The Madman can be Anybody: Profile of Cheng Ran

Cheng Ran is one of China’s most intriguing contemporary young filmmakers. His work explores the existential angst of today’s youth in China. This might seem commonplace considering the number of contemporary Chinese artists who tread similar paths, including the auteur Yang Fudong, who was at one time Cheng’s mentor. But Cheng’s work is anything but usual. Influenced by literature (he is a fan of the American writer Jack Kerouac, and has taken inspiration from the father of modern Chinese literature, Lu Xun) as well as European and American art house movies (think Wim Wenders and Jim Jarmusch), his films are populated by seemingly unhinged characters who are sketched by the artist with the ease of a passing voyeur. They also possess a curious otherworldly dimension too easily codified as surreal, when in fact they are products of a sophisticated and unique cinematic language that Cheng has been developing since he first picked up a video camera in 2004. They are nonlinear and allow the story to unfold on multiple channels, as was the case in the videos presented in his recent “Diary of a Madman” exhibition mounted after a three-month residency at New York’s New Museum last year.

• China