Escaping the room. A Post-socialist reading of Wang Bing’s Father & Sons 王兵, 父与子

Wang Bing explores the downside of China’s reform and economic development in his films. In this article I juxtapose Luo Gongliu’s Mao Zedong tongzhi zai Jinggangshan shang 罗工柳 - 毛泽东同志在井冈山上 (1959) an oil painting in Socialist Realist tradition depicting Mao Zedong as the glorified father of the Chinese socialist nation and Wang Bing’s Father & Sons 王兵  - 父与子 (2014) focusing on an individual father in Post-socialist today’s China. Wang Bing’s deconstructs and even reverses the standards of Socialist Realism in his film.

Photography © Wang Bing