Sand

Tsai Ming-liang’s Walker series (2012–present) was inspired by the Tang dynasty Monk Xuanzang, whose pilgrimage was fictionalized in the sixteenth-century Chinese novel Journey to the West. The series features a red-robed, barefoot Lee Kang-sheng slowly, silently, deliberately walking through particular locales. The director described Sand poetically: “Monsoon season. The black sandy beaches of Zhuangwei. A deserted eel-catching settlement. The entangled branches of the lintou trees. Hsiao Kang (Lee Kang-sheng) appears to walk in a barren wasteland. Is this the end of time or the beginning? It all feels like a dream.”