Jia Zhangke was born in 1970, an independent filmmaker and a leading figure of sixth generation director(or some say post fifth generation director) in China.
He came from a small inland city of Fengyang in Shanxi provence, when he was still an undergraduate student in Beijing Film Academy’s Department of Film Literature, he made his first short feature, Xiaoshan Going Home(1996). The film depicts a fired migrant worker in Beijing who wants to go home for the Chinese New Year but has difficulty finding a traveling companion. In his debut work, Jia experiments with a fresh documentary style, the use of non-professional actors, the handheld camera, and realistic portrayals of marginalized life stories in a rapidly changing socioeconomic environment, which would later became his own cinematic trademark.
He began his career as an "underground" filmmaker, making independent features outside the state system, “There were 16 state-run studios. Only they had sufficient financial support and grants to make films. All the other film productions were considered “illegal.””And his films that were praised overseas but never saw official release in China. His first full-length feature, Xiao Wu, made a big hit at 1998 Berlin Film International Film Festival, the film featured a petty thief wandering in the streets of Fengyang, unable to fit into the world, like many Jia’s ensuing film, it is a small budget, independent film oriented towards the art cinema.
Jia Zhang Ke and the rest of sixth generation directors emerged after the political tumult in early 90s, they started a new wave of independent filmmaking in China, a defiant movement that challenging authority, they have a common features like low budget, focusing on marginalized people, and notoriously low box office return, they largely work underground and have been banned from working in China.
Early “the Sixth Generation” works from the early 1990s include Zhang Yuan’s Mama and East Palace, West Palace , Wang Xiaoshuai’s The Days , Wu Wenguang’s documentary Bumming in Beijing: The Last Dreamers and Lou Ye’s Weekend Lover. These films are credited with launching China’s independent film movement. The Sixth Generation’ works from the late 1990s include Lou Ye’s Suzhou River , Wang Xiaoshuai’s Frozen , Zhang Yuan’s Seventeen Years , Zhang Ming’s Rainclouds over Wushan and Jia Zhangke’s Xiao Wu .
“I was a 21-year old young man from Shanxi at the time. I had read a few novels, I had a not-so-solid foundation in art, I was a follower of “the Sixth Generation,” and I regarded them as my teachers. I knew that they formed the oppositional force against the authorities, and they were doing everything they could to fight for the freedom for self-expression.”
