China: Unseen Histories, Unsettled Memories

In recent days, Sinema Transtopia's ticketing provider has been targeted by hackers, making it impossible to buy tickets for the Chinese film series "Unseen Histories, Unsettled Memories" (March 12-14). The hackers have made it seem that the showings are sold out, thereby blocking legitimate purchasers. Therefore, tickets will be available at the box office for anyone who couldn't buy a ticket online.

Presented by China Unofficial Archives, CiLENS and Berlin Contemporary China Network (BCCN).

The late 1980s was a period of intellectual, political and social ferment in China that still resonates today, raising questions about the country's political system, the environmental costs of its rapid industrialization, and the costs born by China's youth. This film series brings to light four of this era's film pioneers, whose works were censored in the wake of the June 4, 1989 Tiananmen crackdown—and, until now—mostly never screened. Seen today, they recover a long-forgotten phase in Chinese documentary cinema, offering critical insight into the early years of China’s reemergence as a global power.

China Unofficial Archives is a nonprofit digital archive run and funded by members of the Chinese diaspora that preserves and makes public suppressed books, publications, and films.

CiLENS is a Berlin-based curatorial platform dedicated to contemporary Sinophone and Asian cinema. Through film screenings, talks, and interdisciplinary programs, CiLENS explores moving image practices as a site of historical inquiry, social reflection, and cross-cultural dialogue.

Berlin Contemporary China Network seeks to strengthen exchange on contemporary China among Berlin-based academics. 

Biao Xiang, a prominent public intellectual inside China, heads the department "Anthropology of Economic Experimentation" at the Max Planck Institute for Ethnological Research.

Echo Xuedan Tang, a film curator and cultural worker who founded the Indie Chinese Cinema Week (ICCW) and heads CiLENS. 

Ian Johnson, a journalist, author, and researcher involved with the China Unofficial Archives. 

Merle Groneweg, a writer and cultural worker, coordinates the Berlin Contemporary China Network. 

Sam C. Mac, former film critic now based at Harvard University who focuses on early independent Chinese film.

Siqi Tu is a Chinese sociologist at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, focusing  on social inequality, work, and everyday governance in contemporary China. 

Yi Zhu, a Berlin-based researcher at the Institute for Chinese Studies, Heidelberg University, who also co-edits the EchoWall Project.