Xiaolu Guo
Encyclopedia
Xiaolu Guo born 1973) is a Chinese
novelist and filmmaker, who uses film
and literary language to explore themes of alienation
, memory, personal journeys, daily tragedies and develops her own vision of China's past
and its future in a global environment.
. She was also the 2005 Pearl Award (UK) winner for Creative Excellence. Her previous novel Village of Stone was nominated for the Independent
best Foreign Fiction Prize as well as the International Dublin IMPAC Awards.
, where it immediately took the highest prize, the Golden Leopard. Her previous feature How Is Your Fish Today? was in Official Selection at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival
and received the Grand Jury Prize at the 2007 Créteil International Women Film Festival in Paris
. Her documentary "We Went to Wonderland" (2008) was selected for the New Directors/New Films series at the MoMA
/Lincoln Center in New York
in 2008.
The novel is deliberately written in the heroine's broken English to begin with, in a post modern, near experimental dictionary form. With each chapter this broken English gradually improves, reflecting the improvement of the heroines's own English over the year in which the novel is set.
for Fiction.
The novel is written as a series of snapshots of her life as well as one of her movie scripts, as she negotiates boyfriends, a changing China, and tries to educate and define herself. The novel was rewritten by the author from her earlier Chinese language novel "Fenfang's 37.2 Degrees."
-Canadian
musician Mocky
.
.
2009 and has been shown at Rotterdam IFFR
and Sheffield Doc/Fest.
The film which premiered at the Rotterdam IFFR
was immediately picked for the prestigious New Directors/New Films series of the MoMa
/ Lincoln Film Society
in New York.
How Is Your Fish Today? explores the way we imagine reality and how zombies truly live in our modern world, the way a writer plays with his subject and his story telling, and suggests how one's life gains meaning and weight through imagination.
to work on the demolition and construction of the city. New China uses these people's desperation to realize its huge ambitions. But the workers don't belong in Beijing, and Beijing has no place for them either. They long to return home.
As China sends rockets into space and prepares to host the 2008 Olympics, this poetic film essay shows a crucial turning point in China's history, and captures a rapidly disappearing past and erosion of its roots.
Golden Leopard (Grand Prix) in International Competition, Locarno International Film Festival
2009.
Grand Prix, Créteil International Women Film Festival 2007; nominated at Sundance Film Festival
2007; special mentions at the Rotterdam Film Festival's Tiger Award 2007, the Pesaro
Film Festival 2007 and the Fribourg
Film Festival 2007.
Grand Prix, International Human Rights Film Festival, Paris 2005;
Special Jury Prize at EBS International Documetary Festival, Seoul 2005
Beck's Future Prize 2003, Institute of Contemporary Arts
, London
Chinese people
The term Chinese people may refer to any of the following:*People with Han Chinese ethnicity ....
novelist and filmmaker, who uses film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
and literary language to explore themes of alienation
Social alienation
The term social alienation has many discipline-specific uses; Roberts notes how even within the social sciences, it “is used to refer both to a personal psychological state and to a type of social relationship”...
, memory, personal journeys, daily tragedies and develops her own vision of China's past
History of the People's Republic of China
The history of the People's Republic of China details the history of mainland China since October 1, 1949, when, after a near complete victory by the Communist Party of China in the Chinese Civil War, Mao Zedong proclaimed the People's Republic of China from atop Tiananmen...
and its future in a global environment.
Novels
Her novel A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary For Lovers was nominated for the 2007 Orange Prize for FictionOrange Prize for Fiction
The Orange Prize for Fiction is one of the United Kingdom's most prestigious literary prizes, annually awarded to a female author of any nationality for the best original full-length novel written in English, and published in the United Kingdom in the preceding year...
. She was also the 2005 Pearl Award (UK) winner for Creative Excellence. Her previous novel Village of Stone was nominated for the Independent
Independent film
An independent film, or indie film, is a professional film production resulting in a feature film that is produced mostly or completely outside of the major film studio system. In addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies, independent films are also produced...
best Foreign Fiction Prize as well as the International Dublin IMPAC Awards.
Film
Her feature film She, a Chinese premiered at the 2009 Locarno International Film FestivalLocarno International Film Festival
The Film Festival Locarno is an international film festival held annually in the city of Locarno, Switzerland since 1946. After Cannes and Venice and together with Karlovy Vary, Locarno is the Film Festival with the longest history...
, where it immediately took the highest prize, the Golden Leopard. Her previous feature How Is Your Fish Today? was in Official Selection at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...
and received the Grand Jury Prize at the 2007 Créteil International Women Film Festival in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. Her documentary "We Went to Wonderland" (2008) was selected for the New Directors/New Films series at the MoMA
Moma
Moma may refer to:* Moma , an owlet moth genus* Moma Airport, a Russian public airport* Moma District, Nampula, Mozambique* Moma River, a right tributary of the Indigirka River* Google Moma, the Google corporate intranet...
/Lincoln Center in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
in 2008.
List of books
- Lovers in the Age of Indifference (2010)
- UFO in Her Eyes (2009)
- 20 Fragments of a Ravenous Youth (2008)
- A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary For Lovers (2007)
- Village of Stone (我心中的石头镇 Wo xinzhong de shitou zhen) (2003)
- Movie Map (电影地图 Dianying ditu) (2001)
- Film Notes (电影理论笔记 Dianying lilun biji) (2001)
- Fenfang's 37.2 Degrees (芬芳的37.2度 Fenfang de 37.2) (2000)
- Who is my mother's boyfriend? (我妈妈的男朋友是谁？ Wo mama de nanpengyou shi shei?) (1999)
As director/producer
- She, a Chinese (2009)
- Once upon a time Proletarian (2009)
- An Archeologist's Sunday (2008)
- We Went to Wonderland (2008)
- Address Unknown (2007)
- How Is Your Fish Today?How Is Your Fish Today?How Is Your Fish Today?, also known as 今天的鱼怎么样 , is a 2007 Chinese film written by Xiaolu Guo and Hui Rao. It was directed by Xiaolu Guo. The film is a drama set in modern China, focusing on the intertwined stories of two main characters; a frustrated writer and the subject of his latest work,...
(2006) - The Concrete Revolution (2004)
- Far and Near (2003)
As screenwriter
- The House (Menghuan tianyuan)The House (1999 film)The House is a 1999 Chinese film directed by Wang Xiaoshuai. It is rarely, if ever, screened abroad, and remains one of Wang Xiaoshuai's least well-known works outside of China. It is alternatively referred to as Suburban Dreams, Fantasy Garden or Dream House. The film was produced by the Beijing...
(1999) - Love in the Internet Age (Wangluo shidai de aiqing) (1998)
A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary For Lovers
The novel tells the story of a Chinese woman who is sent by her parents to study in London. She soon renames herself "Z" because she finds that no one can pronounce her name, then meets an English man without a name. Through the encounter, they both get to discover their own identity as well as the impossibility of two lovers to communicate.The novel is deliberately written in the heroine's broken English to begin with, in a post modern, near experimental dictionary form. With each chapter this broken English gradually improves, reflecting the improvement of the heroines's own English over the year in which the novel is set.
Nominations
On April 17, 2007, this book was nominated for the Orange Broadband PrizeOrange Prize for Fiction
The Orange Prize for Fiction is one of the United Kingdom's most prestigious literary prizes, annually awarded to a female author of any nationality for the best original full-length novel written in English, and published in the United Kingdom in the preceding year...
for Fiction.
20 Fragments of a Ravenous Youth
The story of Fenfang, a peasant girl from northern China who moves to Beijing at the age of seventeen. She moves through a series of jobs, ending up making a living as a movie extra and trying her luck as a scriptwriter.The novel is written as a series of snapshots of her life as well as one of her movie scripts, as she negotiates boyfriends, a changing China, and tries to educate and define herself. The novel was rewritten by the author from her earlier Chinese language novel "Fenfang's 37.2 Degrees."
UFO In Her Eyes (2011)
In 2011, Guo is set to release UFO In Her Eyes, a cinematic adaptation of her most recent novel of the same name. The film is a political metaphor recounted through the phantasmagoric transformation that befalls a small Chinese village after an alleged UFO sighting. The movie's score is composed by the SomaliSomali people
Somalis are an ethnic group located in the Horn of Africa, also known as the Somali Peninsula. The overwhelming majority of Somalis speak the Somali language, which is part of the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family...
-Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
musician Mocky
Mocky
Mocky is a Somali-Canadian singer, music producer, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and composer.-Biography:Mocky was born Dominic Salole in Saskatchewan, Canada. He later moved to Ottawa and Toronto, and then to London, Amsterdam and Berlin. His father is of Somali descent, but was born in...
.
She, a Chinese (2009)
The inner and exterior journey of a young woman in the landscape of village and city, East and West, love and desire. This film won the Golden Leopard at the 2009 Locarno International Film FestivalLocarno International Film Festival
The Film Festival Locarno is an international film festival held annually in the city of Locarno, Switzerland since 1946. After Cannes and Venice and together with Karlovy Vary, Locarno is the Film Festival with the longest history...
.
Once upon a time Proletarian (2009)
Sister film to She, a Chinese, this documentary attempts a subjective anatomy of contemporary China in the post Marxist era. It premieres at the Venice Film FestivalVenice Film Festival
The Venice International Film Festival is the oldest international film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the...
2009 and has been shown at Rotterdam IFFR
International Film Festival Rotterdam
The International Film Festival Rotterdam is an annual film festival held in various cinemas in Rotterdam, Netherlands held at the end of January. It is approximately comparable in size to other major European festivals such as Cannes, Venice, Berlin, and Locarno...
and Sheffield Doc/Fest.
We Went to Wonderland (2008)
Two elderly Chinese communists arrive in the rundown East End of London and comment the Western Wonderland from their astonished Chinese perspective.The film which premiered at the Rotterdam IFFR
International Film Festival Rotterdam
The International Film Festival Rotterdam is an annual film festival held in various cinemas in Rotterdam, Netherlands held at the end of January. It is approximately comparable in size to other major European festivals such as Cannes, Venice, Berlin, and Locarno...
was immediately picked for the prestigious New Directors/New Films series of the MoMa
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
/ Lincoln Film Society
Film Society of Lincoln Center
The Film Society of Lincoln Center based in New York City, United States, is one of the world's most prominent film presentation organizations. Founded in 1969 by three Lincoln Center executives - William F. May, Martin E. Segal and Schuyler G...
in New York.
How Is Your Fish Today? (2006)
A writer's dreamed trip between city and village, reality and fiction, in a chaotic contemporary China.How Is Your Fish Today? explores the way we imagine reality and how zombies truly live in our modern world, the way a writer plays with his subject and his story telling, and suggests how one's life gains meaning and weight through imagination.
The Concrete Revolution (2004)
A meditation on the price paid for the building of the new China. This film essay starts with unemployed peasants rushing into BeijingBeijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
to work on the demolition and construction of the city. New China uses these people's desperation to realize its huge ambitions. But the workers don't belong in Beijing, and Beijing has no place for them either. They long to return home.
As China sends rockets into space and prepares to host the 2008 Olympics, this poetic film essay shows a crucial turning point in China's history, and captures a rapidly disappearing past and erosion of its roots.
Film Awards
- She, a Chinese
Golden Leopard (Grand Prix) in International Competition, Locarno International Film Festival
Locarno International Film Festival
The Film Festival Locarno is an international film festival held annually in the city of Locarno, Switzerland since 1946. After Cannes and Venice and together with Karlovy Vary, Locarno is the Film Festival with the longest history...
2009.
- How Is Your Fish Today?
Grand Prix, Créteil International Women Film Festival 2007; nominated at Sundance Film Festival
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...
2007; special mentions at the Rotterdam Film Festival's Tiger Award 2007, the Pesaro
Pesaro
Pesaro is a town and comune in the Italian region of the Marche, capital of the Pesaro e Urbino province, on the Adriatic. According to the 2007 census, its population was 92,206....
Film Festival 2007 and the Fribourg
Fribourg
Fribourg is the capital of the Swiss canton of Fribourg and the district of Sarine. It is located on both sides of the river Saane/Sarine, on the Swiss plateau, and is an important economic, administrative and educational center on the cultural border between German and French Switzerland...
Film Festival 2007.
- The Concrete Revolution
Grand Prix, International Human Rights Film Festival, Paris 2005;
Special Jury Prize at EBS International Documetary Festival, Seoul 2005
- Far and Near
Beck's Future Prize 2003, Institute of Contemporary Arts
Institute of Contemporary Arts
The Institute of Contemporary Arts is an artistic and cultural centre on The Mall in London, just off Trafalgar Square. It is located within Nash House, part of Carlton House Terrace, near the Duke of York Steps and Admiralty Arch...
, London
External links
- Booktin Interview Xiaolu Guo
- HOW IS YOUR FISH TODAY? site for Independent LensIndependent LensAiring weekly on PBS through ITVS, the Emmy Award-winning series Independent Lens introduces new drama and documentary films made by independent filmmakers. Past seasons of Independent Lens have been presented by hosts Angela Bassett, Don Cheadle, Susan Sarandon, Edie Falco, Terrence Howard, Maggie...
on PBSPublic Broadcasting ServiceThe Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia.... - She Went to Wonderland Multimedia profile on Xiaolu Guo, with clips from her films and a video interview.
- Twenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth, reviewed in Northwest Asian Weekly.