观贾樟柯“事实的重塑”演讲有感

Jia Zhangke, one of China's most renowned directors, reflected on his shooting experience of a documentary of a Chinese fashion designer's story and shared his view on the role of art in today's highly mobile and interconnected world. His main message is that art should tell the story based on a reconstruction of the reality we each experience in various contexts. Each of these experience is partial and when pieced together, we are able to show the bigger picture of how individuals are connected in today's world fragmented by highly specialized fordist mode of production.

He portrayed the story of a Chinese fashion designer's story by following the team to Paris fashion show, as well as talking with tailors in his hometown in Shanxi and observing clothing factory workers. These three spaces, when patched together, show a more complete picture of the social life of clothing and how people are connected in today's China.

To me, his remarks also point to the role of mobile and multi-sited ethnography in reconstructing reality. The mobile human condition and global division of labor in production call for an updated methods. This not only requires ethnographers to follow individuals under various circumstances and in different spaces, but also to include mobile technology mediated social interactions in the virtual space. No matter what research question it might be, be it tourism/guest-host interaction, or transnational entrepreneurship or sharing expertise during international development, this new methodology needs our attention to further reflect its promising fruits and challenges.