Shen Zhongmin's 'Shanghai Daughter' Reconstructs Father's Decade in Rubber Forests

Shen Zhongmin's feature debut, 'Shanghai Daughter,' reconstructs the decade her father spent laboring on a state-run farm after being sent from Shanghai. The film blends fiction and documentary, using hybrid form to trace a personal history rooted in China's state-farm system. The work centers on the father's experience following his departure from the city for rural agricultural work in rubber forests. By combining staged and documentary elements, Shen builds a portrait of a life shaped by displacement and state labor. The project marks her first feature-length work. The film's title signals the daughter's perspective as the organizing lens for the father's past. The story is set against the rubber forests where he was assigned. The narrative spans roughly ten years of his life after leaving Shanghai. The film is the subject of a feature report by Sixth Tone.