Xu Xing’s most recent work uses a heartbreaking love story between a husband and wife as a vehicle with which to confront the contortions of China’s political history since 1949. It is a personal love story, it is also a story of a nation. Fundamentally it is a story about personal survival in an oppressive state. The powerless are given a chance to tell their tragic story and leave a record to hold against the official narrative of the Chinese state, which passes over them in silence.
Screening presented in partnership with BU Center for the Study of Asia and BU Arts Initiative.
About the Artist: Xu Xing 徐星 is a prominent Chinese writer and documentary filmmaker. Often called ”The Chinese Jack Kerouac,” his works have consistently engaged with national and international issues of politics, power, and moral responsibility. At the same time these larger issues are always evoked through the lives of the common working people in China.
Xu enjoyed his most prolific period as a writer during the 1980s and 1990s, and his books reached a broad international audience when they were translated into French, English and German. In the early 1990s he migrated to Germany, staying in Heidelberg. After returning to his hometown Beijing, he began shooting documentary films. Xu is currently in residency at Boston University.
Directions: The Pao Arts Center is located in the One Greenway building, 99 Kneeland Street. For GPS driving directions, use 66 Hudson Street, Boston, MA 02111. From Hudson Street, walk up the stairs and across the deck to the 99 Albany Street entrance. The public parking garage entrance is on Hudson Street. The Pao Arts Center is accessible by the MBTA green, red, and orange lines.
Contact: Cynthia Woo | 617-635-5129 x 1028