Welcome To Babel

In examining the content of Jiawei’s new landmark work and following his own search for meaning, Welcome To Babel illustrates the intimate link between many of the greatest art works and artists of the 20th Century and the aspirations of a movement that too often failed to live up to its own high ideals.
Jiawei’s Tower of Babel painting celebrates the lofty vision of the Communist movement that captivated not only politicians but creative artists – painters, novelists, philosophers, playwrights, musicians and filmmakers – across the world, then contrasts that inspiring vision with the suffering and repression that was so often the reality.
In telling the story of Jiawei’s own journey and that of his wife Lan, from rural China through the tumult of the Cultural Revolution, the film reveals how personal biography inspires great art. It profiles the work of a respected multi-cultural Australian artist, and champions the role of artists in fighting for progressive social change.

In Australia artists are too often expected to avoid politics, but in Jiawei’s painting, and in his own life, art and critical social commentary are inextricably intertwined.
At this time of anxiety about the Australia-China relationship, Jiawei & Lan’s story offers a deeper level of understanding of current events which are creating difficulties for many Chinese Australians. We believe our film can play a role in shining a light on these complexities and suggest pathways to social harmony.

We want the audience to better understand the forces that have shaped the life and the work of an important Chinese-Australian artist, and to better recognise his considerable contribution and that of others like him to contemporary multi-cultural Australia.
Given current anxieties about the rise of China, we also want to offer Australians in general a better understanding of factors that have shaped China’s recent history. Jiawei and his wife Lan have lived that history, and now he is painting it. With this film we want viewers to be able to share and understand their journey and that of many Chinese Australian families.

Our advisors include Art Critic John McDonald who is an expert on Australian and world art history, Simon Chan who is Director of Art Atrium, on the AGNSW VisAsia Board of Directors and closely involved with several peak Chinese Community organisations, and Professor Mabel Lee who translated the Nobel Prize winning book Soul Mountain by Gao Xingjian and has written widely on Chinese-Australian artists. These advisors are helping us in shaping the project and will also assist in the film reaching its target audiences.

In discussions with our distributor, we have built a strategy to create different versions to appeal more specifically to our various audiences including cinema & film festivals, television and education.

We expect the Wow Factor of Jiawei’s monumental achievement will create a media buzz and become a talking point especially in the Chinese-Australian and Arts communities, but also more widely. The impact of the painting will be heightened by the documentary, and people will respond with empathy to the suffering of so many people under despots and dictators in recent history. We believe such empathy will help to create and maintain harmony in society, especially in regard to the Chinese diaspora. Jiawei’s heroic achievement in completing his epic work will also inspire people to greater achievements in their own lives.