City light (Chengshi zhiguang) 2000

In City light (Chengshi zhiguang), Yang Fudong explores the alienating feelings that are associated with living in a hectic city – the sense of belonging to a place, yet remaining anonymous. Lacking a linear narrative, this dreamlike video relies on off-beat humour: Yang portrays characters undertaking the daily rituals of city living, but with a twist – dancing in an office or on the median strip of a busy highway, running up and down stairs in alleyways, and holding umbrellas when it is visibly not raining. The comical recognition of a second self emerges from the daydreams of someone who wishes to be elsewhere.