Profile:
Wu Jiang, Male, Documentary Director, has been engaged in Documentary creation for 20 years, and has served as the International Documentary judge of China (Qinghai) World Mountain Documentary Festival. Wu jiang’s representative works are Deng Yingchao, Zheng He's Voyages to the West, the Nanjing Massacre，the Western Yinning and 23:11 (microfilm). Wu jiang has won the "Chinese Special Works" in Berlin International Short Film Festival, the “Best Documentary Award” of China TV Golden Eagle Award, the “Documentary Award” of China Television Star Award, the “Asian Production Award” of the Sichuan International “Golden Panda Award” TV Festival, the “International Peace Award” of Ukraine "Common Victory" International Film Festival, the "JADE KUNLUN Special Award” of World Mountain Documentary Festival. And the microfilm 23:11 was shortlisted for the 4th Macao International Movie Festival.
Question 1: “Pearl of the Good Earth” is a documentary about Pearl S. Buck, an American writer and missionary who wrote about and spent time in China during the early 20th Century. What inspired you to want to make a film about her?
Answer: In about 2010, I was asked to start a documentary project, which is to retrospect the cultural celebrities of Nanjing. Among them, one is Pearl S. Buck. Like most people in China, I didn’t know much about her then. When I was collecting her documents, I was deeply touched by her story. Her legendary experience and her affection towards China is what I never met before in my film making experience. Her story can be adopted as a film. As I was asked to shoot a series of biographic short, I had to make in the form of short film. Despite of this, this short film about her was highly received after being screened. It has won a big prize in National Documentary Competition. Afterwards, I applied for the sponsorship from the government’s cultural fund and started preparing this 93-minute documentary.
Question 2: In the film, many Chinese academics praise Buck for her characterisation of the common people of China and her understanding of Chinese culture. Why do you think that so many western people struggle to understand China, as Buck did, and what affects do you think that has on their attitudes and relationship with China?
Answer: In this world, there are many different countries and many diversified nations and cultures. Therefore, there is inevitably the difference in cognition. Be it in the past or the present, it is very important for different countries and peoples to know each other. That is what we want to convey with this documentary. During the time when Buck was in China, Chinese economy was backward and people’s living standard was quite low. But Buck beheld and praised the kindness and honesty of Chinese people. It is the outcome of Confucian education over thousands of years. It also affected Buck deeply. When Buck was back in the USA, she sympathized Chinese people and worried about their fate. Even though she was misunderstood and suffered unfair treatments for kinds of reasons, she continued doing a lot of things to help China. She is a bridge between China and USA. No one can do better than her. Today’s world is much different from the one in Buck’s age. No matter in the West or in the East, regardless of political concerns, I think the most important for knowing a country is to know its people. Just like how we view the West and how the Westerners view China. If we can just perceive the superficial things, we can only see the cold figures and the shocking news. They are, however, not true nor accurate. Without the perception of honesty and kindness between peoples, one may misunderstand or misjudge a people or a country. That may even affect the relationship between countries. This is the common ground for all people who love peace in the world.
Question 3: Although it is widely available and read in China today, The Good Earth by Pearl Buck, was banned during the Cultural Revolution. Why was this?
Answer: China was then in a very complicated situation of international political, which demanded literary and artistic works suitable for China at that time. The “unsuitable” works of Pearl Buck was not recognized then. It had historic causes. Anyway, the history goes forward. All these have gone. Pearl Buck and her works are now recognized by Chinese people. There are many experts and researchers in universities working on the research of Pearl Buck. There is even a special research society of Pearl Buck which holds international seminars regular. It has published hundreds of academic works about Pearl Buck.
Question 4: Wu Jiang, the director of “Pearl of the Good Earth”, has made many documentaries about Chinese history and culture and has won many awards for his work. What can foreign audiences gain from learning more about the modern history of China?
Answer: History is the best textbook. By watching the historical and cultural documentaries, foreign audience may know what great difficulties that China, a country with civilizations of thousands of years had suffered in its progress to modernization and how Chinese people had got rid of its backward situation and stepped forwards to democracy and science.
Question 5: What projects are you working on now and what can we expect to see from you in the future?
Answer: I am now a film about the mass grave of Nanjing Massacre. Compared the previous works on the same theme, this film takes a new perspective. Although there are several works about Nanjing Massacre, people have less knowledge about the great Massacre in 1937. Its cruelty is no less than the crimes Nazis did in Auschwitz Concentration Camp. I hope this work can make people think, oppose the war and cherish the peace.
Interviewed by: David James Bell
Edited by: Li Yingdeng
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