Jiang Nengjie was born in the countryside of China. It had been his hopes to use video to reflect and record the times. Therefore, he established MianHuaSha Film Studio in 2009, which he named after his birthplace.
Jiang is a left-behind child himself, and he understands this group very well. As a result, his representative work is a trilogy of documentaries on left-behind children. The trilogy successfully aroused the attention of the public to improve the material conditions of the village. However, he thinks the core issue has never been touched.
In 2016, Jiang Nengjie opened his first MianHuaSha Library on the second floor of his home, building a free reading platform for children. In addition to reading, the library also holds regular reading parties, film screenings, and free calligraphy and photography classes. At present, he has built four rural public library houses in Xining county. In particular, the fourth library has more than 600 library card registrations, an average of more than 100 book rentals a day.
In 2019, the Phoenix New Media Action Alliance selected Jiang as one of the Top Ten Public Welfare Figures. Besides left-behind children, his documentary also focuses on different groups such as war veterans, empty-nesters and autistic syndrome patients.
In early 2020, Jiang’s documentary film Miners, the Horsekeeper and Pneumoconiosis became a hit shortly after the COVID-19 outbreak. He was then interviewed by media including The Economist and Le Monde. Since then he has become an internet celebrity director in China.
More Info
1. The Economist: China stifles documentary-makers, but their art still shines
2. Le Monde: Le cinéaste chinois, la pneumoconiose et la censure
3. South China Morning Post: Jiang Nengjie was member of first generation left behind by parents looking for work in cities
4. Related blog posts
Watch Jiang Nengjie documentaries online: