Up the Yangtze Without a Paddle

The film Up The Yangtze provides juxtapositions of feelings, actions, belief, and character, paralleling between what is often being said and expressed with what is being physically shown or presented. This is not an incidental way of framing the narrative. Director Yung Chang actively chooses to create frames of narrative that work to present the audience with more than just what is being expressed. Instead, he encourages his viewer to think critically and unpack information that is encoded into the everyday lives of those being filmed. Many of these moments in the film focus on race and class. So where does Chang begin to frame his own audience in the film? Some of the ideals unpacked in Henry Louis Gates Jr.’s, “Writing ‘Race’ and What Difference Does it Make,” will help explain how these methods of framing both character in the film and audience perception are directly tied to racial biases and Chang’s ability to play into the work that he is analyzing.

Gates explains that, traditionally, Western culture has identified with writing that confines and defines racial and social barriers (Gates, 6). In the film, we see how Chang plays into some of these preconceived notions of race. He frames his characters, such as Cindy’s Father, for example, in a way that becomes easily digestible for his primarily Western audience. We also see how this comes into play as we receive glimpses of tourists, representing different nations and customs. Most of these portrayals rely on the outlined stereotypes of the nation, leaving the audience to fill in what they represent and how that clashes with the ideals of the residents of Cindy’s hometown.

There are moments in the story where tourists and other social groups different from Cindy are highlighted in a way that helps draw sympathy for the rural citizens featured in the film. This is an idea that Gates refers to as privileged writing (Gates, 4). This is unpacked as writing that draws upon certain stereotypes to highlight other racial groups. Gates would argue that Chang recognizes how privileged writing can affect biases. In a way, he uses these biases to heighten his own argument, advocating for people like Cindy. This is an interesting example considering the fact that the people who the film largely focuses on would traditionally be viewed as a minority group. Still, Chang manages to frame the film in a way that enhances the rural citizens surrounding the Yangtze River.

Moments like these within the film help intensify Chang’s social analysis of the citizens surrounding the Yangtze river. In a powerful way, Chang highlights the diaspora of these citizens as they are taken from their homeland and displaced into urban centers. We see during this move, an exposure of what Gates refers to as the hidden relations of power and knowledge (Gates, 6). Chang essentially begins to show us what is hidden from the public eye, an actuality of the result of the rising river. We physically see the displaced people try to organize a new life within urban centers. We see the struggle in clashing ways of living. The power structure that was hidden is revealed.

Chang’s choices as a director work in both ways that heighten and shrink what Gates would refer to as racial writing. There are moments that advocate social groups. There are also points where stereotypes are used as commonalities to unite the audience in an effort to appeal to the suffering of other groups. Chang makes clear directorial choices and makes bold stances during this piece, an analysis of the social and physical flight of a group of rural citizens.

-Kiernan Doyle

Works Cited:

Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. “Writing ‘Race’ and the Difference It Makes.” Critical Inquiry 12.1 (1985): 1-20.

Up the Yangtze. Dir. Yung Chang. 2008. DVD. Zeitgeist Films.