Director biography

Yu Jian (1954), a poet, essayist, literary critic, novelist, editor, photographer, documentary filmmaker, and university professor, was born and raised in Kunming. He is widely recognized as one of the foremost poets of his generation. His numerous publications, which span more than three decades and various literary genres, include the landmark five-volume Collected Yu Jian, the four-volume Selected Essays of Yu Jian, and more recently Who Is He: Poems 2007-2011 (2013). Yu Jian’s writings have been translated into fourteen languages, including English. Among his documentaries are Hometown (2009) and Jade Green Station (in collaboration with anthropologist Zhu Xiaoyang, 2003), both of which constitute a cinematic expression that allows Yu Jian to extend his poetic, humanistic vision to his ongoing ecological, socio-political, and cultural concerns about life in Yunnan. A regular guest at major poetry festivals, Yu Jian has held lectures and readings at leading universities and literary events worldwide. He has lived his whole life in Kunming.

Zhu Xiaoyang holds a PhD. in Anthropology, currently working at the Institute of Sociological Anthropology, Peking University and the Department of Sociology, Peking University. He has conducted fieldwork in the "small villages" on the east bank of Dianchi since 1996, and has published Sin and Punishment: Stories of Small Villages (1931-1997) (Tianjin Ancient Books Publishing House, 2003); Sin and Punishment: Stories of Small Villages (1931-1997) (revised edition) (Law Press, 2011) ; Small Village Stories: Geography and Homeland (2003-2009) (Beijing University Press, 2011). The documentary "Hometown" (with Yu Jian) was filmed in the small village from 2007 to 2010