China, with a population of over a billion people, is the new superpower, one that we all want to understand, and Wood thinks that the only way to do so is to look at its past. He explores the landscapes, peoples, tales, and cultures that have contributed shape China’s unique character and genius over the past four thousand years as he travels around the country.
Though frequently depressing, China’s best documentaries portray a side of China that tourists don’t witness in glitzy Shanghai or historic Beijing. They are the ones who tell the forgotten residents’ stories: the rural, the young, and the impoverished.
- Last Train Home
Last Train Home (https://www.pbs.org/pov/watch/lasttrainhome/#:~:text=Last%20Train%20Home%20takes%20viewers,leave%20school%20for%20unskilled%20work.) is one of the best china documentaries of the last ten years, depicting modern migrant life in China through the eyes of the Zhang family. Director Lixin Fan focuses on the Zhangs, a destitute family from rural Sichuan who symbolizes the terrible circumstances faced by many migrants, from among the country’s 130 million foreign laborers. The Zhangs left their village when their children were little to work in factories in Guangzhou, but they return to Sichuan once a year for Chinese New Year to visit family and bring their profits home. As the film unfolds, the gap between the generations widens as daughter Qin is forced to make the same decision her parents did when she was a child.
- Petition
Petition is a 12-year china documentary that follows the lives of numerous “petitioners” who travel to Beijing to seek reparation from China’s highest authorities. They and their wrongs are numerous, ranging from farmers who have been evicted from their land to labourers whose companies have been razed. The petitioners dwell in a shanty settlement near one of Beijing’s train terminals while they wait to meet with their last hope. Despite the authorities’ lack of sympathy for the petitioners, Zhao Liang, the film’s director, provides a sympathetic ear to individuals who have been harmed, bringing their cases to the court of public opinion.
- Up the Yangtze
The Three Gorges Dam, hailed as the world leader in renewable energy production, has a darker side, one that has received critical acclaim. The Yangtze River is fully explored. The Three Gorges Dam, built on the Yangtze River, has helped China become a significant leader in green energy solutions, but it has also displaced 1.2 million people and inundated 13 cities, 140 towns, and 1350 villages. Up the Yangtze depicts the individuals most impacted by the dam, creating a contrast between the poor and unfortunate who were relocated and the wealthy who take Yangtze cruises.
- Morning Sun
Morning Sun , the magnum work of director Carma Hinton, is an essential addition to any list of fascinating films. This 2003 film examines the terrible Chinese Cultural Revolution, both the events that occurred during and the consequences of the large-scale revolt that resulted in the destruction of thousands of historical monuments and the killing of millions of people, many of whom were children. Hinton is an interesting character. Despite being born to American parents, she grew up in Beijing and speaks Mandarin well. Hinton’s experience qualifies her as the ideal storyteller for this historical reckoning that China still refuses to discuss.
ยท Please Vote for Me
Citizens in authoritarian countries like China often feel powerless to influence government policies. For the children of one Wuhan middle school, though, things may be different. Please Vote for Me follows these children as they run for class monitor for the first time. The three student candidates discover what democracy looks like at its most basic level during the election process, and the viewer is immersed in their stressed, academia-centered world. Despite their unusual circumstances, the pupils’ storey is all too common in today’s China: young, middle-class youngsters who are obliged to shoulder the whole weight of their parents’ expectations.
