Age, Height, Education: A Practice-Led Documentary Exploring Generational and Cultural Expectations in Urban China

<p dir="ltr"><i>Age, Height, Education</i> is a short observational documentary exploring the “marriage market” in Shanghai’s People’s Park, where parents display handwritten profiles of their adult children in an effort to arrange suitable matches. Created as part of the Looking China Youth Film Project, this film operates as a practice-led inquiry into minimalist nonfiction filmmaking, with a focus on visual storytelling, cross-cultural observation, and ethical representation.</p><p dir="ltr">The project investigates how filmmaking can capture culturally specific rituals through a restrained, cinematic lens—eschewing voiceover, interviews, or overt exposition in favour of ambient sound, body language, and composition. This creative choice positions the viewer as an active interpreter, encouraging reflection on generational expectation, gender roles, and societal norms without imposing a Western explanatory frame.</p><p dir="ltr">The film tests the boundaries of authorship and intervention in documentary filmmaking, navigating language barriers and cultural difference through an ethics of presence, patience, and careful framing. Shot and edited within a ten-day residency in China, the work also explores how time-limited, immersive creative processes can still yield nuanced, layered representations.</p><p dir="ltr">By integrating observational film language with a feminist and intercultural lens, <i>Age, Height, Education</i> contributes to the field of creative documentary as a site of research, expanding understandings of how short-form film can illuminate complex socio-political dynamics with economy and restraint.</p>