User:Wenqi Zhang/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Jia Zhangke （Wenqi Zhang~)

Zhang Yimou

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
(Briefly explain why you chose it, why it matters, and what your preliminary impression of it was.)

I chose Zhangke Jia's Wikipedia article for the following reasons. First, he is an important part of our course this semester, and his films show the influence of politics and ideology. Second, this article is generally a good Wikipedia article because it is generally organized and objectively neutral. However, there are some deficiencies, such as missing some detailed introduction, some partial references are too single, and some information is outdated. My preliminary impression of it is that it is generally related to the topic, and the article doesn't underrepresent or misrepresent historically marginalized populations. （Wenqi Zhang~)

The reason for choosing this article is that Zhang Yimou is one of the most famous and important directors in China and the article also serves as a window to display the Chinese cinematic development and thoughts of the director. Therefore, the choice of this article is depending on the possibilities for people to read the article and gain more knowledge about Chinese cinematic development and features or thoughts about Chinese films. （Wenqi Zhang~)

Evaluate the article
(Compose a detailed evaluation of the article here, considering each of the key aspects listed above. Consider the guiding questions, and check out the examples of what a useful Wikipedia article evaluation looks like.)

The Wikipedia article about Zhangke Jia is generally coherent, objective and fair, clear in structure, and citations are true and reliable, but some of the information is outdated and not updated in time. At the same time, some parts can be more detailed, so that his image can be introduced more multi-dimensionally. In particular, as an artist, examining and understanding his specific historical and cultural context is the premise of interpreting him. This Wikipedia article is somewhat simplistic in its introduction to the historical background.

In the detailed lead section, the article introduces his main career and achievements, but lacks an introduction to his background and social environment. At the same time, for a director, it should also briefly introduce the genre he is good at shooting and so on. In terms of title classification, this article mainly has four parts: early life, career, Style and influences, and Filmography. This also covers the necessary information and is relatively clear, but the part about the relationship between the characters can be added, because there are several directors who are very important to him, such as Chen Kaige, and at the same time, his spouse and other relationships can also be introduced here.

In the early life part, Jia loved movies and literature since childhood, but this was not mentioned in the article. At the same time, after he became a director, he liked to shoot themes about his hometown very much, but the introduction of his hometown in the article was too simple to make readers realize why this theme deeply affected him. At the same time, his early experience of watching movies in his hometown cinema is very important to him, but the article under represents this. This part also only quotes "Jia Zhangke: Capturing a Transforming Reality" written by Berry, Michael, and the citations are somewhat singular.

The career section cites a variety of authoritative and reliable sources, and maintains an objective and neutral position. However, this part lacks many important awards and achievements that Jia has won, such as the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Sao Paulo Film Festival in 2013, and the jury of the main competition unit of the Cannes International Film Festival in 2014. At the same time, this article seems to stop in 2017 for his summary, and the awards he has won since then are not mentioned. More importantly, in addition to being a director, Jia has also set up his own film investment and production company. But this part of the introduction does not cover his business experience.

The section on Style and influences also has credible quotes, combined with comments from many directors and scholars, clearly showing Jia's unique film style. But this part is basically a compliment to Jia, and the position can show some of his shortcomings and criticisms more objectively. At the same time, as a screenwriter, Jia attaches great importance to the relationship between words and movies, but this part is only about movies, and does not summarize his scripts. In Filmography, a lot of the information is a bit out of date, and his 2021 film isn't fully mentioned. （Wenqi Zhang~)

Zhang Yimou:

The Wikipedia article about director Zhang Yimou is fair and displaying several major works in different historical stages for Chinese cinematic development. As one of the most important fifth-generation directors in China, Zhang Yimou is famous for several major works and his works also have several major transformation. The layout of information for his works in different stages have been listed clearly like 1980s, or 1990s in good and clear order. In each stage, a representative film has been brief introduced together with links of other readable sources. This is a clear and informative article about the director. However, there can be more information about the links or connections between different transitions for the director style or new works as well.

in the leading section of early life and early career, there has been a clear and detailed introduction about the inter-personnel relations with other directors or co-directors. The living environment has also been introduced; however, the life experience in factories and how he extract more inspirations from early life has been omitted in many cases. This one seems to be some the starting point for his affection to film making and the formation of his directing style from the beginning point. The career part has done a better job to introduce several representative works like Yellow Earth, etc. This can help readers to get a more comprehensive or complete map about his style and changes in his career.

Then, in the following 1980s, 1990s, 2000 to the present stages, the works and styles are introduced and illustrated in a better order to integrate different details and evaluation of the films. There are credible sources showing the awards and achievements of the director. Some important hints such as the director of Olympic Games in 2008 and in the coming of 2022 Winter Olympic. These highlighting points are also introduced and analyzed. To make the understanding smooth, there are also more diagrams showing the works and achievements for the director. Even in the recent works and awards like the one for the film One Second is also analyzed and displayed. In general, the early life and early career part can be further extended to make the introduction more comprehensive and complete.（Wenqi Zhang~)