Zhang Yuan (b. Nanjing, 1963) is a leading member of the ‘sixth' or 'urban generation’ of Chinese filmmakers who came to prominence in the early 1990s in a climate of increasing economic liberalisation and rapid urbanisation, but tighter political control. Often part - funded from abroad, sixth generation filmmakers have generally rejected their predecessors’ nostalgic preoccupation with China's rural past and with the roots of Chinese culture to focus on (often young) people’s perspectives on their own experiences in contemporary urban environments. Though not strictly a documentary, Zhang Yuan’s first film, *Mama* (1990), about a Beijing mother’s struggle to raise her autistic son, is regarded as one of the first major works of the ‘new documentary film movement’ in China. These films are typically shot independently of the state film system on a low budget, and have a raw, documentary ‘look’ even when they are not actually films of fact but rather 'docu-dramas', or as Zhang Yuan himself describes them, 'documentary-feature films'. Zhang’s next film, *Beijing Bastards* (Beijing zazhong, 1993), was another quasi-documentary about the hard-drinking, sex-and-drugs-fuelled lives of young rock musicians and their friends. Zhang’s concerns with those who live on the margins of ‘normal’ society is apparent in his film *Sons* (Erzi, 1996), about the shared alcoholism and mental illness of a delinquent father and his sons, and in the feature film *East Palace, West Palace*’s depiction of the stigmatised lives of gay men. Zhang’s early films often involve non-professional actors playing themselves. Since *East Palace, West Palace*, Zhang has continued to produce feature films and documentaries covering a variety of topics, which are generally considered to be more ‘mainstream’ than his earlier work.