‘Up the Yangtze’: Journey shows sad details as Chinese villages vanish

Published 12:49 pm Thursday, June 26, 2008

The idea for “Up the Yangtze” came to Canadian filmmaker Yung Chang when he took a cruise upon the great Chinese river with his parents and grandfather in 2002. Already, the river was changing, the effects of the humongous Three Gorges Dam project rapidly being felt.

Pretty good subject for a documentary, so Chang returned to examine the impact of the project, which is making towns within the flood zone vanish beneath the water.

While studying a family whose meager existence is slowly taken away (it’s eerie to watch the water creep up on their humble shack as the film goes on), Chang also looks at the economic chances offered by the river cruises, which shuttle tourists along to watch the area drown.

For young people, working on the boats is a surreal experience. They’re given Westernized names like Cindy and Jerry, warned against confusing Canada and the United States, and told to be unfailingly upbeat, no matter how homesick they might be.

These folks function like the Beijing Olympics: It’s their job to put a happy face on China’s public profile. When one visitor asks about the difficult conditions facing people displaced by the rising waters, her tour guide takes a long moment before cheerfully exclaiming, “All of them are equally happy!”

While Chang takes a clear eye and an intimate view of these cruise workers, he also captures the beauty of the region. The cruise boats themselves look absolutely out of place chugging along in this green, craggy place.

The film does well at these contrasts — the ancient with the modern, nature with industry — but Chang’s gift is that he’s not heavy-handed about it. His attitude seems to be quiet astonishment and sadness, laced with skepticism about the glorious future promised by the dam’s hydroelectric power. Wait and see, he seems to be saying, wait and see.