The Grand Tour · 2026 China Academy of Art (CAA) Graduation Season has come to a successful close. Graduates from 20 academic units responded to the times with art and explored the future through creativity, unfolding a youthful narrative of ideals, journeys, and growth across the city and campus, transforming Hangzhou into an open art venue that gathers intellectual power, creativity, and action.
The China Academy of Art is proud to launch the "Youth Insights" series, which continues to focus on topics such as avant-garde experimentation, humanities and technology, rural academies, A better China, rooted construction, people-centered, poetic cinema, visual sinology, Eastern design, and overseas insights. The series closely follows how young creators measure the world with their footsteps and respond to the times with their works. Between every departure and arrival, we jointly witness the grand explorations and boundless possibilities of a new generation of artists.
Young filmmakers approach "poetic cinema" as a boundary-breaking attitude and claim. Rather than trying to fit film history into a single mold, they recognize a persistent core: even the faintest poetic impulse expands the medium's linguistic and perceptual boundaries. By embracing the dual tensions of this expansion, they allow seemingly contradictory forces to coexist organically. Informed by contemporary film philosophy and ongoing theoretical refinement, their work persistently channels creative energy into conceptual vitality and the development of an auteur cinema rooted in poetic aesthetics.
Qingcheng
Artist:Du Shijie
School of Film
Supervisor:Fu Fan
Medium:Short Narrative Film (29 min)
Film Synopsis
He Xiuqin, an elderly caregiver, hopes to provide her disabled granddaughter Qingqing with a complete family. She pins her hopes on traveling to Mount Qingcheng with Zhou Jiahe, a retired teacher, with the intention of forming a new family. However, after being thwarted by the calculations of Zhou's children and the shattering of her illusions, she resolutely flees with her granddaughter. In the end, Qingqing transforms into a koi fish swimming freely in the lake.Qingcheng focuses on the ethical dilemmas of reconstituted families and the spiritual needs of the elderly. He Xiuqin attempts to secure a final haven for her disabled granddaughter, navigating between dependence and dignity. Yet, amid interference from the younger generation and the struggles of reality, she ultimately drifts toward a form of spiritual self-exile. The film adopts an aesthetic of contemplative observation, grounded in Sichuan dialect and the Taoist imagery of Mount Qingcheng. Through minimalist action and the transmedia metaphor of the “carp,” it captures fleeting moments of the divine within the suffocating weight of everyday life.
Advisor's Message
The graduation short film Qingcheng demonstrates rigorous textual construction, offering a thoughtful reflection on individual life trajectories and Chinese family dynamics. It creates a subtle portrayal of life’s details and familial relationships, precisely interpreting the complexity of human nature and the weight of family decisions.
The work is gentle and delicate in its approach, with a strong formal intent in its audiovisual design. The editing and narrative rhythm are precisely controlled, accurately conveying the characters' predicaments. The final film is smooth and cohesive, with mature audiovisual expression that fully demonstrates the author's artistic sensibility and professional competence in creative reinterpretation.
Du Shijie
Du Shijie holds a Master's degree in Film Production from the China Academy of Art. His representative works have been selected for numerous film festivals, including the Pingyao International Film Festival · Pingyao Corner, Busan International Art Festival, HiShorts, and ISFVF. He has participated in the production of several theatrical features, including Impasse (Cliff Walkers) and You Are My Spring, as well as visual effects production for CCTV-brand documentaries. His graduate graduation work Qingcheng received the Lin Fengmian Gold Award at the China Academy of Art's 2026 graduation exhibition.
