Biography

[on Chinese politicians] Everything that bolsters their interests and their power is, of course, correct, and everything not conducive to promoting their interests and enhancing their power is naturally incorrect. As soon as you have grasped that principle, you'll never have tie yourself in knots wondering what is right and what is wrong.

The virtues that we celebrate here in China - modesty, sincerity, simplicity, helpfulness, warmth, unity - are, in fact, the qualities that we most lack.

Every writer, when they create, has certain corresponding pictures in their mind. The fun part of making films is that these pictures can be presented directly, because every character has a real image of its own. And then you can make the creative expression even richer through editing, music and the visual language of the camera. When I write a book, though, I can make the main character do a lot of things at dawn or dusk. With a film, you probably couldn't do that, because true dusk only lasts about ten minutes - if I set many scenes at dawn or at dusk and use natural light, it will take half a month to produce. This is just one example. Essentially, making a film involves more production restrictions, while when writing a book you are constrained to abstraction. In any case, artistic creation always makes people feel good - even though, in the end, it also always brings an ache of sorrow to the creator. [2017]

My family got a VHS player when I was in elementary school. My dad bought four tapes and I watched all four films that night. They were Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Speed (1994), True Lies (1994), and Jurassic Park (1993). Back then, I had already felt that film was something really wonderful. That was the era of Yimou Zhang and Kaige Chen, and it was also the time when they created their best works. But it's hard for me to say whether any particular person or film has inspired me. When I watch films, I don't pretend to be a sophisticate. I like experimental, art-house films, but I also like The Avengers (2012). I'll go to the midnight premieres of blockbusters, but I also look for films that maybe only a few thousand people in China have seen. I like film itself, not for the bragging rights over what I've seen. [2017]

I still like the ritual feeling of sitting in a dark cinema with lots of people, watching a film play. I hope that in the coming decades, watching movies doesn't just become an act of nostalgia. [2017]