Event
Up the Yangtze
In Person: Filmmaker Yung Chang
Admission includes post-screening reception.
The 18th century Enlightenment philosophers believed in the idea of Progress the belief that the application of human intelligence through science and technology would create a better world. Not yet!! Up The Yangtze is a quietly powerful testament about how the Chinese governments adoption of capitalist mass production techniques, while continuing to profess socialist ideals, is creating massive technological projects with side effects that ride roughshod over peoples lives. China, hungry for electric power to drive their expanding manufacturing economy, undertook in the 1990s a gargantuan engineering project to dam up the Yangtze River. Keep in mind that after the Nile, and the Amazon, the Yangtze is the worlds third longest river. On its continent-long path it drains lakes and rivers en route through central China to its outlet in the East China Sea. Modern cities aglitter with colored lights and manufacturing centers along the route are driven by the new electrical power. Alas the area along the river bank flooded by the dam was home to over one million people. They drew their sustenance from farming the fertile earth of the river bank and harvesting its fish. Chickens, ducks, and pigs added to their food supply. Yung Changs brilliant Up the Yangtze focuses on the Yu family as they watch the dam waters slowly rise towards the point that will engulf their home, and their small farm. The hand-built shack houses three children and their parents. Dad, who cant read or write, ekes out a living as a dockworker. Mom takes care of everything else. The film follows the fate of their eldest child, 16-year-old Cindy Yu Shui, who desperately wants to change her life by going to high school. Her parents press her to get a job to help support the family. She gets a job on one of the luxurious sightseeing river ferries that travel the Yangtze. Cindy works in the kitchen, waits tables, and listens to the tourists extol the wonders of the Yangtze dam. With biting vision, this documentary measures the price of the globalization process Chinese style.
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LocationCinema Arts Centre
423 Park Ave
Huntington, NY 11743
United States
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| Kid Friendly: No |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: No |
| Wheelchair Accessible: No |
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