Chen’s practice-led, artistic PhD thesis develops the film poem the Heart of Spring using the Xiang system (a philosophical and aesthetic system adapted from Chinese poetry) as both the central creative strategy and methodology to heighten poetic thinking within practice. This approach becomes a mediator between film poetry and the researcher as a lyrically reflective practitioner. The project also explores menglong (enigma) as an artistic and narrative device in communicating emotion, meaning and lyrical nuance.

This enigmatic film poem traces a woman’s return to find her mother who disappeared during the Chinese Cultural Revolution in a rural land. It draws inspiration from a poem Jinse [锦瑟] of the Chinese Tang dynasty poet Shangyin Li [李商隐]. Significantly, it considers the potential application in film poetry of the restraint and delicacy that is indicative of the Xiang system.