Homework

The documentary film Homework tells the stories of two Chinese girls during their summer holiday in 2019. The two ten-year-old girls have different backgrounds: Qiao Shiwen is from a middle-class family in Beijing, and Li Jiahui is from a working-class family in a small village of Shanxi province. Shiwen is an only-child, and Jiahui has one brother. The two families have one thing in common: the parents are concerned about their children’s education, but they have different parenting styles. 

The film is aimed at representing parents’ educational anxiety by showing the families’ daily life and exploring different parenting styles’ influence on children. Viewers can also see the gap between children and parents, urban and rural areas in today’s China. This research paper provides the social-historical background to this documentary film and then discusses some existing documentary works concerning the similar topic. At the same time, this paper goes over the film’s production process, including the shooting and editing process.