Up the Yangtze looks at China's Three Gorges area from the perspective of foreign tourists and the local workers who serve them. Director Yung Chang explains why.
On May 7, 2008, director Yung Chang's documentary Up the Yangtze won the prestigious Golden Gate Award at the San Francisco International Film Festival. The next day, it won the Special Jury Prize for documentary at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival. With these and other awards in hand, the film has been riding the festival momentum (as well as scoring key raves from The New York Times and the Village Voice) into commercial release in select cities across the United States.
For Yung Chang, the road to theaters has been a long one. The idea for Up the Yangtze -- Chang's first feature film -- came about during a fortuitous 2002 trip on one of the "Farewell Cruises" popular among tourists who wanted a final glimpse of the legendary Three Gorges region before it was flooded by a giant dam.
Film development began in 2003, and the project soon drew interest from EyeSteelFilm and the National Film Board of Canada. With the backing of major players like the NFB and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Chang was able to shoot demos in China in 2004 and 2005, and complete principal photography in 2006.
During that time, Chang developed a close working relationship with his two documentary subjects: Cindy, a poor 16 year-old looking to ascend the social ranks by taking a job on the Victoria Cruise at the Three Gorges; and Jerry, a cocky middle-class performer-slash-server whose on-ship demeanor and English fluency won him much attention (and tips) from foreign tourists.
Watching Cindy, Jerry, and other Chinese workers learn to interface with visitors from outside China provides an ironic twist to the usual exotic tale of cross-cultural encounter. Call it culture shock turned around: the film audience sees how the touristic encounter is manufactured and performed. As Variety critic John Anderson writes, Up the Yangtze should find a North American audience "thanks to its embrace of irony rather than righteous indignation." And indeed it has. The film won the Best Canadian Documentary award at the Vancouver International Film Festival, competed at Sundance, and was picked up for U.S. distribution by Zeitgeist Films. It's also played countless festivals, from Seattle to Dallas to Belfast to Hong Kong.
Asia Pacific Arts spoke with Chinese Canadian director Yung Chang just after he flew into Los Angeles from another festival -- this time in Poland.
Interview with Yung Chang
May 14, 2008
Asia Pacific Arts: You mention in one of your interviews that one of the challenges making Up the Yangtze was finding the right approach to the topic. So how was it that you settled on tackling the luxury boat issue as the right approach?
Yung Chang: That was my first inspiration. Just having discovered this cruise ship and having been on one of these cruise boats, it was so clear that this had to be the center of the film because it was such a great metaphor. In many ways, it represents a fishbowl and on this fishbowl you have the world. With this region, you can say so much about contemporary China. So it was very interesting for me to use that initial approach as the inspiration. The challenge was how I'm going to tell a story, because I'm much more interested in the fiction realm of filmmaking. So I discovered through the process of about four years of research, that the story has to get off the boat as well. And that was really important because initially I wanted to tell a story that was just about the culture of tourism and the tourism of culture. And so over the course of those four years, I gained access to this tour cruise company's below-decks environment. And then through them, I was able to find my subjects and build this storyline.
APA: How did you get access to the boat? How did you gain the company's trust?
YC: That's the weirdest part of the process. I was studying in New York at the time in 2003. I was doing research for this project and I called up this cruise company based in Woodside, Queens. And they allowed me without any hesitation to make this movie. I told them clearly what I was going to do: I wanted to follow workers on the boat, I wanted to follow the story of the Three Gorges. And the manager's son allowed me to do this. He said, "Go ahead. You're on our invitation and you can go on the cruise ship and make your movie."
APA: And the managers on the ship -- they were totally open to you doing anything you wanted?
YC: Well we had the official permission through the cruise company and their management in New York. That allowed us the access, and they were very accommodating. And you see it in the film: the access below decks and behind the scenes, and the participation of one of the mangers -- the quality control manager, Spencer. I was very lucky.
APA: So there was no time in which they were feeling that -- I wouldn't exactly call it ulterior motives -- you were here to expose certain contradictions?
YC: Yes, exactly. I was using them to explore those contradictions. Perhaps the irony and contrasts weren't as clear to them as it was to me, but I never denigrated the actual cruise company. In fact, many, many tourists see the film. It's really interesting that one of the demographics for the film is former cruise ship lovers who went up the Yangtze River. And then there are people who are interested in it but don't know anything about it, so they see the film and then are interested in going on the cruise ship. And so I think the film speaks on these many levels.
APA: Speaking of the tourists, I wonder what your relationship with the tourists was like. When they came on board, did they feel like you were part of the cruise apparatus?
YC: Before each ship would embark, I would announce during the safety gathering that I was filming something for National Geographic, which was one of the broadcasters we were connected with. And people were very open to participating. That was the easiest thing. Tourists, because they're on vacation, are willing to be part of the process. And of course there were release forms that had to be signed. So there was a very official process. If they don't want to be in it, they didn't sign the release forms. I would say 98% of the people I interviewed were filmed with release forms.
APA: What did you hope to depict with the tourists? I don't think you were there to judge them necessarily.
YC: I could have gone to that extreme and really lambasted the tourist industry, but it would have been too easy -- an easy kill, so to speak. So the point of the tourists was that in this microcosm, they represented the Western perspective of the way many Western cultures look at the Third World or so-called Third World. For me, it was emblematic of the naïveté of trying to understand another culture. And also vice versa: the Chinese trying to understand a foreign culture. So that was for me the point of having the tourist presence. Not only were they getting a surface exposure to the Three Gorges region, but they were also keen on gaining a knowledge of "Old China." And for many people, this trip shatters their dreams of the romantic idea of what China used to be. And I think that mirrored my opinion in the beginning of making the film -- an opinion established by my grandfather.
APA: I think it's very interesting that the tourists for the boat are not that dissimilar from the audience for your film. The kinds of people who go to film festivals in the West are the kinds of people who would want to visit the Three Gorges Dam. So were you interested in making a film that would shatter film audiences' expectations as well?
YC: Yeah, my film is about peeling the surface level and showing another perspective of the Chinese experience. And I think that was my position as a huayi [overseas ethnic Chinese]. I was able to be the bridge between these two perspectives. I was able to get the Chinese perspective through working with my crew and my subjects and get an intimate human Chinese story. And then on the flip-side get that outside perspective. That was how I approached the filmmaking. And in fact, it was a very conflicted experience for a filmmaker, though I think it's good that I was constantly questioning the value of such a project on the Three Gorges Dam. I think making a film that has answers or that is trying to make a moral statement and be dogmatic is not the approach that one should take. The key is to have you asking more questions and to provoke you. Audiences are divisive in their opinions, and that's interesting as well. You say an audience is like a tourist, and just as tourists, they visit another culture, they go with their own opinions and take from that experience based on their own perspectives. That was kind of the point of making this movie. To be open.
APA: I think the aesthetic you chose to tackle the subject speaks to this sort of openness. You really focused on extraordinary visions of beauty -- excruciatingly beautiful at times -- that defy clear answers. Why did you choose to go with visual beauty as the key aesthetic, as opposed to say, grittiness, which is another approach to documentary?
YC: I think that sort of parallels the contrasts that I was witnessing on the river. It's indeed a beautiful landscape, and still is even after the flooding, and that this area's steeped in a mythology that's in Chinese paintings from thousands of years ago. So that was one objective: to capture the sheer beauty of the landscape. And then I think what's interesting is that there are human inhabitants on this landscape and their story is on the more gritty end of the experience. So I think it's qualifying that notion of "beauty in progress" and the human presence within that environment. That was important. In one sense, we as tourists are seeing this beauty and photographing this beauty. But on the other hand, there's another story happening within that world.
APA: At the same time, the way you depict the workers, there's a sort of glistening beauty to it. The use of lightness and dark almost has a chiaroscuro effect.
YC: [laughs] Right. I think it's just something I wanted to do as a filmmaker -- to not make a documentary that has those expected notions of cinema vérité. It's not hand-held video, although there are some hand-held moments because we're working spontaneously. But I think overall, I wanted to try to slow down the pace and to try to capture the atmosphere that I was feeling. I think working with my Chinese cinematographer Wang Shi Qing was very important as well, because he's a master of framing and beauty. And I think the Chinese landscape lends itself to that photogenesis that you just want to capture.
APA: I was at a conference about two weeks ago on Chinese cinema and one of the panelists (Yingjin Zhang) gave an introduction to the "new Chinese documentary" movement. During the Q/A, someone stood up and said, "I just saw a movie called Up the Yangtze by a Chinese Canadian director. Would you fit this within the Chinese documentary movement?"
YC: Oh wow. How did he respond? That's very interesting.
APA: Well, I'm curious how you would answer that.
YC: I would say that my film is very inspired by the tradition of Chinese documentary filmmaking. I saw a film called This Happy Life by Jiang Yue. It's very framed, very beautiful, and very composed, much like a Jia Zhang-ke film like Useless or Dong. I think I'm inspired by that idea that you can have that sort of approach. Cinematographically, it's quite a controlled approach. I would say that my film is not a Chinese film nor is it a Western film. It really reflects a unique huayi experience. I'd say I'm in that middle ground. You have Western perspectives of the Three Gorges Dam in films like Manufactured Landscapes, and you have Jia Zhang-ke's movie [Still Life] or Before the Flood made in 2005 that is a very Chinese approach. I'd say I'm in the middle ground.
APA: The panelist at the conference didn't immediately know how to answer the question. But then he said he liked to think of documentary "movement" in two senses: movement as in an artistic movement, and movement as in travel. He likes the idea that an approach to aesthetics and subject matter can travel around the world.
YC: I think that as part of the Chinese diaspora, I'm inclined to be inspired by Chinese films. And I think that's something that Western filmmakers aren't aware of. So I think it's interesting that there is this "movement."
APA: You mentioned that some of your crew was from the mainland. Had they worked on films of the so-called "new Chinese documentary movement"?
YC: Yeah, they're all Chinese documentary filmmakers. Fan Lixin, who was my sound recordist and translator and production manager, edited the movie To Live is Better than to Die, which is directed by Chen Weijun, who recently made Please Vote for Me. And then there's Wang Shi Qing, who made a great documentary called SARS in Beijing, where he went to a railway station and filmed. It's an eerie film. It's very loose and just follows people trying to leave the city.... That sort of instinct speaks to what's going on now with documentary filmmaking in China: to make movies about real people. There are 1.3 billion stories to tell in China and there are filmmakers trying do do that.
APA: You mention that there are 1.3 billion stories. I hope you don't take this as a criticism, but when I first heard that Jia Zhang-ke was going to make a film about the Three Gorges Dam (Still Life), I thought: "Wow, this is a high concept art film." If "high concept" is a Hollywood term meaning you can pitch it to a studio executive in one sentence, then "Jia Zhang-ke + Three Gorges Dam" is similar. It's easy to pitch and likely to get financed. In a way, making a film about the Three Gorges Dam is easier to finance. Is that a fair assessment?
YC: Well I think that what's interesting is that the Three Gorges Dam has become a genre. I can list maybe six or seven films that have used this region as an inspiration. I think it captures that metaphor for change in China. For me and for many filmmakers, this dam exists as a sort of abstract idea or monument or symbol of modernity. And within that world are people pacing through those stages of change. I think that's why filmmakers are so attracted to this area. It's a real way to hone in and zoom in on the bigger themes. I think that's the power of filmmaking in China. There's a filmmaker right now -- the director of Please Vote for Me -- who's making a film about the world's largest restaurant. He's following every category of the process of running this restaurant, from production to the actual consumption of food. Every layer is explored within the world of the restaurant. Using microcosms is much like what Robert Altman does in Gosford Park. I think it's very filmic.
APA: Do you think this is specific to Chinese circumstances? There seem to be so many Chinese movies which take a fishbowl to stand for the world. Jia Zhang-ke's The World is the most obvious example.
YC: Exactly. That's another one. I don't know if it's specific to China, because there are many films that don't use these fishbowls. But I think it works much like a novel would work.
APA: The reason I say it might be specific to China is that here's a place where space is being reorganized such that high class and low class are constantly juxtaposed and layered on top of each other. I think the scene that most captured that for me, and was probably the most powerful in your film, was the one where the girl brings her parents onto the boat.
YC: Yes. It's a really heartbreaking moment. It's interesting that when that scene came together, it was based on the invitation of the manager. And I suddenly thought, oh god, I don't feel comfortable, this is weird. It's going to be exploitative. The process of getting that scene was difficult for me. After shooting the scene and looking at the footage, I see that it's very powerful. You're right, there are these contrasts that are so much more apparent now in this social experiment of China that we can't see in other places. Maybe India. But in China it's very dramatic. Every step has an imprint and means a lot more. I like that.
APA: A "stock scene" that I love in contemporary Chinese cinema is the one of the ordinary Chinese person singing karaoke.
YC: [laughs] And I got it in my film! There's a lot more karaoke I didn't use. I think karaoke is melancholic. You gather with a bunch of friends and you sit in a room in a small box and you sing songs about love. And meanwhile you're with a bunch of people but you're in your own world. I think that's what I find beautiful about the karaoke "stock scene." And Jerry takes that to another level when he presents it to the audience on the boat.
APA: Was that his idea?
YC: It was his idea because he wanted to perform this Andy Lau song.
APA: How did the boat audience react? I couldn't really tell from the film.
YC: They liked it very much. Jerry was kind of popular on the boat and was charming, so people were endeared by his performance. He only had one. [laughs] Then it was over.
APA: If you're a foreign traveler and you're looking for authentic China and hear this guy sing a pop song, I wonder if you'd think, "That's not what I signed up for!"
YC: [laughs] I guess you're right.
APA: But in fact it's more authentic because that's what he truly wants to perform.
YC: I think it's a stark realization for a lot of tourists going into China: that this isn't what they thought they were getting themselves into. This is not the world of pristine imperial temples and palaces and people wearing Mao suits. It's not like that at all. It's no different from any other contemporary society. They have Prada, people go drink Starbucks.
APA: I think I read that your next film is about Tiananmen Square?
YC: I'm looking at a film that's indirectly about 6-4 [June 4, 1989], but I'm also helping to produce a film by one of my collaborators who's working on a film about the Spring Festival, which he shot for two years following a migrant family in Southern China as they try to get home for five days to celebrate Chinese New Year. Look for that one; it's called Last Train Home.
APA: So do you see your career as being based in China?
YC: Not necessarily. I'm also working on a film about the Opium trade, from consumption to production, from Afghanistan to the streets of New York. I'd rather not be defined by theme. But we'll see. I'm just really fascinated by China, and could keep making movies about China.
Up the Yangtze is currently in limited release. For playdates in the United States, click here.
For more information, check out the film's official website.