Williamsburg Regional Library

Readymade

eng

videorecording

Readymade

Originally produced by Zhang Bingjian in 2009

78

Mao Zedong died in 1976, but his impersonators are alive and well. This film documents the lives of two people who resemble Mao and assume Mao roles. Peng Tian is a villager from Mao's home province of Hunan, who walked into the Beijing Film Academy one day in full Mao dress to study film acting. Chen Yan is a housewife from Sichuan Province, whose mother realized she looked like Mao twenty years earlier, but it isn't until the twenty-first century that Chen gives the role a try. "*READYMADE approaches black comedy, revealing the absurdity of how people from one era worship an idol from another.*" -***Ai Weiwei***

live action