Yang, Ruby (楊紫燁)

Critical Biography Filmography Reviews Links Bibliography

Yang, Ruby – Critical Biography Top

Ruby Yang was born in Hong Kong but moved to San Francisco in 1977. She obtained her BFA (Painting) and MFA (Filmmaking) at the San Francisco Art Institute, and became active as a documentary filmmaker in the late 1990s. Since 2004, she has been based in Beijing, and some of her best-known works have addressed various social issues and aspects of contemporary life in China. These include films dealing respectively with HIV/AIDS (The Blood of Yingzhou District [2006], winner of the Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject), homosexuality (Tongzhi in Love [2008]), and industrial pollution (The Warriors of Quigang [2011]). Yang has also made several documentary features outside of China, dealing with the lives of Hong Kong people and diasporic Chinese. Citizen Hong Kong (1999) – a portrait of five Hong Kong youngsters edited from DV footage shot by the kids themselves – was Yang’s artistic response to the 1997 handover. Yang also made A Moment in Time (2010), an hour-long documentary about the experience of film viewing in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Her 2014 film My Voice, My Life looks at a group of disadvantaged youth in Hong Kong as they rehearse and mount a musical production.

Filmography Top

Feature Films:

Role	Title (English)	Title (Chinese)	Year
Director Producer Editor	Ritoma (Documentary)	仁多瑪	2018
Director Producer Editor	In Search of Perfect Consonance (Documentary)	尋找完美第5度	2016
Director Producer	My Voice, My Life	爭氣	2014
Executive producer	Fish Story	子非魚	2013
Producer	Whisper of Minqin	風沙線上	2012
Director	A Moment in Time	聲光轉逝	2011
Director	China 21	N/A	2002
Director	A Journey to Silicon Valley	N/A	2001
Director	Citizen Hong Kong	風雨故園	1999
Associate producer	Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl	天浴	1998

Shorts:

Role	Title (English)	Title (Chinese)	Year
Director	Subway to Yong Chun	開往詠春的地鐵	2011
Director Producer	The Warriors of Qiugang	仇崗衛士	2010
Director	Tongzhi in Love	彼岸浮生	2008
Director	The Blood of Yingzhou District	潁州的孩子	2006
Director	White Passage	N/A	1987
Director	Matrimony	N/A	1983
Director	Mirror Points	N/A	1983
Director	Nowhere	N/A	1982

Reviews Top

Ritoma (2018)

SCMP – Ritoma documentary shows Tibetan villagers’ embrace of modern life and their struggle to preserve traditions

Nikkei Asian Review – Hoop dreams on the Tibetan Plateau

New York Times – How a Hong Kong Filmmaker Came Across a New Kind of Tibetan Business

My Voice, My Life (2014):

48 Hours (SCMP) – Film review: My Voice, My Life

Journalism and Media Studies Centre – The University of Hong Kong – Documentary by JMSC’s Ruby Yang raises over $900,000 for scholarships

The Warriors of Qiugang (2010):

NGO’s in China – Warriors of Qiugang — environmental activism at its best

Yale Environment 360 – The Warriors of Qiugang: A Chinese Village Fights Back

A Moment in Time (2010):

Cinespot – Moment in Time, A

Tongzhi in Love (2008):

Cinema Guild – TONGZHI IN LOVE

SF Gate – From China, stories of crisis and hope

YNOT at the Movies – Tongzhi in Love (彼岸浮生)

The Blood of Yingzhou District (2006):

Beijing Review – Breaking the Stigma

Los Angeles Times – A heartless disease, and a heartless response

SCMP – Left for dead

The Washington Post – U.S. Filmmakers Help Bring AIDS Out of the Shadows in China

Citizen Hong Kong (1999):

Combustible Celluloid – Citizen Hong Kong (1999)

Others:

Chinatown San Francisco – A Moment in Time interview with director Ruby Yang (YouTube video)

Icubed – CAREER TRIPLEtalk with OSCAR NOMINATED filmmaker RUBY YANG & Director of CHINA AIDS MEDIA PROJECT

New York Times – How a Hong Kong Filmmaker Came Across a New Kind of Tibetan Business

SCMP – Filmmaker Ruby Yang: looking at the city from a different angle

The Hollywood Reporter – Filmmaker takes on China’s taboos

The New York Times – Q. and A.: Ruby Yang on Hong Kong Youth and Identity

Variety – Demand surges for Asian docus

Links Top

Hong Kong Movie Database – Ruby Yang Zi-Ye

IMDB – Ruby Yang

Ruby Yang’s website: http://yangruby.com/

Bibliography Top

Chi, Shuqin. “Alternative Visions and Representation: Independent Documentary Film-Making in Contemporary China.” Studies in Documentary Film 4.1 (2010): 3-20. Print.