A Father’s Death Sets Off a Quest to Delve Into China’s Soul

BEIJING — In a half-empty subdivision on the outskirts of China’s capital, Yang Weidong is engaged in a quixotic struggle: to document China’s soul through an epic series of video interviews.

Before embarking on his quest, Mr. Yang, a stout 50-year-old with an impish grin and tortoiseshell glasses, had a fairly conventional life. He grew up in Beijing and witnessed the 1989 Tiananmen protests and massacre, but he had accommodated himself to the system. He taught interior design and architecture at the prestigious Tsinghua University, had a lucrative private practice and ran a hip cafe in a trendy part of town.

Then family tragedy struck. His mother, Xue Yinxian, who worked in the General…