Crossing Years

Dir: Yonfan
Exe Dir: Lee Yat-fung
Prod: Ma Ming
Presented by: Joyce Yang
Prod Co: Far-Sun
2024 | Colour | DCP | Mandarin | Chi & Eng Subtitles | 90min

Crossing Years (2024) is a documentary by Yonfan on the renowned Chinese artist Huang Yongyu, focusing on his day-to-day life and personal reflections. Huang Yongyu (1924–2023), painter and writer, was born into a family of scholars and intellectuals in Phoenix (Fenghuang) Ancient City, Hunan Province. Amidst great social upheavals in his youth, Huang’s artistic skills were largely self-taught. He travelled widely within the country, and developed an artistic style that merged together the East and the West, the ancient past as well as the contemporary present. Absorbing Western influences in a way that accentuates rather than diminishes the spirit and vitality of Chinese ink painting, Huang’s work rightfully stands among the most esteemed names in contemporary art.

Director Yonfan, who has a great interest in photography, first met Huang in the 1970s. Huang soon became Yonfan’s favourite artist-model, who took over 1,000 portraits of him. The director then had the idea of filming a documentary about Huang—a dream which was finally realised decades later. In 2012, three days before the Year of the Dragon, Huang and his daughter Huang Heini welcomed Yonfan at Wanhe Hall, their home and studio in Tongzhou. Huang generously shared stories from his life, from the first ever photo he took as a child to his experiences of drastic social change. Their intimate, honest conversation touched on a wide range of topics, from the good and evil in human nature to creative inspiration, friendship, and matters of life and death. Twelve years later, footage from this extraordinary experience was made into the documentary Crossing Years, an invaluable opportunity for better understanding this late master of modern Chinese art.

In the film, Huang jokes, ‘I paint every day; asking for a favourite is like asking a hen to pick her best egg.’ Clearly, his wit and humour are as inspiring and insightful as his art. Crossing Years captures the great artist’s reflections on art and life, and is an important record of contemporary Chinese art. It is both a slice of life of a specific moment in time, as well as an encapsulation of a lifetime’s work and creativity.

Partner Organisation: Far-Sun Film Co Ltd

Copyrighted materials courtesy of Far-Sun Film Co Ltd

The contents of the programme do not represent the views of the presenter. The presenter reserves the right to change the programme should unavoidable circumstances make it necessary.