This new chapter, shot in Jerusalem, is narrated in Chinese and Hebrew and it tells a story with the central theme of “the self.” The title of the work is a direct reference to the short story Diary of a Madman (1918) by one of China's founding modernist authors Lu Xun (1881-1936), which was narrated in first-person and arranged as dairy entries. It tells the story of a mentally inadequate man who believes that all those around him have become cannibalistic, plotting to prey on him. Similarly, in Cheng’s work, first-person narrative and a profound sense of loss, alienation, and madness run throughout its course.

 

Since his last epic nine-hour long video work entitled In Course of the Miraculous (2016), Cheng Ran has increasingly become interested in the idea of “otherness,” relationship between time and urban environment, and the meaning of language.