants, ex-landlords, so-called rightists, garbage-collectors, and a variety of others whose voices are rarely heard in mainstream Chinese history. First published in Taiwan in 2001, and later in a variety of languages, The Corpse Walker quickly became a bestseller in the West, its success fanned along by the news of the book’s banning in China and Liao’s uncomfortable political position back home .

Liao’s recent book, God is Red, is another collection of interviews, this time with elderly Chinese Christians whose faith has brought them into conflict with the state. Published to an eager audience in the West, God is Red will be supported with author tours and book signings not previously possible, since in July 2011 – after seventeen unsuccessful attempts to leave China – Liao Yiwu secretly emigrated to Germany.

China and Revolution: History, Parody and Memory in Contemporary Art
8 August – 7 November
University of Sydney Art Gallery

China and Revolution: History, Parody and Memory in Contemporary Art is an exhibition of Cultural Revolution propaganda posters, and their legacy in the visual culture of China today. The show brings a selection of original 1960s and 1970s posters from the University of Westminster collection, together with the work of four contemporary artists – Li Gongming, Liu Dahong, Shen Jiawei, and Xu Weixin – whose styles and methodologies continue to be influenced by this time.