From a purely architectural standpoint, the Three Gorges Dam is an impressive feat of human engineering. The dam spans almost 8,000 feet in length and has a height of about 600 feet. In terms of capacity, the Three Gorges Dam is the largest hydroelectric power station in the world. If the above facts were all you knew about the Three Gorges Dam, you might be inclined to agree with the Chinese Government that the Dam is a triumph. However, if you watched the documentary Up The Yangtze, you might reconsider. The human cost of the Three Gorges Dam is startling: almost 1.3 million people were forced to relocate as construction of the dam led to rising water levels.
In terms of representation, Up The Yangtze couldn't be more straightforward. While the Three Gorges Dam was a project designed to better the Chinese economy and reduce carbon emissions, a critical issue in China, the resulting rising floodlines literally erased 'the little guy'. Much of the documentary follows Cindy Yu Shui, a young girl from a family of poor subsistence farmers who must acclimate to working on a river cruise for westerners. Strikingly, Cindy's home, located on the banks of the Yangtze, is literally swallowed up by the rising water line.
The overarching narrative, one that is often repeated by displaced villagers and government officials, is that the Three Gorges Dam is good for China as a whole, but not good for the relatively few individuals who must move and adapt. This speaks to what I think is one of the larger issues with representation: that even within one larger perspective-for example that of Chinese Nationalism-there are many 'smaller' voices, like Cindy Yu Shui and her family, which must be taken into account to give the larger perspective meaning.
The problem that arises, then, is how can any fair representation be achieved? In the documentary Up The Yangtze, the filmmaker does his best to include different, contrasting perspectives to represent the Chinese citizens. However, there are still perspectives out there that weren't covered. Does this render the film obsolete? Is it only the loudest, or most morally correct viewpoints that deserve representation? Should it be a democracy, where only the most popular aspect is shown?
Obviously, all of these ideas are imperfect and leave a lot of room for improvement. Representation itself will always be imperfect, because there is no 'perfect subject' to represent. For writers, filmmakers, and any other creator of text, this idea of imperfect representation should always be included and acknowledged.
- Caitlin Lang
I think it's interesting that you say the representation of China in the film couldn't be more straightforward. I often found the film actually contradicting itself by including in personal anecdotes by the narrator, the appeal of pathos during much of Cindy's storyline and the overall yield to the ethic justice of what China's economy needed to survive. I felt that as a viewer I was being pulled in multiple directions. I was attempting to define all of these aspects by comparing them to each other but once I took a step back and realized how each part of the film was being represented I saw that the issues were all each multifaceted in their own.
ReplyDeleteCaitlin, your clarification of the movie and the Three Gorges Dam itself is very descriptive and helpful, I enjoyed it. However, you only briefly mention that fair representation is not achieved. I would have liked to see more definition of how the movie portrayed certain individuals, or what individuals you would have liked to see more from. I agree with you when you say that you want to see more, to make it fair to everyone. I wish you would have explained more and examined this more. How does this make the movie credible? How does this change the thought of the viewer?
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