Abstract

This chapter helps locate the geographical trajectory of Wang’s cinematic activities. It also introduces the broad concept of ‘space’ and its centrality in the discussion. By looking at the shooting locations over a map of China, the investigation of Wang Bing’s cinematic travelogue is set against the ongoing state narrative of the China Dream. This is a slogan that frames China’s rise. The author argues that Wang’s films can be understood as a counter-narrative that shows the less shiny side of China’s growth. They can also be loosely grouped according to different definitions of space: spaces of labour, spaces of history and memory, collective spaces, exhibition spaces, and spaces of human practice. Moreover, without losing their Chinese distinctiveness, the issues at stake in Wang’s films speak to a much larger global experience of marginal spaces and uneven development.

Keywords: Documentary cinema, China, Spaces, China Dream, Subaltern, Inequalities, Wang Bing

I am convinced that the politics right now is heavily influenced by concerns about the quality of daily life and I think any program should be trying to theorize the problems of daily life against the background of dynamics of capital accumulation, the typical configurations of state power […] So I would always want to concentrate on how we deal with the politics which is coming out of the discontents with daily life in the contemporary city.