Shanghai Daughter

Shanghai Daughter

A Ming’s father was sent from Shanghai to work at the state-owned Dongfeng Farm in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, as one of the educated urban youth in the late 1960s. After his death, A Ming travels alone to the rubber plantations of Xishuangbanna to fulfil a promise he made but never had the chance to keep, searching for a person from his past whose whereabouts are unknown.

As the journey unfolds, fragmented personal memories, oral accounts from the second generation of sent-down youth, ancient local legends, and traces of history buried within the rubber plantations begin to intersect. For 13 years, the artist Ag (Shen Zhongmin) travelled frequently between Shanghai and Yunnan, conducting field research…

In August 2024, faced with a shortage of funding for the shoot, Ag launched a crowdfunding campaign through a deeply sincere post on her own WeChat public account. Within a short period of time, the project received support from hundreds of ordinary people from all walks of life. It also resonated with many people born in the 1970s and 1980s, evoking memories of their parents’ experiences of being sent to support development in the border regions and migrating to state farms…

This is a distinctive moving-image work in which the artist is both a participant in the story and a director engaged in self-reflection.

I met Ag at the Zampu Museum and have watched Shanghai Daughter several times. I have never been able to forget the scene in the dragon fruit fields — almost apocalyptic: the protagonist approaches from a distance, everything immersed in red light…

And the moment when a rubber tapper draws a knife upwards, scraping away the bark.

And the details of the demolition of a house.

And the scene in which she has clothes made to order.

And every meal, every conversation.

And the sudden appearance of scenes that seem unrelated to the narrative.

And the protagonist’s arrival, approaching from far away.

I cannot see the memories — the past contained within the conversations, the images in which past and present intertwine throughout the film. Yet I can feel, with absolute clarity, that sense of reluctance to let go, of words left unsaid.

"Shanghai Daughter" always makes me think of Abbas Kiarostami’s "24 Frames" (2017). There is almost no narrative, yet whenever each image appears, it is filled with rich color and an unspoken form of expression.

Ag’s journey in search of her father’s past slowly unfolds through the film. A foreign land, another land, and one’s homeland — each is, in itself, a journey worth discovering slowly.

"Shanghai Daughter" is artist and filmmaker Ag’s first feature film, and a work that has received the love and help of many people.

Li Zhenhua
Written in Tuscany, Italy
Saturday, 26 September 2026

ARTIST: Agnis (Shen Zhongmin)

Film Director, Writer

Agnis (Shen Zhongmin) is a film director and writer. Her debut feature film, "Shanghai Daughter", was selected for the Panorama at the 76th Berlin International Film Festival and the Young Cinema Competition (Chinese Language) at the 50th Hong Kong International Film Festival. She is the author of short story collections including The Traveler's Desire and Deep Simulator, and her artistic practice encompasses contemporary art mediums such as theater and moving image.

CURATOR: Li Zhenhua

Li Zhenhua (b. 1975) works between Zurich, Berlin and Turin. He has been active in the art field since 1996, engaging in exhibition curation, artistic practice and project management. He serves as the international publisher of "Contemporary Artists" at Sichuan Fine Arts Institute.

Since 2010, he has been a nominator for the Summer Academy at the Zentrum Paul Klee Bern (Switzerland), the Prix Pictet (Switzerland), the Sovereign Asian Art Prize (Hong Kong), and the Future Generation Art Prize (Ukraine). In 2014, he was a member of the international advisory board for the exhibition "Digital Revolution" at the Barbican Centre in the UK.

Since 2000, he has focused on curating and, since 2004, on dialogue with filmmakers and documentary filmmakers from China. He has been involved with CIFF since 2004. In 2015, he produced JU Anqi's film "Poet" on a Business Trip. In 2010, he curated Heat: "ZHANG Yuan", a solo exhibition in Nanjing, China. In 2007, he produced SHEN Shaomin's documentary film "I Am Chinese". From 2014 to 2025, he worked as film curator for Art Basel Hong Kong. In 2025, he served as curator of Noor Riyadh and curator for Futian District at the Glow Shenzhen Festival.

Li served as a final jury member for "Shorti" (Spain, 2003), "Napolis Film Festival" (Italy, 2006), "Transmediale 2010" (Berlin, Germany, 2009), CCAA (Beijing, China, 2012), CIFF (Nanjing, China, 2012), "Fantoche" (Switzerland, 2012), "Art Award China" (Beijing, China, 2015–2016), "2021 KCC UK × Germany Open Call" (Germany & UK, 2021), "DAAD: Fellows of the Berlin Artists-in-Residence Programme 2022" (Germany, 2021), "AI Anarchies" (2022), "Chongqing Light Art Festival" (2025), and "Shining Shanghai, Light Art Festival" (2024–2025).

Li Zhenhua has edited several artists' publications, including Zeng Zhe's "Another Place, Some Other Time" (2022), Yan Lei's "What I Like to Do" (Documenta 13, 2012), Hu Jieming's "One Hundred Years in One Minute" (2010), Feng Mengbo's "Journey to the West" (2010), and Yang Fudong's "Dawn Mist, Separation Faith" (2009). A collection of his art reviews was published under the title Text in 2013.

In 2026, he was named Curator of the Year by Asian Art 18. In 2016, he received the INNOVATION Prize from The Regional Contemporary Art Project in connection with the 3rd Ural Industrial Biennale of Contemporary Art (2015), Russia. In 2015, he was named Curator of the Year by the TANC Asia Prize in Shanghai. In 2015, he was named Curator of the Year (2014) by Art Power 100, Beijing.