Born in 1952, Tian Zhuangzhuang is one of the most prominent filmmakers of China's Fifth Generation, along with Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige. Born in Beijing in 1952, Tian's father was Tian Fang, a noted actor from the 1930s and a director for the Beijing Film Studio after the Communists gained power. His mother was popular 1950s film star Yu Lan, who later became the head of Beijing's Children's Film Studio. As with all of the other major figures of the Fifth Generation, including Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou, Tian in 1978 entered the first class of the Beijing Film Academy since the Cultural Revolution.
Tian co-directed
Our Corner (1980), the children's film
Red Elephant (1982), and a number of television episodes before directing
On the Hunting Ground (1985), a documentary-style film about the hunting customs of Inner Mongolia. Like Chen Kaige's
Yellow Earth (1984), Tian's film presents the audience with a visually stunning treatment of a remote region of China, told in a challenging, enigmatic style. Unlike
Yellow Earth, which was widely praised, this film's experimentalism and ethnographic subject matter failed to gain an audience. Only four prints of the film were sold. Tian's next endeavor,
Horse Thief (1986), commissioned by Xi'an Film Studio head Wu Tianming, featured a similar fascination with exotic minorities and cinematic experimentation. Ostensibly about a deeply religious man who has to steal the odd horse in order to provide for his family, the film is also a keenly observed meditation on the religious rites and customs of Tibetan society. Both films proved controversial, as older Communist cadre members argued that Tian's work neglected the tastes of the masses. These films have come to be considered some of the finest mainland Chinese films of the 1980s. Bowing to pressure, Tian directed a trio of mainstream films that proved popular domestically:
Drum Singer (1987),
Rock 'n' Roll Kids (1988), and
Li Lianying: The Imperial Eunuch (1991).
In 1993, Tian made his masterpiece,
The Blue Kite, a heart-wrenching account of contemporary Chinese history from the perspective of a young boy. Instead of sweeping vistas of the Tibetan Plateau, the audience is presented with claustrophobic interiors punctuated by a omnipresent icy white light reminiscent of Stanley Kubrick's later works. The film caused quite a controversy, both because of its politically sensitive subject matter and because Tian submitted the film for overseas exhibition before getting permission from government censors. As a result, he was prohibited from making films until 1996. In spite of that restriction,
The Blue Kite received rave reviews from critics worldwide, winning an award from the New York Society of Film Critics and the 1993 Grand Prize at the Tokyo International Film Festival. Since then, Tian Zhuangzhuang has produced a number of young Sixth Generation-directors' films. In 2004, Tian returned to his favorite subject Tibet with the documentary "The Tea Horse Road: Delamu", a record of the caravans of the Nujiang River Valley, and the aboriginal peoples who live there.
