Shui-Bo Wang: Sunrise Over Tiananmen Square

by Marnie Fleming, Maureen Furniss, Shui-Bo Wang

In the wake of the excitement over Shui-Bo Wang's 1998 Academy Award nomination for best short documentary film, this publication examines Sunrise Over Tiananmen Square, the film that earned the Montreal-based artist this honour. In addition to images from the film, we are presented with a selection of the still imagery that comprises the kinestatically-animated documentary. These images include both family and archival photographs, but are largely comprised of Shui-Bo's politically charged drawings. The film candidly traces the coming of age in China during the Cultural Revolution of the 1970s and 1980s. Shui-Bo takes us on a journey from his childhood, under his beloved Chairman Mao, to his days as a propaganda poster artist and member of the Red Guard, in the midst of government oppression, to the bloody Tiananmen Square massacre. Shui-Bo's drawings chart the complex relationship between Chinese artists and the Communist regime. Deified representations of Chairman Mao give way to scenes of government-incited tragedy; Pop art and Renaissance icons replace traditional Chinese illustration; Coca-Cola bottles collide with Karl Marx's portrait. Shui-Bo's masterfully juxtaposed imagery stunningly testifies to the artist's struggle to sort out conflicting ideologies to see his world truly. The publication itself is meant to resemble The Little Red Book.

48 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2001