Watching: Canton, the Chinese City

Overview

Canton is said to be the most Chinese of cities: eight million people, a city running wild, where the past disappears under concrete and tarmac. Rob Rombout and the video artist Robert Cahen follow five people caught between two cultures, two systems, two ideas of art. A window, a photograph, a painting or a foreign language always stands between them and the city. The film asks what it means to be in China and, at the same time, not to be there.