We have also visited Wanma Tseidan many times, and each time we talked very much about the moment and the work was very specific, because we never thought that there would be no chance to talk again. So today, we also want to re-feel Teacher Wan Ma Tseidan in our hearts to commemorate him.
Author: Lan Er
Editor: Prince Zhi
Format: Wang Wei
Director, screenwriter and writer Wan Ma Tseidan (December 3, 1969 - May 8, 2023).
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Film critic Wang Xiaolu once commented that for Tibetan films, in order for Tibetans to gain subjectivity in the production relations and power structure of films, when Tibetan directors appear, everything is already different, which is the cultural significance of the appearance of director Wan Ma Tsedan.
Although Wan Ma Tseidan had just crossed the threshold of cinema when we defined it today as "middle age in the workplace", he was clear from the beginning about why he made movies and what he wanted to make.
In Tibetan films shot from an external perspective, "the neglect of people, the neglect of Tibetans as a living individual is very common, whether it is literary works or film works, you can hardly see a rich, three-dimensional, living person, you see more superficial things."
As a member of the race, Wan Ma Tseden knows their subtle emotions very well, and each character he creates may have its own shadow, because the contradictions they present are the embodiment of his personal inner contradictions.
Unlike the labels of "pilgrimage" and "spectacle" in previous Tibetan-themed films, Wanma Tsedan's Tibet is more everyday and secular, and through his words or images, he hopes that people will see that Tibetans are no different from others. This may seem like the way it should be, but it is clear that we are all "blinded" and "limited" by our own cognitive limits.
Over the years, in the movies directed by Wan Ma Tsedan, we have seen the little living Buddha attracted by the TV series, the lama who is still secular because of love, the Tibetan opera actor who is good on stage and the wicked offstage, the simple person who is defeated by temptation and desire overnight, the old man who prefers to be broken when his faith is violated by materials, and the woman who is trapped by childbirth...
The attention to subtle and concrete people and lives has finally allowed "Tibet" to finally break away from "imagination" and truly fall to the ground; At the same time, to a large extent, this is why more ordinary audiences will feel very acceptable when they have the opportunity to contact Wan Ma Tsedan's films. Among them, the full integration of Tibetan life and modern perspective, the collision, discomfort and change suffered by tradition in modernization, both the familiarity that resonates and discusses with non-Tibetan audiences, and the surprising drama or wonderful humor caused by the characteristics of Tibet. It's very watchable, and people can't help but stop in it.
When his most recent film, "Balloon," was opened to audiences, Wan Ma Tsedan's popularity reached a new high. It is in harmony with the feminist trend of thought, seeing that women are difficult to choose independently under the multiple pressures of religion, society, and family, and even if the pressure suffered by people in other social environments may be different, the fundamental feelings and dilemmas can be completely overcome.
As a result, more audiences clearly felt the value of Wanma Tsedan's Tibetan films. He established a kind of communication, presenting the universal humanity under differentiation, and allowing the presentation of universal humanity to have a unique impact through the unique religion, belief, and thinking of the nation.
As critics say, Wan Ma Tsedan: He brought his thinking on Tibetan culture and national character to the level of examining the contemporary human condition, completely discarding the label of "ethnic minority film".
Therefore, this is exactly the most important direction explored by director Wan Ma Tsedan, on how to make Tibetan films and why to do Tibetan films.
Of course, in the direction of audiovisual language, film symbols and other directions, director Wan Ma Tseidan also has a lot of exploration based on "Tibet". For example, about magical, unreal, surreal elements and styles of experimentation. For people's "realism" and "freehand" style of "delineation", Wan Ma Tseidan actually does not fully agree, his creative roots are basically Tibet, such an "illusory" existence of a strong cultural soil, so from the heart, he is not a pure realist, from the overall point of view of his novels and films, the parallel existence of fantasy and reality in it has been around for a long time, and the form is completely determined by each specific content. The fixed long shots, medium and long ranges, slow-paced narratives and layouts, etc., which often appear, also have his thoughts on the characteristics of time and space in Tibet and the emotional atmosphere of the Tibetan environment.
In the process of Wanma Tsedan's own creation and leading the creation of two generations of Tibetan filmmakers, the value of Tibetan films is expanding. For example, with the universalization of perspective and the typology of creation, they gradually gave a new possibility about Chinese "Westerns".
Wan Ma Tseden often emphasizes that his films are only "one point" in the rapidly developing Tibetan area, but time has magic, and after more than ten years of uninterrupted creation, Tibetan filmmakers with Wan Ma Tseden as the core have jointly formed a continuous record of the changes of the Tibetan era. For example, the process of traditional lifestyles disappearing into "heritage" has left traces in these films to some extent. In fact, in Wanma Tsedan's latest novel collection "The Story Only Tells the Other Half", the times continue to move forward, and Tibet has moved from farming and pastoral villages to companies, cafes, and the observation of the era of filmmaking, and originally Wanma Tseden will also use movies to realize them.
People often say that "new trends in Tibet", but in the view of director Wan Ma Tsedan, this reference is only to distinguish between "the creation of Tibetan themes by external filmmakers a long time ago" and "the current creation of Tibetan films by Tibetan directors", and the time when the creation of Tibetan films in Tibetan language has not yet reached the time when the "method" can be refined. At any time when director Wan Ma Tseidan came to the peak of his creative year, domestic film researchers originally expected that under his continued guidance, Tibetan filmmakers could form a "method"; Now, this regret has to be left to the efforts of more successors of Tibetan films.
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Wan Ma Tseden has a strong cultural awareness.
This awareness gives him a sense of purpose and constant reflection when he works.
In the process of "going farther and farther" outward, he will pay attention to the "mixtures" and "distortions" that occur in himself—these are important for the creator, who will reflect on the culture and traditions of his own people, but he will also be cautious about the impact of his films on ordinary people in Tibet.
He also reflects on his success, facing compromises with a larger group and a stronger culture when making Tibetan films.
As a sensitive creator, Wan Ma Tseden will clearly see the fragility and vacillation of traditional Tibetan culture, but at the same time he does not reject modernization, he believes that it is inhumane to ask an ethnic group to stay in a certain appearance because of some "good" imagination, and he obviously hopes that the Tibetan people can get better and better in modernization. In his own film creation, he strengthens multi-dimensional and complex thinking stage by stage, while avoiding the binary opposition between tradition and modernity.
When writing novels, insisting on bilingual writing in Tibetan and Chinese will, in Wanma Tsedan's view, give his thinking and words an unexpected tension.
In our vision, Wan Ma Tsedan's Chinese novels have unique creativity and humor, and writing more will make him known and loved by more non-Tibetans, which is obviously very personal benefit; However, in Wan Ma Tsedan's view, on the one hand, literature still has a relatively important critical realist function in Tibetan areas, and on the other hand, in order to enrich and build Tibetan literature and language, he should write more Tibetan literary works.
In addition to the pressure of this sense of mission, Wan Ma Tsedan's cultural awareness actually makes him also look forward to the existence of the individual. "As a creator, I really hope that my identity can be de-ethnized and de-regionalized, and restored to an objective and pure creator's identity," he has expressed many times at different times in the past ten years.
In fact, director Wan Ma Tseidan is reaching this goal. In his films gaining public recognition with a stronger genre, after he transcends his Tibetan creative identity to become a mentor to a wider range of young filmmakers, his tastes and creativity are discovered by more literary lovers, and he is once again migrating his life to the new artistic atmosphere of East China, and more new possibilities are unfolding. The most regrettable thing is that people have lost the possibility of continuing to discover Wan Ma Tsedan.
But we also want to say that even if all these labels are removed, Teacher Wan Ma Tseidan also shows the tenacity and richness of the living individual that is worthy of respect. His challenges as an ordinary person, his steadfastness in his ideals, and his perseverance in kindness to others are also worth remembering.
Thanksgiving, thanks to director Wan Ma Tsedan, ideas, literature and film will live forever.
Interview with director Wan Ma Tsedan: I am fascinated by the complexity of stories and human nature
Wan Ma Tsedan's "Balloon", a Tibetan film that penetrates the public
Waiting for Wan Ma Tsedan's final new films, "Snow Leopard" and "Stranger".
External References:
A New Force in Chinese Cinema: An Interview with Wan Ma Tsedan, Film Art, 2005
Wan Ma Tsedan: The return of the true heart is difficult, Yangcheng Evening News, 2014
Wan Ma Tseidan X He Ping: "They have always lived like that", Flower City, 2017
Wan Ma Tsedan: Tibetan Culture and Modernization Are Not Binary Opposites, Contemporary Cinema, 2017
Wan Ma Tsedan: Highland Theater and Cinema in Tibetan, Contemporary Cinema, 2019
Wan Ma Tsedan: Talking about creation from "The Story is Only Half Telled", "Miao Bo WeChat Official Account", 2022
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