Yang Fudong belongs to the Chinese generation that grew up under the communist regime, but as adults face the drastic political and societal transformation that is a result of China's rapidly developing capitalist economy. Yang tackles the theme of social reality in contemporary China with an emphasis on the psychology of the individual confronting the status quo. In his photography and video works, Yang creates alien decors and situations that evoke both bygone eras and the present. On one hand, with his background in traditional Chinese painting, Yang depicts in his contemporary pieces pastoral landscapes that are reminiscent of the peaceful ideal world represented in traditional Chinese paintings. On the other hand, he distorts these picturesque scenes by introducing incongruous elements that relate to specific moments in the modern era, resulting in an anachronistic setting in which the characters' absurd and nihilistic existence is staged.

These themes and approaches can be found in Yang's video, Backyard - Hey! Sun is Rising. The short black and white film can be regarded as a parody, composed of remnants from the Cultural Revolution and ancient China, with a visual stylisation vaguely recalling Chinese cinema of the 1930s and the 1940s, a genre that exerts a strong influence over the artist. While the title indicates the morning, the most precious moment of the day according to traditional Chinese wisdom, the characters appear to be aimless and ineffectual despite their ongoing actions and trajectories throughout the city. Accompanied by a soundtrack of gongs and drums similar to those heard in Chinese warfare films, the video begins with several young men dressed in Cultural Revolution uniforms, who yawn widely beforedoing their exercises. The scene abruptly shifts to show them climbing hills and pushing the pillar support of an old house. Their efforts, however, are in vain, as demonstrated by the image of a group of elderly people talking on the other side of the pillar, unaffected by the exertions of the young men. It is an anti-heroic scene that runs counter to Chinese propaganda imagery.

The cluster of young men, sometimes in their white shirts – indicative of their social status as white-collar workers – continue to perform different actions in often incongruous settings: playing swords on bustling urban streets, drinking tea in a modern apartment in the fashion of the refined intellectuals from ancient times, and gazing into the distance in an idyllic garden. The camera fleetingly captures old alleys which have been largely eliminated by the massive urbanisation of mainland China. The collapse of the old political regime and value system handed down by previous generations for thousands of years has consequences for the present generation; the confusion they suffer is expressed through the disparity of the actions and settings in the video, as well as the abrupt jumps of short sequences which are inadequate in constituting any continuity or narrative coherence. The absurd nature of these sequences also results in a kind of inertia that dominates the characters who intermittently curl up on the bed or the ground while holding a sword to their chests, or remain motionless and expressionless while being attacked by their comrades.

Consistent with the preoccupations and approaches in Yang's other videos, Backyard - Hey! Sun is Rising represents a pastiche of hybrid elements, like a mental mosaic reflecting the inner conflicts and battles that the individual confronts in the face of mutations. Such works recall similar existentialist questionings already proposed in literary works such as Jean-Paul Sartre's Nausea. The viewers of Backyard- Hey! Sun is Rising are confronted with the same feelings of powerlessness and alienation as they watch the characters running in endless circles, silently shouting as the soundtrack overwhelms their voind confining themselves in modern high-rise buildings set over a vertiginous cityscape. Backyard - Hey! Sun is Rising represents a contemporary vision of a Sisyphean task set in contemporary China in which the characters must navigate the intersection of the country's long history and recent past, as well as the conflict arising from deeply embedded traditional values and the driving force of modernisation.

Sylvie Lin