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| • PBI Events, Fall 2009 • | |
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| November 20 | |
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Trash for Cash: Making a Killing and Making a Living on Garbage |
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| December 8 | |
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Video Screenings by PBI Summer Tour Grant Winners |
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| More events and details. | |
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Preview Video: China | |
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China in the New Millennium
Produced by the Pacific Basin Institute at Pomona CollegeChina in the New Millennium: The Impact of Youth is an epic coming of age drama. It is the story of China's continuing revolution, a story of many beginnings, but as yet no end. Its future path will be decided not by the old men who now wield power, but by the young who will succeed them. Our documentary is a cinematic journey across time and distance" the hearts and minds of a generation---wealthy, poor, rural and urban Theirs is an intimate dialogue about money and morals, education, affluence, fear of poverty. And love of country in a time of turmoil. Out of many voices comes a many-shaded portrait of the Qingnian---China's generation of youth, defined by tradition as the years between eighteen and forty.
Their lives are better---far better than before. Their government has authorized small freedoms and mandated modernization. Chinese youth appear publicly to have embraced new leadership. If they conform to the dictates of the Party with more cynicism than trust, they have also energized the most rapid development in human history. And wave the flag of revitalized nationalism for the world press. The image of Tiananmen has faded. Replaced with images of young people on cell phones and a shiny new China. As illusory, perhaps, as photographs of impossibly large tomatoes---once presented by young peasants to make Mao proud.
Indeed, the government has liberalized the market place. Boarded the doors of failing state-operated factories. Encouraged private enterprise. Allowed capitalists into the Chinese Communist Party. And courted global investment. China's major cities showcase soaring new skylines, like cardboard sets hastily constructed for the world stage. Neon lights flash and billboards smile with western eyes. The stink of human waste mingles with European perfume on riverfront promenades. Young people stroll, holding hands, stealing kisses. The great waterways bear witness to changing currents, sweeping history with them, the future uncertain around the bend. The West pays tribute---its eye on the prize of one billion new consumers. Old colonialists bow to the powerful image of money communism.
In the shadows of the skyscrapers, exists The Other China. The China of unfulfilled promises---its infrastructure in shambles, unity in question and discontent simmering among young and old alike. Elders wearing Mao caps, watch, bemused and weary. Displaced workers crowd the streets, bent-double from hoisting the steel girders of progress. Rural girls flee the countryside, only to be victimized like their mothers before them.
Most lives are untouched by new wealth---the gap between rich and poor greater now than before. The Chinese government quietly stifles dissent. It trades opportunity for acquiescence. Gambling on the greed of a new elite---and the old fears of the poor---to maintain control. The state is enriched, if not the people. But the consequences of rising expectations and the rupture of change are unpredictable. What happens to a dream deferred? Or to a culture sold to the highest bidder? Beyond the full reach of propaganda or persecution---beyond Beijing---there are many Chinas, no singular sense of direction and no consensus among youth.
Yet the future is theirs to construct. What captures their imagination and drives their dreams? What makes them laugh? What cripples their spirit or inspires courage? This Qingnian face challenges and independence inconceivable just a decade ago. Revered parents and grandparents were weaned on the Iron Rice Bowl, force fed obedience, duty and suspicion of the outside world. Today's youth have tasted new possibilities, both bitter and tempting. They stand at the crossroads of global community and national transformation. Will they retreat to insularity? Balance continuity and change? International influence and self-determination? Will clarity emerge from contradictions? Will they move towards democracy or defend dictatorship? Will the Qingnian choose stability or risk revolution? How will the contours of reality shape their choices?
Imagine the unifying pride of five thousand years of culture.
Imagine the honor afforded the old.
Imagine centuries of grim resistance to foreign domination.
Imagine the full force and privilege of entrenched authority.
Imagine the habits of hierarchy afraid of its people.
Imagine the enduring injury of youth betrayed.
Imagine then&the cataclysm of change.
Each generation carries the legacy of the past into the present, to do with it what they can. It is their inheritance. Haunting and undeniable, both burden and glory. China is redefining itself, rebuilding its cities. Millions migrate from the countryside to lay concrete foundation for monuments to greatness, but the ghosts of Confucius and Mao still echo from the grave. Memories of May 4th and Tiananmen do not go away. As the Qingnian question the meaning of modernity, the most profound construction is the coalescence of old and new. China in the New Millennium: The Impact of Youth documents the unfolding of an uncertain legacy. The future hangs in the balance.
