The biggest issues surrounding Up the Yangtze are the ideas of identification and (mis)representation. In exploring the hydroelectric dam as a contested Chinese symbol of their "economic success", it is difficult to see this symbol as only a means of success as a viewer of the exploited characters in this film.
With the cruise ship, the Westerners are portrayed as naive tourists who displace and stereotype the foreign (Chinese) culture, contrasted with the Chinese who are working hard to play into these stereotypes. It made me somewhat frustrated to watch the film and see the Chinese cruise ship workers actively play into this stereotype and misrepresentation of their own culture. As seen in the scenes with the "traditional" Chinese costumes and even in their language, the way they communicated with the Westerners almost made a mockery of themselves. In the film, the cruise ship workers were instructed to be "polite" and strayed away from specific words that us Westerners would find offensive. I think if I hadn't seen this film and was a cruise-goer myself, I would feel uncomfortable interacting with the Chinese on the ship because it would feel fake, wrongly identified and definitely stereotypical. As a Westerner should we feel like a target when watching this film?
Although I think Chang intends this film to show an anti-Western sentiment, I am having trouble identifying with the Western cruise-goers on the film. This makes me question if perhaps Chang didn't intend for identification individually, but socially, culturally with the ideals about the "West" as a whole. The juxtapositions with camera angles and language explicitly show these contrasts between the "East" and "West". Though this film brings to light a lot of issues surrounding the Three Gorges Dam in China, it also bothers me because the characters are constantly exploited and in my opinion, misrepresented (on the cruise). I did however, find the issues surrounding identification through the characters Cindy and Jerry to be more clear to me. I had more sympathy for Cindy and her struggles with identity on the cruise, as she had to work in order to provide for her family. You are able to see the repercussions of the dam and how it is also a representation of the class structures within China.
Allie, I completely agree with your post regarding the "adaptation" (so to speak) that the cruise workers had to go through to keep their job and be "polite." The entire purpose of the cruise was to see this part of China that is soon to be flooded and no longer a part of the country, but under the river. I feel that the Chinese cruise workers made themselves feel comfortable with Westerners by acting differently, rather than the cruise workers changing the way they act to make the Westerners feel comfortable. With that, I do not think this film is showing an anti-Western sentiment because it shows the truth about the cruise participants. Clearly, many Westerners were under the assumption that China was "under-developed" as mentioned by one of the interviewees. The Westerners come to see the river and see "China;" but they are not truly seeing the culture of the Chinese because the cruise workers changed the way they normally act to "impress" them.
ReplyDeleteHello, I completely agree that Up The Yangtze was about identification especially with the young adults who were affected. They were busy trying to figure out who they were in the midst of all the commotion that was going on. I felt as if they were trying to figure out what they could do to help their parents out in such a depressing situation. The nineteen year old boy really got my attention because he came from a family with money and still wanted to make a living on his own. I really liked that character so much because he wanted to know how could he possibly make a living on his own. It's easy to just take money but it's harder to make it. Also as a whole the Chinese people were going though quite a tough time. They had to reach out for help if they could and make friends with people who are not like them, who they did not know and who did things differently from them. It was all about getting out of their comfort zone. As a whole I feel as if the horrific experience made them realize who they were and that they need to reach out for help from strangers.
ReplyDelete