Today's Vanguard.11

Author: None
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2001-09-01
Features: A high-level comprehensive journal that pioneers a new trend in humanities reading—《Today's Vanguard》. With an international perspective, it embraces various ideologies, fosters debates among different schools of thought, and sparkles with wisdom. The book is published every six months, with this issue featuring sections such as "Today's Focus · Editor's Album," "Vanguard Focus," "Diaries and Whispers," "Across the Border," "A Description," "Café Chats," "Broad Vision," "Language Space," and "Dialogues and Interviews." Read an excerpt: The Old Testament: The Chinese-language LGBTQ film The Old Testament and The Clown's Debut, both written, directed, and produced by Cui Zi'en, explore the realms of same-sex friendship and gender order through a fluid, handheld cinematography style and unrestrained queer aesthetics, forging a new cinematic path. The Old Testament consists of three narrative segments: Psalm 1991, Proverbs 2001, and Song of Songs 2011. Each segment is completed by an a cappella choir performance, with the "climax" being: the first segment is "Xiao Bo got married," the second is "Xiao Hao lost his job," and the third is "Xiao Bo went to sell himself."
Psalm 1991: The protagonist, Xiao Bo, has just welcomed his same-sex partner, Zheng Yang, but is discovered by his sister-in-law, Qing Jie. His brother and sister-in-law pressure Xiao Bo into marrying Xiao Cui in a patriarchal manner. After the marriage, Xiao Bo has a child but soon becomes depressed and dies.
Proverbs 2001: The protagonist, Xiao Hao, unexpectedly gains the favor of Da Yu, driving away his former boyfriend and moving in with Da Yu. Da Yu, who claims to have divorced his wife, Nana, is actually just avoiding a fight with her. Xiao Hao learns this and imprisons Da Yu, tricking Nana into signing a divorce agreement. Da Yu fails to divorce, but instead marries Xiao Hao. After Xiao Hao loses his job, Da Yu brings him home, and the three live together with Nana.
Song of Songs 2011: The protagonist, Xiao Bo, not only lives with his boyfriend, Da Jian, but also brings back Xiao Gang, who is HIV-positive, hoping Da Jian will care for him. Da Jian cannot tolerate their cohabitation and gives the house to Xiao Bo, moving out alone. Xiao Gang often feels desperate, running away or attempting suicide, forcing Xiao Bo to quit his job and stay home to accompany him. After Xiao Gang's illness worsens, Xiao Bo considers selling the house to pay for expensive medical bills. Instead of selling the house, someone wants to buy his body. To treat Xiao Gang, Xiao Bo takes the path of selling his body, an irreversible one.
The Old Testament is related to punishment and death, referencing the relationship between God and humans in the Old Testament era. This is not a tragedy, nor does it imply a pessimistic world. The New Testament lies ahead—move forward, and the New Testament era will arrive. The Clown's Debut is precisely that forward step. It portrays the gender-identity games and obstacles faced by the transgender characters Nana and Rumenling in a rather theatrical manner: After being rejected by Xiao Bo, Nana lives recklessly, finding countless boyfriends, yet she cannot escape her love for Xiao Bo. Rumenling, though free to live as a man, is still treated as a sex slave by her ex-husband, Da Yu, who rapes her. Her son, Dongdong, gets Da Yu drunk and forces him to rape her.
The Clown's Debut a raw, harsh, and even somewhat dry visual style, with segmental shots as its fundamental language. The rigid camera relationships and the alternating frenzy and stillness of the photography reveal the extremity and destructiveness of the film. It is a combination of blunt and piercing wounds, the thorns left on the footsteps toward the New Testament era. Every character who appears is a sacrifice, an clown, with no heroes or perfection, no lyricism or elegance—only a hard road and dried blood. For the creators, this is precisely the power.