Kang Jianning

Shanxi businessmen are the earliest businessmen in Chinese history. Their emergence can be dated back to four or five hundred years ago. In their heyday, during the Ming and Qing dynasties, Shanxi businessmen, as a business bloc, were among the top 10 business blocs in China. Pursuing commercial integrity as their cardinal principal, having the strong backing of abundant capital, and with far-sighted management, they explored a variety of business scopes and markets. Their business firms covered salt, iron, cotton, cloth, furs, silk, tea, and financial establishments, etc., spreading all over the country and even reaching as far as Europe, Japan, South-east Asia, and Arabian countries. They had been holding a dominant position in the business world of China for 500 years. As a full coverage of the history and commercial culture of Shangxi businessmen, this 8-part TV series is a representative work of Chinese documentaries.

Sand and Sea (shot in 1989) was a collaboration between filmmaker Kang Jianning and Liaoning Television producer Gao Guodong. That film depicted the lives of two families: one living in the Ningxia desert and another, a Northeastern fishing family, living on a remote island. For the 2003 broadcast version of Life — which aired as part of the 'The Weight of Time' series on Chinese TV — Gao did not participate, thus this film is only about the desert family, headed by father Liu Zeyuan. Since 1989, Kang has remained in contact with the family and returned to film them multiple times over the years. Kang's filmmaking largely consists of striking landscape shots of the desert and rather tortured interviews with reticent family members, who often provide one-word answers to Kang’s audible questions. Kang himself also appears, and is an important catalyst to drawing out responses. The filmmaker emphasizes a deep connection to place, as opposed to an eventful or dramatic narrative.

Never broadcasted feature film by Chinese documentary filmmaker Kang Jianning.

Never broadcasted feature film by Chinese documentary filmmaker Kang Jianning.

Directed by Kang Jianning (under the pseudonym Wu Gong), and part of the 'Interesting Times' series with Duan Jinchuan's The Secret of My Success and Jiang Yue's This Happy Life. The film chronicles the progress of a lazy Chinese teenager who has a rude awakening when he joins the People's Liberation Army. The original film was finished in 2001, was titled 当兵 (Soldier), and is 88 minutes. It has never been broadcasted. There are two other, widely available versions: An English dub cut for BBC, which is 40 min, and a three-episode CCTV version that adds footage shot in 2003.

Never broadcasted feature film by Chinese documentary filmmaker Kang Jianning.

In the village of Doupo, Pianxian Township, Pengyang County, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, there is a villager named Xu Wenwen. He is a Feng Shui master and who goes by the name “Yin Yang.” Due to the drought in the mountainous areas, it is difficult for farmers to use water for both domestic and agricultural purposes. In order to solve the problem of farmers' water use, Pengyang County Water Conservancy Bureau plans to help farmers repair the water cellar through government subsidies, so that the rainy season can be stored in the cellar and then used for farming, but due to limited funds, it is not Every family can receive subsidies, so everyone decides the right to play in the cellar by grasping the way. The cellar is laid, the water storage is increased, and the corn is also planted. The life of the mountain people seems to have hope.

A 1995 film co-directed by Kang Jianning and Gao Guodong that, most likely, grew out of their earlier film Sand and Sea, and saw at least Kang returning to the family in the desert that he interviewed for that film. Not to be confused with another film of this same title by Kang, from 2003, which includes more up-to-date footage, was itself edited down for broadcast on Chinese TV as part of the 'The Weight of Time' series, and does not include any contributions from Gao Guodong.

Never broadcasted film by Chinese documentary filmmaker Kang Jianning. Whether it's a feature or a short is not known.

Never broadcasted feature film by Chinese documentary filmmaker Kang Jianning.

A dilapidated temple in the ruins of the Zada ​​county in the Ali region, more than 1,800 kilometers away from Lhasa, with only two lamas, makes it impossible to imagine its former prosperity-a famous Tibetan Buddhism revival period more than a thousand years ago Great Temple: Torin Temple. Torin means "never fall in the air." Old Lama Chu Chengdanba spent his childhood here. In the 1950s, he was once sent to transport grain, responsible for stacking grain in the red and white halls of the monastery. In 1960, Chu Chengdanba went to India because of some frightening rumors. In 1967, Tibetan residents in and around Zanda County gathered in the monastery and demolished most of the buildings in a month. Only the red and white halls survived because of the pile of food.

Never broadcasted film by Chinese documentary filmmaker Kang Jianning. Whether it's a feature or a short is not known.

Liu Zeyuan is a farmer on the edge of the desert at the junction of Inner Mongolia and Ningxia. He grows food and raises camels, and his family's annual income is 5,000 yuan. Liu Picheng is a fisherman on Jingwa Island, part of the isolated Liaodong Peninsula; he is unwilling to attract attention and becomes hostile to the camera. The living environment and conditions of these two families are different, but the directors try to find some common ground while expressing unique lifestyles. In fact, these lives are firmly swayed by nature: sand storms can destroy everything, just as the ocean tide can destroy everything, and for the two protagonists, the difficult grasp of the future and their children also brings them the same loneliness. Filmed in 1989, Sand and Sea (a 50-minute cut) received the Grand Prix award from the 1991 Asian Broadcasting and Television Union. The more known version of the film, however, was broadcast on Chinese TV in 2003, and is much shorter (25 minutes).

Never broadcasted film by Chinese documentary filmmaker Kang Jianning. Whether it's a feature or a short is not known.

Early film by Chinese documentary filmmaker Kang Jianning. Whether it's a feature or a short is not known.

The landmark work of early Chinese documentary. Examines the survival status of the Ningxia Loess Plateau in the 1980s from a more comprehensive perspective, applying the key words of the popular rock song "Nothing": The first part, "Nothing"; the second part, "This is you / The tears are flowing"; the third part, "The ground under your feet is shaking"; the fourth part," You follow me." In the film, the author also clearly discusses the life in the Plateau from several aspects: water, food, poverty alleviation, education, and labor exportation. A large number of interviews were conducted with local farmers, government officials, poverty alleviation working groups, etc. — trying to find the main factors leading to infertility and the methods that can be adopted to get rid of it, discussing the feasibility and effect of "going out" in the second half. The whole film objectively reflects the living conditions of the countryside at that time.

An early film by Chinese documentary director Kang Jianning. Whether it is a feature or a short is unknown.

Early film by Chinese documentary filmmaker Kang Jianning. Whether it's a feature or a short is not known.