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Content

China Studies

China Studies


DEAD SOULS

By Wang Bing

In Gansu Province, northwest China, lie the remains of countless prisoners abandoned in the Gobi Desert sixty years ago. Designated as "ultra-rightists" in the Communist Party's Anti-Rightist campaign of 1957, they starved to death in the Jiabiangou and Mingshui reeducation camps. The film invites us to meet the survivors of the camps to find out firsthand who these persons were, the hardships they were forced to endure and what became their destiny.

DVD (Mandarin, Color, With English Subtitles) / 2018 / 495 minutes

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MAINELAND

By Miao Wang

Chinese teenagers from the wealthy elite, with big American dreams, settle into a boarding school in small-town Maine. As their fuzzy visions of the American dream slowly gain more clarity, their relationship to home takes on a poignant new aspect.

Filmed over three years in China and the U.S., MAINELAND is a multi-layered coming-of-age tale that follows two affluent and cosmopolitan teenagers as they settle into a boarding school in blue-collar rural Maine. Part of the enormous wave of "parachute students" from China enrolling in U.S. private schools, bubbly, fun-loving Stella and introspective Harry come seeking a Western-style education, escape from the dreaded Chinese college entrance exam, and the promise of a Hollywood-style U.S. high school experience. In one sleepy Maine town, worlds collide as students fresh from China learn to navigate the muddy waters of this microcosmic global village.

Through lyrical cinematography that transports us from China to the U.S., MAINELAND captures a new crop of future Chinese elites as they try to find their place between the collectivist society they come from and the individualist culture they come to embrace. As Stella and Harry's fuzzy visions of the American dream slowly gain more clarity, they ruminate on their experiences of alienation, culture clash, and personal identity, sharing new understandings and poignant discourses on home and country.

DVD (Color) / 2017 / 90 minutes

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WE THE WORKERS

By Wen Hai, Zeng Jinyan

Shot over a six-year period (2009-2015) in the industrial heartland of south China, a major hub in the global supply chain, WE THE WORKERS follows labor activists as they find common ground with workers, helping them negotiate with local officials and factory owners over wages and working conditions. Threats, attacks, detention and boredom become part of their daily lives as they struggle to strengthen worker solidarity in the face of threats and pressures from the police and their employers. In the process, we see in their words and actions the emergence of a nascent working class consciousness and labor movement in China.

DVD (English, Mandarin, Color, With English Subtitles) / 2017 / 174 minutes

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WIDOWED WITCH, THE

By Cai Chengjie

Winner of the top prize at the Rotterdam Film Festival, director Cai Chengjie's debut feature is, like its titular protagonist, defiantly low-fi, unexpectedly powerful and fiercely unpredictable.

Deemed cursed by the local villagers, three-time widow Er Hao (played by Tian Tian) has her hands full with a rogue fireworks explosion, a tagalong teenager, and a veritable army of crazed local men who can't keep their hands off her. Turned away when she seeks shelter from her neighbors and forced to take up residence in a cold camper van, Er Hao's future looks as bleak as the stark, snowy countryside.

But a series of fluke changes in fortune causes Er Hao to embrace the mystical identity her villagers have assigned to her. As a sort of modern shaman, she steers superstitions into small subversions, helping others who once shunned her and proving that to survive as a woman is a kind of magic.

THE WIDOWED WITCH fearlessly addresses the power of religion in China which, according to the dictates of Communism, is effectively banned. It also conveys the cruelty that can come with village life, and counters the Western narrative of China as a superpower by showing a place where the rule of law is all but nonexistent. Not only is there no recourse or safety net, even the rape that Er Hao suffers goes unpunished. Abused and shunned, Er Hao gains power over the men who have wronged her - but can she find a place in a misogynist, patriarchal and deeply lonely social structure?

With a stunning array of visual styles and a genre-exploding approach to storytelling, THE WIDOWED WITCH is a simultaneously idealistic and despairing film - a bleak view wrapped in a fabulist aesthetic, and one that encompasses both magic realism and crushing social satire.

DVD (Mandarin with English subtitles, Color, Black and White) / 2017 / 118 minutes

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BITTER MONEY

By Wang Bing

BITTER MONEY documents China's rapid economic and social transformation by following the rural workers who leave their Yunnan hometown to move to the city of Huzhou, one of the busiest cities of eastern China (with the highest number of part-time workers), to labor in its textile factories. But what they find are few opportunities and poor living conditions that push people, even couples, into violent and oppressive relations. The camera follows Xiao Min, Ling Ling, and Lao Yeh closely, capturing the emotions of their daily hard work and disappointments upon receiving their wages. The film deals directly with the effects of 21st-century capitalism, as filmmaker Wang Bing acts as witness to the lives of people forced to adapt to a new economic landscape.

DVD (Mandarin, Color, With English Subtitles) / 2016 / 152 minutes

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ONLY ME GENERATION - AN INTROSPECTIVE LOOK INTO CHINA'S ONE-CHILD POLICY

The one-child policy, a part of China's family planning policy, was a population planning policy of installed by the Chinese government. It was introduced in 1979 and began to be formally phased out in 2015

"Only Me Generation" is a documentary that explores the effects of the China's "One Child Policy" from the perspective of the policy's first generation point of view.

Almost 30 years ago, the Chinese government first introduced the "one child policy" to alleviate social, economic and environmental problems. Three decades later, they are now looking at a relaxation of the policy. The result is that the babies born under the current policy are a unique population set with issues and challenges that are different from those of other Chinese generations; most notably that they grew up as "only children".

This film provides a unique look into a unprecedented government policy that changed the rules of a society, impacted far more than a generation, and can now be studied on a variety of fronts. The film raises numerous questions and serves as a wonderful launching point for discussion and debate.

What are the strengths and weaknesses of "only children" in a generation of only "only children"?

What are the pressures that these children, the results of the policy, have lived under?

How have parental expectations changes due to family limits on the number of children permitted?

What are their social experiences now that these Only Me Generation children are now adults?

What are the ramifications, if any, of relaxing the policy now after so many years?

DVD (Color) / 2016 / 58 minutes

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HOW CHINA FOOLED THE WORLD

China is now the second largest economy in the world and for the last 30 years its economy has been growing at an astonishing rate. While the west has been in the grip of the worst recession in a generation, China's economic miracle has wowed the world, with spending and investment on a scale never seen before in human history.

But could this mighty economic giant actually be in serious trouble, with massive debts that may never be repaid? Robert Peston travels to China to investigate.

Note: This BBC production not available in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Mainland China, Japan, USA, Canada.

DVD / 2014 / 50 minutes

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INSIDE CHINA: 1. THE RISE OF A SUPERPOWER

  • China's history
  • 20th Century China
  • Chinese Industrial Development

    • How has China transformed, inside 30 years, from developing nation to the world's next largest economy after the USA? Includes interviews with historians, eye-witnesses and party officials.

    TIANANMEN SQUARE A dramatic turning point was the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989 - the communist party decided to bring in economic, if not political, freedom. It meant an historic turning away from state control to a market economy.

    AN ANCIENT CIVILISATION But the causes of China's rise go right back into history, to the world's oldest civilisation, and in a sense it is only returning to its former greatness.

    COMMUNISM GOOD AND BAD Despite the excesses, it can be argued the communist takeover in 1947 laid the foundations for China's rise, beginning the process of industrialisation, mobilising the people and sharing out the land more equally. One of its key achievements: allowing social mobility. But inequality, corruption and pollution are causing widespread protest.

    DVD / 2014 / 25 minutes

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    INSIDE CHINA: 2. CHINA THE FUTURE?

  • China's world role
  • China in Africa, Europe, Latin America
  • China as a world power

    • China is flexing its economic muscle, investing all over the world. What does this mean for the West?

    AFRICA China needs access to energy and raw materials - that's why it's pouring huge investment into Africa. Mozambique's economy, for example, is booming, with Chinese-led construction and agriculture projects. Is this part of a "grand plan" on China's part? Who is "master" and who is "servant" in these new relationships?

    THE EU also receives Chinese money, and is China's largest trading partner, but what about principles such as human rights? Critics argue the EU is in danger of losing its sovereignty in the rush for China's gold.

    CONFLICT WITH THE USA? As China asserts itself on the world stage, is there a danger of conflict with the USA? In fact, China is a long way from challenging the USA militarily and anyway, conflict is "unthinkable", the experts say, in the nuclear age and when the two powers are economically co-dependent.

    DVD / 2014 / 25 minutes

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    INSIDE CHINA: 3. POLITICS AND THE PEOPLE

  • China's political system
  • Popular protest in China
  • Internet censorship in China

    • China is now a market economy, but holds on to the communist political system - pollution, corruption and ethnic divisions cause great tensions.

    POLITICS They call it "Socialism with Chinese characteristics" but the communist party has a monopoly on power and no opposition is tolerated. There are tensions in regions such as Xinjiang Province where movements for independence have led to violence.

    PROTEST In a one-party system the people are the opposition. A major cause of popular protest is land expropriations to build factories. The party says it must listen to these protests - but are they?

    FREEDOM OF SPEECH Protests grow against censorship and human rights violations - the authorities try to clamp down but the internet is hard to censor. Says one blogger: "We can hope for a civil society, where people may dare to speak out."

    DVD / 2014 / 25 minutes

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    INSIDE CHINA: 4. THE NEW ENTREPRENEURS

  • Chinese business case studies
  • The Chinese economic miracle
  • Women in business
  • Small businesses in China

    • China's "new billionaires" are well-known but what about the small businesses? Many were set up by migrants who have battled against hardship - and many are women.

    THE PR BUSINESS 24 year old Tian Qiuyu started her business while she was still at university and now employs 6 people - but she never forgets her roots in a poor, remote village area where education was a fight against the odds. She wants to help educate other young people from the country. "They shouldn't just accept their fate. I didn't."

    THE BEAUTY SALON Yu Xinpei is also the daughter of poor farmers, but now owns two beauty parlours and employs 60 people. She now mixes with Shanghai's other young high-flyers whom she is keen to learn from.

    But for most migrants, earning a living is a hard struggle. Mrs Zhang set up a small retail business with her husband - with the heartbreak of leaving her children behind.

    DVD / 2014 / 23 minutes

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    INSIDE CHINA: 5. CHINA RICH AND POOR

  • China's social development
  • Modern China
  • Conditions in rural China

    • A big principle of socialism is equality, but China's new society has glaring inequalities. The communist party calls it "socialism with Chinese characteristics" but, in the rush for growth, have they created a society far harsher than western capitalism?

    COMMUNISM COMES TO IKEA The new China now has a growing middle class with the same aspirations as their western counterparts - they want good schools, a good apartment, holidays, a decent retirement package - and furniture from Ikea!

    TOWN AND COUNTRY But the "economic miracle" has left millions behind - there is much hardship in China's vast hinterland where water is scarce and harvests are poor. The government says it is listening to the protests of the disenfranchised - but are they not more interested in holding on to power?

    DVD / 2014 / 23 minutes

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    INSIDE CHINA: 6. THE GREAT MIGRATION

  • China's urban migration
  • Modern China
  • China's industrial revolution

    • Chinese development has depended on a vast influx of 250 million migrant workers into the cities - some have prospered but most are poorly paid and housed, with few rights. Mass protests mean the government can no longer take them for granted.

    THE TRAINEE CHEF'S STORY Li Xu Bin is a migrant worker like millions of others, on low pay and with little job security, living with his wife in a single room in Beijing's suburbs. They have left their child behind, the cause of much heartache.

    THE FRUIT VENDORS Like Li Xu Bin, Mr and Mrs Zhang have moved to the city to earn money to pay for their children's education. The rules say their children must stay behind. Meanwhile they have to work all hours to make ends meet. Says Mrs Zhang: "We never have a single day off."

    DVD / 2014 / 21 minutes

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    INSIDE CHINA: 7. ENVIRONMENTAL TIMEBOMB?

  • China's air and water crisis
  • Renewable energy in China
  • China's industrial development

    • The Chinese want the same life style as the West - but at what cost? The air and water are polluted, causing much suffering and protest - as well as a drought crisis. Chinese leaders talk of moving away from fossil fuels, but how much changes at local level?

    "THEY SILENCE OUR COMPLAINTS" The holiday resort of Hangzhou is supposed to be a model "green" city, but in the suburbs it's a story of toxic chemicals, corruption of local officials and suppression of protest.

    WATER CRISIS Over half of China's rivers and lakes are badly polluted, and the water table is falling. 300 million rural people lack access to safe drinking water. Ma Jun has created a website to shame the worst industrial polluters.

    RENEWABLES The experimental city of Himin Solar Valley is held up as a great example of sustainability - but is it too little, too late?

    DVD / 2014 / 28 minutes

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    INSIDE CHINA: 8. EDUCATION AND WOMEN'S RIGHTS

  • Women In China
  • Education In China
  • Universities In China
  • China's "One-Child" Policy

    • The communist revolution gave women theoretical equality, but centuries-old oppressions still persist. Women have suffered through the "one child" policy. But women are now among China's top entrepreneurs.

    "ONE CHILD" POLICY China's coercive policy of forbidding more than one child has had a cruel effect on China's women. The policy is now being relaxed - but some women are happy with one child.

    SUICIDE WATCH China is the only country where the suicide rate is higher among women than men - experts say this may be down to the low status of rural women. Can education help?

    "EDUCATION COMES FIRST" Language professor Wu Quing runs a vocational school for young rural women. "It's a man's world - but change rural women and you will change China."

    "THE STUDIES ARE DEMANDING" Architectural student Ghuan Zhaoyu is one of China's growing university population. She wants to study abroad but, as an only child, she has to think of her parents.

    DVD / 2014 / 26 minutes

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    IRON MINISTRY, THE

    By J.P. Sniadecki

    Filmed over three years on China's railways, THE IRON MINISTRY traces the vast interiors of a country on the move: flesh and metal, clangs and squeals, light and dark, language and gesture. Scores of rail journeys come together into one, capturing the thrills and anxieties of social and technological transformation. THE IRON MINISTRY immerses audiences in fleeting relationships and uneasy encounters between humans and machines on what will soon be the world's largest railway network.

    DVD (Color) / 2014 / 83 minutes

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    CHINA CONCERTO

    By Bo Wang

    An observational essay shot in the southwestern city of Chongqing, CHINA CONCERTO probes the uses of public spectacle in contemporary China.

    Born and raised in Chongqing, filmmaker Bo Wang visited his hometown at the height of now-disgraced politician Bo Xilai's campaign to revive Mao-era "red culture", promoting among other things the public singing and dancing of Communist songs.

    Alongside these participatory street performances, CHINA CONCERTO looks at images from the media, including Michelangelo Antonioni's Chung Kuo-China, and news media and advertising that address the capitalist present in forms reminiscent of the communist past.

    The situation is explored in a narration modeled on Chris Marker's Sans Soleil, which is delivered by a woman with an ambiguous accent. Perched between an insider and outsider perspective, CHINA CONCERTO considers the persistence of totalitarian ideologies and images.

    DVD (Color) / 2012 / 50 minutes

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    CHINA ON CHINA: A DRAMATIC HISTORY

    Three decades ago China was regarded as a developing country. Today it is the world's second largest economy, having made the journey from scarcity and poverty to wealth and abundance faster than any other nation in history-a narrative that Chinese leaders are eager to promote. But the official record makes no mention of events which directly precipitated China's astonishing economic rise-most notably, the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989. This film describes what happened when the rigid policies instigated under Mao gave way to the era of Deng Xiao Ping, who ushered in unprecedented opportunities for creating personal wealth-as well as sociopolitical paradigm shifts that no one could anticipate. Expert commentary is provided by Chen Mingming, a high-ranking Chinese diplomat; Professor Zhu Ling, Deputy Director at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS); Yu Hua, author of To Live; and others.

    DVD (Portions with English subtitles) / 2012 / 29 minutes

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    CHINA ON CHINA: A NEW GENERATION

    It can be argued that China's newfound affluence is made possible not by bold entrepreneurs but by disadvantaged migrant workers, millions of whom have left the rural villages in which they were born to seek better lives in cities. This film takes viewers inside that globally significant megatrend with stories of Chinese migrants and their challenges. Li Xu Bin and his wife Dai barely get by on temp jobs in the Beijing suburb of Dong Xin Dian. But in Guiyang, capital of Guizhou province, a young woman named Tian Qiuyu has rejected work for hire and founded her own PR firm. And at Tongji University in Shanghai, budding architect Guan Zhaoyu makes the most of the education her parents never had. Expert commentary comes from Fudan University professor Zhou Dunren, who talks about the importance of understanding the difficulties that migrant workers face in China today and how their outlook compares with those of previous generations.

    DVD (Portions with English subtitles) / 2012 / 29 minutes

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    CHINA ON CHINA: CULTURE FOR BILLIONAIRES

    A country that can look back on a rich and extensive past will undoubtedly have a wealth of stories, and China's literary tradition, with its multi-millennial history of essays, novels, and poetry, is likely the world's oldest. But even in a land that reveres poetry, pictures can take over-especially moving pictures. Although small art-house films were the only choice after the cinematically barren years of the Cultural Revolution, today China is a major producer of movie spectacles. This program shows how far the country has come in terms of cultural production and how it is poised to rival the U.S. as the world's filmmaking center. Contemporary Chinese literature and the market for books are also important topics, as are censorship, self-censorship, and why certain motifs are recurrent in Chinese stories. Expert commentary comes from director Eva Jin, film critic Raymond Zhou, film industry analyst Leon Gao, stunt man Zeng Dong, and author Yan Lianke.

    DVD (Portions with English subtitles) / 2012 / 29 minutes

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    CHINA ON CHINA: EVERYTHING HAS A PRICE TAG

    Skyrocketing wealth might be building a new China, but it is also leading to deep divisions within Chinese society. As in the United States, some experts even question whether or not a widening lifestyle gap is truly beneficial for the country's long-term economic growth, not to mention for social stability. This film looks at emerging class differences in what was originally designed to be a classless state, with discussions focusing on multigenerational poverty in rural areas and the precarious existence of hundreds of millions of migrant workers on the fringes of China's cities. For street-level insight, viewers are invited into the household of two apartment tenants who are most likely living paycheck to paycheck, but who have high ambitions for their young son. Expert commentary comes from Fudan University professor Zhou Dunren, writer Xie Chuntao, and other observers of China's rapidly evolving social landscape.

    DVD (Portions with English subtitles) / 2012 / 29 minutes

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    CHINA ON CHINA: MORE THAN HALF THE SKY

    Mao's aphorism about the strength and ability of women may have helped to do away with foot-binding, child marriage, and other archaic traditions, but in 21st-century China gender equality is as illusory as ever. This film examines the challenges that Chinese women face, especially the obstacles to prosperity and security that the country's poor, rural women know all too well. Viewers meet Yu Xinpei, who migrated to Shangai from a remote southern village. At first apprenticed to a hairdresser, she's now starting a salon of her own. Meanwhile, sociologist Liu Bohong talks about the difficulties women encounter when they move to cities-although those who stay in the provinces "have it harder." Many become suicide statistics, which is why physician Xu Rong has founded a support group for wives and daughters who are struggling with rural life. On the other hand, the film also points out that 11 of the world's richest women are Chinese!

    DVD (Portions with English subtitles) / 2012 / 29 minutes

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    CHINA ON CHINA: SUN AND WIND BUT NO WATER

    "Promoting growth and protecting the environment is a contradiction," says Chinese ambassador Chen Mingming, insisting that the opulent lifestyle of "people overseas" should figure into any assessment of his country's environmental policies. "Isn't it legitimate for the Chinese to seek the same quality of life? That means economic development." Others who support the government's approach to ecological problems also appear in this film, such as political observer Xie Chuntao-although he does acknowledge tangible policy splits within China's leadership and the difficulty of balancing environmental protection with the constant need for energy and raw materials. For a less ambivalent view, the film turns to activist Chen Faqing as he meets with angry suburbanites outside Hangzhou-a supposedly "model city" now plagued by factory pollution. With protests and potentially violent confrontations like these brewing across China, will the government seek a new way forward?

    DVD (Portions with English subtitles) / 2012 / 29 minutes

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    CHINA ON CHINA: THE COMEBACK

    To surpass the U.S. in economic might, China needs access to cheap energy and raw materials. That's why it is now heavily invested in developing countries-most notably in Africa, where millions of Chinese citizens have relocated. Mozambique, which has China to thank for its remarkable 10 percent growth rate, offers an eye-opening case study. This film travels in and around the capital city of Maputo, highlighting examples of Chinese-backed development and assembling various perspectives on China's involvement in the African "lion economies." Surveying a vast, fertile field with his African business partner, Chinese-born rice producer Luo Haoping describes new agricultural techniques he's shared with local growers, while Lyle White, a South African expert on China, sheds light on the complex forces behind this and similar endeavors. Several other experts are also featured in discussions about China's future as a global economic force and development leader.

    DVD (Portions with English subtitles) / 2012 / 29 minutes

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    CHINA ON CHINA: THE PEOPLE AND THE POWER

    They aren't chosen by popular election, but when the 3,000 members of the National People's Congress gather in Beijing, they do the nation's business within their ascribed political parameters. Does this mean that the average citizen has a voice in government? Are China's top leaders influenced by these locally appointed representatives, or is power so centralized that over 1.35 billion people can still be ruled as a whole, from behind closed doors? This film presents stories and discussions about China's one-party system, how an individual NPC appointee participates in it, and what alternative forms of political expression are possible. Viewers meet Dilina'er Abudulah, a delegate from the Xinjiang autonomous region who represents the Uyghur ethnic minority. Her thoughts and daily activities are presented alongside commentary from scholars, everyday citizens, and government supporters, including Xie Chuntao, author of How and Why the CPC Works in China.

    DVD (Portions with English subtitles) / 2012 / 29 minutes

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    FUTURE FOOD: STAY OR GO? (CHINA)

    Directed by Alex Gabbay

    Who will grow China's food as young people leave the countryside for the cities?

    In many remote areas of China young people have little choice but to stay on the land, and yet they may face a destitute future, with millions of farmworkers in China earning less than two dollars a day. Although there are some exceptions, farming is not generally seen as a "sexy" career choice.

    The reality is that in China and around the world, young people are fleeing the countryside and moving to the big cities. Who will grow the food that feeds future generations? How can young people be convinced that farming is a good option? Californian-born Rand and his wife Sherry are the founders of Resonance China, a social media agency in Shanghai. They use the internet to create and identify trends and tricks that can create a buzz for global brands. FUTURE FOOD sets Resonance a task: can they make farming popular with young people?

    DVD / 2012 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adult) / 29 minutes

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    BEIJING TAXI

    By Miao Wang

    BEIJING TAXI is a timely, uncensored and richly cinematic portrait of China's ancient capital as it undergoes a profound transformation. The film takes an intimate and compelling look at the lives of three cab drivers as they confront modern issues and changing values against the backdrop of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. Through their daily struggles infused with humor and quiet determination, BEIJING TAXI reveals the complexity and contradictions of China's shifting paradigm.

    BEIJING TAXI is a feature-length documentary that vividly portrays the ancient capital of China undergoing a profound transformation. The intimate lives of three taxi drivers are seen through a humanistic lens as they navigate a quickly morphing city, confronting modern issues and changing values. The three protagonists radiate a warm sense of humanity despite the struggles that each faces in adapting to new realities of life in the modern city. With stunning imagery of Beijing and a contemporary score rich in atmosphere, BEIJING TAXI communicates a visceral sense of the common citizens' persistent attempts to grasp the elusive. The 2008 Summer Olympic Games serve as the backdrop for BEIJING TAXI's story, a coming out party for a rising nation and a metaphor for Chinese society and its struggles to reconcile enormous contradictions while adjusting to a new capitalist system that can seem foreign to some in the Communist-ruled and educated society. Candid and perceptive in its filming approach and highly cinematic and moody in style, BEIJING TAXI takes us on a lyrical journey through fragments of a society riding the bumpy roads to modernization. Though its destination unknown, the drivers continue to forge ahead.

    DVD (Region 1, Mandarin, Color, With English Subtitles) / 2010 / 78 minutes

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    BREAKING THE WALL OF EFFICIENT INNOVATION: WHAT CAN BE LEARNED FROM CHINA'S PLANNED CAPITALISM

    China's economic prowess is seldom questioned, but how has the largest communist society in the world also become the most dynamic capitalist economy? In this video lecture from the 2010 Falling Walls Conference, sociologist Doug Guthrie disentangles the generally accepted assumption that markets are more efficient than state planning and provides a unique view on economic innovation. With ample academic research and experiences in East Asia, Guthrie's doctoral study on Chinese corporate response to institutional changes was awarded the field's top dissertation award and has formed the basis of several books of economic reform in China. After teaching at top international institutions like Harvard Business School, INSEAD, Stanford University, Columbia University, and Emory University, Guthrie was appointed the dean of George Washington University's School of Business, where he is committed to guiding the business community through the challenges presented by the new communist-capitalist economic landscape.

    DVD / 2010 / 15 minutes

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    CHINA FROM WITHIN

    China's economic growth in the last ten years has been the envy of the rest of the world. For China itself the benefits have brought both prosperity and social and personal disruption to many sectors of society. Through dramatic and personal stories, this unique six-part series depicts life in China today and how the economic advances of the past decade have impacted on young and old alike.

    Filmed by some of China's most talented documentary makers in conjunction with award winning Australian filmmaker, Peter du Cane, this intriguing series is set against the backdrop of an ever changing society. It captures situations, characters and locations that would be impossible for western filmmakers to obtain. China from Within tells the stories of China today.

    Ep 1 - Migration
    This episode charts the disruption caused by the Three Gorges Dam. The focus is on an 87-year-old villager, whose life has been ruled by the moods of the river. Its floods have swept away family members and destroyed her home many times.

    Ep 2 - Kai Jai
    The primary source of AIDS infection in China is government run blood banks. This episode focuses on the story of a distraught father and his young daughter who is HIV positive, and shows rare glimpses of how a small village deals with personal tragedy, set against official cover-ups, denials, and national prejudices.

    Ep 3 - Dancing Girls
    Modernisation in China has brought with it the introduction of Western popular culture by way of nightclubs, discos and fast food outlets. "Nightman" is one of 187 nightclubs in Dalian, a city of 2.6 million people in Northern China. Dancing Girls gives a rare insight into modern china that will surprise many viewers.

    Ep 4 - Tian Tian
    This is one person's story of personal triumph set against the backdrop of the changing industrial face of China. Mr. and Mrs. Xia worked at a state run company which modernised and cut jobs; the family was forced to sell clothes at the local market. Mrs Xiao was attacked and killed by three men for her takings, and her daughter, Tian Tian, was paralysed from the neck down. It was then up to Mr. Xia to provide a normal life and education for his daughter.

    Ep 5 - Shanghai Jews
    Jews wishing to escape persecution in Germany prior to WW2 had few places to escape. One place that accepted refugees was Shanghai, where nearly 20,000 Jewish refugees fled. Arriving there with nothing, they spent a hard, hungry, disease-ridden time in camps acclimatising to China. This unique story, told through rare footage, letters and photographs, features Jacob, one Jew who stayed on in Shanghai. Jacob, who is deaf, married a Chinese woman and developed a universal sign language.

    Ep 6 - The Accusation
    Corruption has been ever-present in business and society in China. In this episode, a government official in Hunan finds evidence of corruption. When he brings this to the attention of his superiors he is warned off, but he refuses to comply. He then receives death threats, which he naively shrugs off; however his wife is killed shortly after. While his boss is convicted and jailed the official himself is shunned, ultimately losing his job and the prospect of further work. He is then arrested on trivial charges and jailed.

    DVD (Region 4) / 2010 / 180 minutes

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    CHINA'S POLLUTION BUSTERS: THE ENVIRONMENT V INDUSTRY

    China's rapid industrialisation has come at a heavy price - polluted waterways and huge health problems. This film follows two Chinese environmentalists risking threats and violence to locate the factories polluting their water.

    CHONGQING: The film begins in Chongqing, one of China's new mega cities, home to six million people, and a major centre of industry. Like elsewhere in China Chongqing's rapid industrialisation has come at a heavy price. Many of its waterways are now polluted.

    THE ACTIVISTS: Wu Deng Ming is a local environmentalist. Together with his colleague, Yonghchen Wang, he monitors the toxic discharges from the factories which are responsible for much of China's water pollution. China now allows non-government organisations to operate, but activists like Wu and Ms Wang still face harassment from both the state and the factories.

    WATER POLLUTION: According to Ma Jun, water pollution is the most serious environmental issue facing China. 60% of the waterways are contaminated. That means 320 million people don't have access to safe drinking water. The health consequences are devastating.

    Strong laws governing pollution do exist, but are regularly flouted. Fines for violations are too small to deter polluters.

    THE ROLE OF THE WEST: And while the West may not produce the pollution, they, in effect, import it into China. One economist estimates that 20% to 30% of China's pollution comes from the manufacturing of goods for export. Meanwhile multinational companies are threatening to leave China if local environmental laws are applied.

    GOVERNMENT CRACKDOWN: China's government is increasingly concerned about its toxic rivers. In one district, local officials are cleaning up a river polluted by factories. Local people complain of the effects on their health: "It has affected our eyesight. Many people have developed kidney stones and gall bladder problems. It has also caused numbness in hands and feet."

    THE FIGHT GOES ON: Under the new official crackdown, companies who can't deal with their waste won't be allowed to build factories. And those caught polluting might be shut down. But strong resistance to change still remains. Wu and Wang are violently attacked on a visit to a polluting factory.

    DVD / 2009 / Approx. 41 minutes

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    DAMMING THE THREE GORGES: CHINA'S FOLLY OR SALVATION?

    The Three Gorges Dam is the biggest in the world. It's also the largest hydroelectric project ever built. But what are the human and environmental costs of this massive construction?

    THE RIVER: The dam has changed forever the Yangtze river, which divides China's north from its south. As the water rises, the beauty of the gorges is diminishing. But some say this is a small price to pay for a dam, which can control disastrous flooding and could soon power one third of the households in China.

    GEOLOGICAL DISASTER: While the water level is slowly rising, it's also fluctuating as the water is released and then held back downriver to control seasonal flooding. Some scientists fear this will lead to geological disaster.

    COLLAPSING HOMES: The area near the river is already prone to geological instability, but local villagers say the rising river level has increased the number and ferocity of the landslides they experience. Many houses are suffering structural damage - some are collapsing.

    SAVING ON COAL: On the other side of the argument, the electricity generated by the dam is equivalent to the power generated by 50 million tonnes of raw coal, meaning China can avoid the emission of about 100 million tonnes of carbon dioxide - a big environmental consideration.

    MAKING MONEY: But critics claim the building of the dam is really more about making money than the environment. China has a saying: "Silver bridge, golden highway and diamond dam". In other words, if you get a contract to build a bridge it means you have silver. If you get a contract to build a highway it means you have gold. If you get a contract to build a dam, you have diamonds.

    MORE DAMS TO COME: China plans to dam many more of its rivers. And it's now building dams for other countries in the developing world who are envious of China's startling economic growth. But the Three Gorges Dam has shown that if you want the benefits of hydropower, you'd better prepare for the costs.

    DVD / 2009 / Approx. 19 minutes

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    LAST TRAIN HOME

    By Lixin Fan

    Every spring, China's cities are plunged into chaos as 130 million migrant workers journey to their home villages for the New Year's holiday. This mass exodus is the world's largest human migration - an epic spectacle that reveals a country tragically caught between its rural past and industrial future.

    Working over several years in classic verite style Chinese-Canadian filmmaker Lixin Fan (with the producers of the award-winning hit documentary Up the Yangtze) travels with one couple who have embarked on this annual trek for almost two decades. Like so many of China's rural poor, Zhang Changhua and Chen Suqin left behind their two infant children for grueling factory jobs. Their daughter Qin - now a restless and rebellious teenager - both bitterly resents their absence and longs for her own freedom away from school, much to the utter devastation of her parents. Emotionally engaging and starkly beautiful, Last Train Home's intimate observation of one fractured family sheds light on the human cost of China's ascendance as an economic superpower.

    DVD (Region 1, Color, Mandarin and Sichuan dialect with English subtitles) / 2009 / 87 minutes

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    WORLD'S NEXT SUPERMODEL, THE

    By IJsbrand van Veelen

    With America's version of capitalism seemingly heading for bankruptcy, is there a crisis-proof economic model that can shape the 21st century?

    In THE WORLD'S NEXT SUPERMODEL, three prominent thinkers argue for competing economic models. Kishore Mahbubani, author of The New Asian Hemisphere, pitches the Asian model, characterized by the economic successes of China, India and Singapore. Wouter Bos, Dutch Minister of Finance, claims that the values of the European model are superior, while Brazilian economist Marcelo Neri praises the economic success of his country.

    The proposals for these models are discussed by a jury consisting of macro-economist Willem Buiter, professor at the London School of Economics, New America Foundation's Parag Khanna, an expert analyst of global geopolitical issues, and author and Yale law and globalization professor Amy Chua.

    These expert "judges," in a lively debate, examine the three models on the basis of issues such as social stability, environmental sustainability, government and market relationship, and their crisisproof nature. Their surprising decision is sure to provoke continued debates on this important global issue.

    DVD (Color, Closed Captioned) / 2009 / 48 minutes

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    24 CITY

    Directed by Jia Zhang-ke

    A masterful new documentary from Jia Zhang-ke - "Not only is the 38-year-old director the most prominent Chinese filmmaker of his generation, he also has come to assume the role of witness and conscience in a society characterized by rapid modernization and a growing amnesia." (Dennis Lim, LA Times, 2008) - 24 City recounts the dramatic and thunderous fall of the state-owned Factory 420, exploring both its physical demolition and its powerful symbolic echo of a half-century of communist rule.

    Given the name Factory 420 as an internal military security code, the Chengdu Engine Group was founded in 1958 to produce aviation engines, and saw years of prosperous activity. Now abandoned, the factory awaits its destiny. Sold for millions to real-estate developers, it will be transformed into an emblem of market economy: a complex of luxury apartment blocks called 24 City.

    Constructed around eight dramatic interviews, punctuated by snippets of pop songs and poetry, along with beautifully-shot footage of the demolition, 24 City excavates the debris of collective memory and emphasizes the thin boundary between fact and fiction in post-revolutionary Chinese history. It does so by weaving into this oral history three fictional monologues delivered by professional actors. The interviewees represent three generations with ties to the factory: former factory workers, contemporary workers, and their children.

    An absolutely mesmerizing experience, 24 City attempts to understand the complexity of the social changes sweeping across China by observing the impact a half-century of Socialism has had on the Chinese people.

    DVD (Mandarin, With English Subtitles) / 2008 / 107 minutes

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    BEHIND THE BOOM: MIGRANT WORKERS IN CHINA

    Over two hundred million migrants work illegally in China. Coming from the countryside into the cities, they power the country's massive economic growth. This film features two powerful reports which offer contrasting views of migrants in Shanghai.

    REPORT 1

    Kejun is 33 years old. He comes from one of China's poorest provinces. Searching for a better life, he was hired by a construction company in Shanghai, where he now works for 5 dollars a day, 7 days a week.

    China has approximately 200 million migrant workers. Most live like Kejun.

    Chinese law prohibits the rural population to move into the cities. But the Chinese economy has become dependent on this cheap workforce from the countryside. So the law is often ignored. Migrant workers live their lives in the city under constant threat.

    Kejun and his cousin make a visit home to their village. One year has gone since they last saw their children. "I am so excited to come home now," says Ka. "My life in Shanghai consists only of work - I do nothing else. You can get used to it, but it is very lonely."

    But Kejun's cousin is worried. She is six months pregnant, yet according to the law she shouldn't be. If someone in her village denounces her to the authorities, she will have to pay a huge fine - 600 dollars.

    Kejun's uncle Changhong is a head-hunter and it was he who hired Kejun. He's on the lookout for fresh workers for Shanghai's building sites. The younger - and the cheaper - the better for him.

    Uncle Changhong's latest recruit is packing for a new life. He will have to leave his wife and his little son behind. "I am very sad to leave my home," he says, "I will miss everything here -- especially my family and my parents. The other workers have told me that you can return home only once a year."

    REPORT 2

    Shanghai - the glittering epicentre of China's boom economy. Xu Chuanruo, a 52-year-old street sweeper, came to Shanghai five years ago, leaving behind his wife and two kids in Hubei province, 1,000km away.

    In Shanghai Xu can make up to 1,200 yuan per month -- about $200. In China that's good money -- but this requires a 12-hour day, seven days a week.

    Xu lives with seven other people in a single room and sends $100 per month back to his family. He spends what little spare time he has practicing the disappearing art of calligraphy.

    Meanwhile in a small workshop a team of migrant workers are making decorations for the New Year's celebrations. The lowest of the low are Zhang Yongqiang and his aunt Zhang Suqing who scavenge for styrofoam scraps.

    Communist China has no welfare net for its 100 million migrant workers -- they either work or go hungry. But the garbage collectors say that even a lowly job in Shanghai is better than the poverty of their village.

    Yet being a migrant worker doesn't necessarily equal poverty. Yang Mei has been in Shanghai for 12 years and now runs her own restaurant.

    All the staff in her restaurant are migrant workers. Many waitresses here are young and a long way from home. 19-year-old Zou Heyan arrived from Szechuan - a 4-day train trip - only about a week ago

    "I'm not used to the life here yet," says Zou, "I feel weak like jelly after a day's work. I suffer from diarrhoea as I'm not used to the climate ...At home we didn't have enough to eat. I've experienced hardship, so I can bear a lot."

    DVD / 2007 / 27 minutes

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    MEN WHO WOULD CONQUER CHINA, THE

    By Nick Torrens and Jane St. Vincent Welc

    How does one buy companies owned by the state of China, support that country's transition to capitalism, and make a fortune at the same time?

    For 4,000 years China largely succeeded, both culturally and economically, in keeping the rest of the world at bay. Following its introduction of reforms in the 1980's, however, including a transition from a socialist to a market economy, China allowed multinational corporations to set up shop. Now that the world's most populous nation is clearly on a fast track to capitalism, American investors are eagerly exploring ways to exploit China's new 'economic miracle.'

    THE MEN WHO WOULD CONQUER CHINA follows the efforts of wealthy New York investment banker Mart Bakal and his well-connected Hong Kong business partner Vincent Lee as they join forces in an effort to create the perfect mix of economic and political opportunity in China. Bakal is enthusiastic about the extraordinary business opportunity - as he says, "Within 20 years China will equal the U.S. in economic strength and power" - but first he and Lee must figure out how to overcome a frustrating array of cultural and legal obstacles.

    As the film chronicles their efforts in New York, Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai over a three-year period, it becomes apparent that their different cultural perspectives are as much a weakness as a strength. We join them as they engage in difficult negotiations with Chinese government bureaucrats, tour Chinese factories seeking Western investment, attend business luncheons and official receptions, and become embroiled in their own disputes and arguments. In separate conversations, in fact, both Bakal and Lee privately express frank criticisms and doubts about his prospective business partner.

    The business scheme they succeed in signing with the Chinese government involves the purchase of failed state-owned companies, which Bakal and Lee plan to restructure through improved management techniques, in order to then resell them at a considerable profit to multinational corporations. As foreign investment in China rapidly approaches the $100 billion level, and social inequality and unemployment continue to rise, the film offers a revealing portrait of the vast social changes taking place. In particular, THE MEN WHO WOULD CONQUER CHINA makes us ponder the potential long-term impact of capitalism on China.

    DVD (Color) / 2004 / 58 minutes

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    CHINA 21

    By Ruby Yang, Lambert Yam

    This eye-opening documentary follows four Chinese families as they step into the 21st century. Working without official permits, the filmmakers used compact digital video gear to record intimate portraits of ordinary people living in tumultuous times, capturing candid and sometimes emotional interviews. Families are small - one child in the city, two in the country - so children hold center stage. Veterans of the Cultural Revolution are saving up to send their son to business school. Another couple, whose son is a prize law student, glows with satisfaction. To insure his children's future, a peasant leaves his remote village to work in the quasi-legal urban job market. A farm family near Shanghai feels manhandled by the privatizing economy; they sacrifice to send their daughter to high school. CHINA 21 introduces otherwise anonymous people whose spark and initiative are changing their country.

    DVD / 2001 / 60 minutes

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    CITY LIFE: THE LONG MARCH

    Community in Chengdu, China has organized to clean-up polluted river.

    China is already home to a fifth of the world's population. To relieve the pressure on scarce farm land and fragile topsoil, the Chinese government is building four hundred new cities over the next 20 years, each housing over half a million residents. New towns and settlements are springing up from nowhere. Others are witnessing an explosion in their populations, stretching their capacity to deliver essential services to breaking point. This film tells the story of one such town.

    Chengdu, in South West China, was once the southern staging post for the silk trade and capital of Shu Kingdom. In 256 BC, Shu leader Li Bing built the Dujiangyan Irrigation System, channeling the Min River through Chengdu in what is still recognized as a triumph for hydraulic engineering. But the irrigation system was neglected and abused during the rapid industrial development of the 1970s, resulting in massive pollution and floods. Today, Chengdu's municipal government has succeeded in reversing the damage, turning what had become an urban nightmare into a model of modern day planning.

    DVD (Color) / 2001 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adult) / 27 minutes

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    LIFE: BECAUSE THEY'RE WORTH IT

    Micro-credit, education, health information, and hope provided to impoverished Chinese.

    Internationally, the definition for absolute poverty is living on an income of under $1 a day. But the Chinese government has a lower threshold: the definition for poverty in China is living on 66 cents a day. Out of a total Chinese population of 1.3 billion, there are 42 million Chinese who are poor.

    This episode of Life looks at a scheme which is helping poor people break out of the cycle of poverty and ignorance -- by providing them with small loans, basic health information, education...and hope.

    In Wang San Ping village, near the Chinese border with Burma, in the southwest of Yunnan province, Yu Gui Hua and her friend Hu Zang Hua have used their loans from the scheme to build plastic greenhouses to grow vegetables all year round. They've repaid the first loans, and have even more ambitious plans for the second loan they're going to take out: this time, Yu Gui Hua has her sights set on a guest house, a car park -- even a restaurant.

    But the micro-credit scheme, funded by UNICEF in China, does more than help women on to the first, vital step of the economic ladder. It also helps them gain friends, basic knowledge on how to improve their health -- and, crucially, self-esteem. As 83-year-old Ji Ki Ren Di, a woman from the Bai Yi caste in Mei Gu, a clan-based slave society until 1956, sums her situation up: "I was born a slave and was forced to live in a grass shed....Now we live in a solid house. I don't think that I can live much longer, but I have lived long enough to see my family free. Now every day is a little better..."

    DVD (Color) / 2000 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adult) / 24 minutes

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    CHINA RISING

    Acclaimed travel-lecturer Dale Johnson presents a personal narrative on the world's most populated country, China, visiting a number of the country's well-known locations, both historical and modern, to reaffirm how rapidly China is rising. In Beijing, he visits the Temple of Heaven, Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, and offers views of the Great Wall of China; in Harbin, we see a blend of industry and agriculture; then view the Three Gorges Dam in central China on the Yangtze River; a trip up the Li River takes us to the magnificent karst peaks of Guili; next we explore Ding Ling Tomb of the Wanli Emperor and the famous Wild Goose Pagoda, a Buddhist temple and retreat; we learn of the importance of jade and silk; then close seeing the mushrooming growth of construction in China's largest city, Shanghai.

    DVD / 80 minutes

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