No escape from the past

The research is part of a larger project to interrogate visual traces of the Cultural Revolution in contemporary China. The investigators of the overall project (Donald and H.Evans) are both Chinese Studies scholars (media and history respectively). The film complements their work and that of many other scholars working on questions of social change and modern history in China. The filmic nature of this outcome relates to the work of the Longbow group (Barme, Hinton et al) who have created longer form documentary works on Chinese historical issues. Barme is now an ARC Federation Fellow. The present work is an outcome from an ARC Discovery award 'Posters of the Cultural Revolution'. In addition to its inclusion in the curated exhhibitions at the University of Sydney and the RMIT Gallery (2010-2011) , the film was also selected for exhibition at the Liu dahong retrospective in Beijing in 2010. The film sought to discover and elucidate the place of memory, specifically memories surrounding the Cultural Revolution, in emotional and creative interactions across generations in China. The filming prompted revelations of deep parental anxiety as well as resigned descripptions of enforced artistic practice. Both artists and parents sought for means to manage their traumatic recollections of the 1960s, but still connect with the children of Reform, who knew very little about the past. These revelations were only forthcoming on camera, with the explicit promise made to interviewees that their stories would be shared through a film. The process was clearly helpful to them in re-establishing the value of their memories and the legitimacy of sharing them with a new generation.