Virginia Woolf Inspires Yan Siyu’s Shanghai Project ‘Outside the Room of My Own’

Article excerpt

Chinese filmmaker Yan Siyu's debut feature, "Outside the Room of My Own," draws inspiration from Virginia Woolf's essay to explore the life of a burned-out Beijing writer. The film, starring Lucie Zhang, follows Yuan Chengge as she journeys from the capital to Chengdu and beyond to a remote village, seeking refuge and creative renewal. Screening a work-in-progress cut at Shanghai International Film Festival's SIFF Project, the film interrogates what artistic freedom and independence mean for contemporary Chinese women navigating urban exhaustion and personal reinvention.