Customer Reviews

China Rises - The Oldest Civilization on Earth, Reborn (4 Episodes on 2 DVDs)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Discovery Channel and the New York Times collaborated on "China Rises." It is can usefully be compared to the Discovery Channel's Discovery Atlas: China Revealed documentary which is a little less than half as long as "China Rises." This latter film is broken up into four episodes. These episodes are both a celebration of China's rise and a criticism of the way it rises. These episodes are more critical and more concerned with social justice than the other Discovery film "China Revealed." The main criticism that these episode levy is not about China's harsh penal code, or free speech issues, but about the growing economic disparity. Although there is more information in "China Rises" compared to "China Revealed," there is lower production quality. The musical score for "China Rises" pales in comparison to "China Revealed." Unfortunately, Discovery Channel inappropriately repeated a particular narrative theme in both film: the theme of the young gymnastic girl who wants to be in the 2008 Olympics. Both films chronicle this theme as if there was no other creative way to tell the story of preparing for the 2008 Olympics without describing the struggles of a young girl gymnast.

What follows are statistics, quotations, and conclusion taken directly from the film (I wrote this down while watching and pausing the film)....

PARTY GAMES
The people of China have "dealt with feudalism, colonialism, imperialism and now struggle to build something the world has never seen before - Communism marching in lock step towards capitalism towards yet one more dawn" China has 1/5 of the world's population and now uses almost 1/3 of the world's steel and almost 1/2 of its cement. Agricultural reforms in the 1980s allowed peasants to move from collectivization to profit making. Some have quadrupled their incomes event though they have stayed in rural areas. Joining the one meaningful political party is a 2 year process; rigid ideology is optional according to some. The party launched an anticorruption campaign in 2005. Students at Beijing University who want to be party member participate in the compulsory viewing of a party film titled "Live or Die" which is a Hollywood style morality tale about a mayor whose wife takes a bribe. There are 68 million party members. Tiananmen, 1989, still haunts Chinese politics; criticism is now allowed, but demonstrations are feared. In 2005, thousands of people demonstrated against a new issuing of textbooks that covered over its atrocities in China. At the time, China was lobbying in the United Nations against Japan getting a permanent seat on the Security Council. China is experimenting with democracy in some localities. The vote counting is open for all to see. Sometimes there is corruption, sometimes there are clan loyalties, and there have been some riots. But this is also the first generation of Chinese peasants who get to vote on anything, and it is undeniable progress. But the Chinese have studied why the Communist Parties of the Eastern Bloc fell from power and concluded that political reform outpaced economic progress; so people got the right to complain but not the wherewithal to improve their lot. They voted out the Communists. The Communist Party of China is determined not to make the same mistake. But the Party has taken other measures to ease the load on the peasants: they recently abolished agricultural taxes.

FOOD IS HEAVEN
One Chinese restaurant mogul and celebrity cook says, "...as long as its back is facing the sky, you can eat it." These include goose web, fish lips, and a variety of bugs. A market is growing where "food sensations" are replacing "food necessities." However, one person out of every 8 Chinese still lives in absolute poverty. 60% of the rivers and lakes are heavily polluted. China must feed 20% of the world's population with only 7% of the world's arable land. And that land is diminishing by even further industrialization. Over the last 10 years, development has swallowed up 10% of China's arable land. 66 million peasants have been forced off their land by development. But China has become the world's largest producer of fish and seafood

GETTING RICH
Although China is taking on capitalistic features, the biggest automakers are government owned. And in fact, government enterprises still produce 1/3 of China's economic output. Since the 1980, more than 100 million peasants have left the countryside and poured into the cities: it is the largest mass movement in human history. Government reforms and money sent home from migrant workers have helped lift some 200 million people out of poverty in a span of 25 years. Yiwu has the largest factory for knitting; some 4,000 people work there. Workers rights are difficult to protect when economic growth is so prized. Many injured workers are shown on this DVD struggling to get compensation through a philanthropic lawyer. The Chinese economy, in some ways, is like the old American West. Private companies higher private investigators to seek out counterfeit companies. Counterfeiting is a huge problem for China; it is estimated to cost 10s of billions of dollars in lost sales.

CITY OF DREAMS
This episode focuses on Shanghai. In 1921 the Communist Party was born here. There is a new middle class of 100 million spread across China's cities. During America's comparable period of industrialization, women were largely left behind: they lacked the education that men received with fewer obstacles. But in China, nearly half of all post-graduate degrees are earned by women and women now make up 20% of the countries entrepreneurs. The Communist Party likes to call the development of this new middle class, "Socialism with Chinese characteristics." Shanghai's construction attracts nearly a million migrants per year for jobs. In just one 4 year period factory shutdowns left 24 million workers unemployed. This episode spends a substantial amount of time dealing with the corruption of Shanghai city officials dealing with forced evictions for the sake of capitalistic development of the city. Three Chinese civilians are interviewed who were caught up in the forced eviction process for the sake of further economic development.

Having lived in t China for 4 years, spread over 7 trips in 20 years, I would recommend this vid for anyone who wants to know what China is like today. Flashy, sexy, zippy, it will grab the most jaded viewer. It is not as useful in the classroom as some vids because it blends together stories throughout the four sections (so if, for instance, you want to focus on the environment or on the rich-poor disparity, or urban life, there is a) less meaty stuff than some vids and b) less continuous coverage -- you have to jump around, which is difficult). For the classroom I recommend PBS's China From the Inside. It even interviews the same environmental lawyer, and Pan Yue, the deputy minister of SEPA, but the quotes aren't as outrageous as in China Rises. I'd recommend all Americans to watch China Rises. It captures China!