Up the Yangtze

While concurrently watching the Olympics and Paralympics on television which were being staged in Beijing I watched a documentary called Up the Yangtze which highlights the unfolding story of the building of the world’s largest hydroelectric scheme on the Yangtze River, and the resulting displacement of millions of people.

The story is documented by a Canadian filmaker Yung Chang, whose family emigrated two generations ago. The journey into making the film was not an easy one with Chang talking four years to film, research and produce the documentary. The Chinese film crew could not understand why he would want to film an impoverished peasant family.

The film is a cinematic documentary with sweeping views of The River as the Chinese call the Yangtze and woven into the story of one family.

The documentary centres around the luxury river cruise ship which plies along the river, taking Westerners on “farewell tours” of the river as they prepare to see hillsides and towns which will disappear as the area is dammed.

The Montreal filmmaker, Chang took one of these trips with his parents and grandfather in 2002 to see the area where his grandfather farmed before the massive valleys are flooded by The Three Gorges Dam.

Chang immediately saw the opportunity to tell the story of the biggest engineering feat since The Great Wall was constructed, giving it a human face through the eyes of a farming peasant family.

China’s Three Gorges Dam is considered by many experts to be a full steam ahead eco disaster but the film is more concerned with the project’s collateral human damage: old farmers evicted, young people in servitude to Western tourists and as one of those forced out of his home and working as a shopkeeper said “Being a common person in China is too difficult” and he breaks into tears. An old woman is pictured as she prays, under a small wooden cross that God will give her strength to continue...an interesting touch.

The documentary juxtaposes images of glittering contemporary China with scenes of impoverished farmers scratching to live on the riverbanks of the mighty Yangtze river, riverbanks which are rapidly rising and claiming their farm plots, their history and meager livelihoods.

Yu Sui is a daughter in the peasant family, already once displaced and growing vegetables and fishing on the rising riverbanks. She wants to continue her education but the family cannot afford this so she takes up the opportunity to work on a luxury river cruiser as the family is forced to move to higher ground. Her employment supports their move as their precarious livelihood is to be completely eradicated as the river rises.

She is given an English name, a uniform and set to work in the service class of the boat.

Both Yu and other youngsters work on the cruise boat and must learn how to interact with Western tourists (don’t call them “fat”, use the word “plump”, don’t talk about international politics and the training is drummed in).

There is no direct political commentary but the stunning images and well crafted juxtaposition of wealth and poverty are a form a poignant poetic social commentary, leaving sad reminders of the human plight of many long after the film ends.

Latest articles in watching
- The Wager - 2 weeks, 2 days ago
- Packed to the Rafters - 3 weeks, 2 days ago
- Burn After Reading - 1 month ago