Sunrise Over Tiananmen Square

Sunrise Over Tiananmen Square is a visual autobiography of an artist who grew up in China during the historic upheavals of the '60s, '70s and '80s. Through a rich collage of original artwork and family and archival photographs, Shui-Bo Wang offers a personal perspective on the turbulent Cultural Revolution and the years that followed. For most Westerners, Tiananmen Square is synonymous with the bloody massacre the Chinese government ordered in 1989 to quell students' pro-democracy demonstrations. For Shui-Bo Wang and others of his generation, Tiananmen Square was the central symbol of the new China--a society to be based on equality and cooperation. This animated documentary artfully traces Shui-Bo's roots and his own life journey. A Red Guard during the Cultural Revolution, he also served in the military as a propaganda poster artist and went on to become an artist and teacher during the 1980s. With deft strokes, he powerfully renders both the idealism and the intolerance of a revolutionary society. Colliding icons of Mao and Coca-Cola, Tiananmen Square and the Statue of Liberty underline the extraordinary power of symbols. Sunrise Over Tiananmen Square is the affecting testimony of an artist struggling to sort through ideology and arrive at truth.