Counting Blessings documents the artist’s father, Shen Daohong, who is also an artist, in his search for authentic images of Tibetan people and culture to use in his own practice. Deeply influenced by the Russian realist painters like Ilya Repin, the father sets the goal of his career to achieving realism through innovative Chinese ink practice, and depicting Tibetan is one of his main subject matters. In the film Shen conducted interviews around the photo archive the father keeps, and set out performative tasks for the father and his friends. The film also reveals Shen’s reality in maintaining a paralleled practice in order to be financially self-sufficient and to obtain the “privilege” of western art education. 

影片呈現沈莘對其⽗親追求最真實的藏族肖像的記錄。深受俄羅斯現代主義畫家伊利亞列賓等的影響，⽗親將其藝術事業的追求定位於挑戰中國傳統⽔墨畫寫實的表現⼒，藏族肖像是他最主要的表現對象之⼀。在此影像作品中，沈莘以⽗親收集的⼤量照片資料作為背景進⾏了採訪，並且讓⽗親和其友⼈在⼀次旅途中完成具有表演性質的⾏為，從⽽對⽗親事業⾥外的美學結構開展討論。影片也揭⽰了沈莘為爭取逐漸的經濟獨立，去實踐兩種不同性質的藝術形式，從⽽擁有接受⻄⽅藝術教育的優勢。這時使⽤優勢這個詞並不具有完全肯定的意義，⽽是⼀個以質疑形式出現的假設背景。影片也同樣是在探討道德，美學，圖像經濟，教育，實踐者之間的互相受制與價值轉換。