Preview:
OPEN CLASS VIDEO FILE
Performance in digital video
29 :00
In the summer of 2018, Zhang visited a rural primary school in Hunan Province, China, where she conducted an open language class with fourth-grade students. In this class, Zhang encouraged the children to build confidence in learning languages and directed them to express the sentence, “I am great,” in different languages. The entire process was recorded as an open-class video.
In this project, Zhang explores how individuals perform specific identities within social mechanisms such as pedagogy or indoctrination. These mechanisms not only shape behavior but also reflect the political and cultural characteristics of a broader social context. People often act within the constraints of their assigned roles, much like students who instinctively obey their teacher’s instructions.