Filming in China and Austria
Earlier this week, a TV crew visited me at home to film a portrait for Chinese television and streaming, with an Austrian broadcast also planned on okto.tv. The interview is in German, intended for a German-speaking audience in China.
How It Began
When I had an exhibition in Chongqing in 2022, Ms. Hu from Chinese television contacted me about filming a report. Two days before she was due to fly there with her cameraman, a COVID lockdown interrupted the plans. We had a long Zoom conversation instead. She apologised and said we would certainly do something together in the future. As a Westerner, I might have taken that as a polite farewell. But one thing I have learned to appreciate in many of my Chinese acquaintances over the decades is that they keep their word.
So I was pleased when she recently asked whether I would be interested in a portrait. Ms. Obermayer, a director from okto.tv, then contacted me to arrange the filming. I spent days sorting paintings, publications and other material—enough for three broadcasts 🙂 I also brought out works from the 1980s that I had not yet shown here, including a large painting of horses, a landscape and portraits.
The Day of the Interview
Three friendly, professional women spent more than three hours interviewing me and filming my paintings and surroundings. Everyone seemed happy with the result. I had not known exactly how the filming would unfold and preferred to jump in rather than rehearse everything. That often feels more natural. Besides, I do not watch television myself. I am doing well if I can tell which end of a remote control is the front 😊
We talked about my artistic career, why I went to China, what I did there and my relationship with the country today. Only afterwards did I reflect on how many cultural projects I had taken part in or helped organise over the decades.
The planned programme was around forty minutes long, which left plenty of room for me to become boring. Fortunately, five years living in China and around twenty further visits have supplied a few stories. In my experience, older people in China still receive a degree of attention and respect that I sometimes miss here. Whether everything from this particular older mouth deserves to be called wise is another matter 😊
A Note on Cultural Exchange
When I posted on Facebook about my exhibition in China in 2022, someone responded rather bluntly. The gist was: “You seem a nice enough person, but do you not realise you are being used?” The concerns were surveillance, censorship and freedom of expression. I found it ironic to read this on Facebook, a platform whose appetite for personal information, moderation decisions and political influence I also view critically.
Chinese newspapers have published several articles about me (1, 2, 3, 4). In my experience, nothing I considered important was deliberately omitted from the printed interviews, nor were the conversations steered in a direction I did not want. The atmosphere was relaxed and often warm, as it was during this filming. If I felt I was being used as a fig leaf, I would decline.
Update: I later shared the broadcast links in Two Links – TV Portrait and Dao Index. The interview is in German.
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