China Rises (CBC, 2006)

has fascinated Western audiences in films, and has led to a great enthusiasm for integrating Chinese Kung Fu elements in Hollywood action films. The art of Kung Fu is perceived as a symbol of the exotic by Westerners, which explains its frequent implementation in Western media. Among all martial art practitioners, the monks from the Shaolin Temple are the favorite filming target for documentary production on China. Here in this series, again we see the familiar images of the monks’ martial arts performance, just as in China Revealed.

In the final sequence of this series, the director films a noodle factory. The camera captures the potraits of Mao, Stalin, and Lenin displayed outside the factory. Then the camera brings the audience’s attention via a montage to the female employees of this noodle factory in their uniform, standing in lines and singing a Maoist song, which draws on Western cultural memories of the Chinese as seen in the seventies – always in uniform and without any individuality.

At the end of the series, Mr. Wang, a village party secretary, is interviewed. In the background of his office, we see a Chinese painting hanging to the wall, which symbolizes his literati identity. In this montage, the camera dwells on the various statues of Mao standing on Wang’s desk. He wipes them carefully and gives the interviewer Mao’s “little red book” as a present. The whole montage portrays an image of a devoted local party official working in China’s rural area who firmly admires Mao. His image fits into the Western image of the “brain-washed” Chinese, who have extreme reverence and admiration towards China’s late Chairman Mao.

refurbished in Western style, but also peasants in a state of poverty who can barely feed themselves. The topic is addressed much more broadly and deeply than in China Revealed. The representative figures cover different classes and professions.

6.2.1 Episode One: Party Games

“Party Games” mainly refers to the Olympic Games of 2008, which is portrayed here as China’s “show time” in Western media. There are different stories in this episode:

we see a child athelete (like JY) on the national gymnastics team preparing for the Olympic Games; a law student at Peking University trying to become a Communist Party member, who explains about her view of the Olympic Games; a modern artist who is creating an art work for the celebration of the Olympic Games; a patriot organizing anti-Japanese demonstrations; and the democratic election of a local party secretary held in a village.

The episode begins with a portrayal of the life of the construction workers working on the Olympic Stadium. This montage captures their daily life in the early morning, and subsequently shows them at work. The juxtaposition of a tilt shot of a bunch of steel bars hanging in the sky and a full shot of a cement mixer machine manufactured by three workers in the working montage give us the sense of the fast-increasing rate of the consumption of industrial resources. In the meantime, the narration “Now [China]

is using one third of the world’s steel, almost half of the cement” informs us about China’s resource consumption, and highlights the myth that China is competing with the West by absorbing the limited non-renewable resources.

In this scene of construction, we see the Chinese people preparing to welcome a meaningful and important Games. The inclusion of the story of a young athlete training for China’s significant moment gives the sequence greater audience appeal.

Xiao Sha (XS), another child gymnast like JY, similarily emerges as a key figure in China Rises. XS goes for her dancing training routine and practices her turning movements on the beam. Her leaps are impressive and steady. She does not even fall from the beam once, unlike JY. Although we see less of the inhumane practices undergone by JY in XS’s sequence, this does not mean that she does not suffer less

than JY psychologically. She has not seen her parents in Gui Yang for three years, for her training takes place in Beijing. An interesting montage is presented in this sequence - when XS goes back to her dorm alone, she sits on a small stool next to her bed and reads a book. Her back faces the camera and is positioned in a long shot. She lookes small, insignificant, and lonely, which we understand is the price she has to pay for the Olympic Games. The implication here is once again that the training regime for China’s child athletes is inhumane; as in JY’s sequence, we feel the pathos of little children being separated from their families.

The stories of JY and XS as child athletes leave us with the impression that they have taken on a lot pressure because they cannot make their own decisions. There is only one option for them – to continue with their hard training and compete for the Olympic Games. We can identify here a cultural concept typical of a collective society: sacrificing the interests of the individual for those of the collective. Just like JY, who once wants to quit the training but is coerced and beaten by her father, in XS’s interview, she mentions that once, after the Chinese New Year, she did not want to continue her training because it was too hard for her. In the end, she was persuaded by her parents to keep training further. Her interview intensifies the Western perception that child athletes are supposed to be protected by their parents and their free will ought to be respected. Instead, the media message of XS’s sequence suggests that these athletes are manipulated by abstruse national prestige and their parents’ expectations, and their pleasant childhoods expropriated by intense gymnastic training.

Another image to be mentioned here is the montage about the Cultural Revolution, which is explained by Ai Weiwei, a modern artist. The Cultural Revolution was a special political campaign in China’s contemporary history, and was at first highly praised by the American media as a great move toward democracy - Mao’s good intentions were perceived. Nowadays, the Revolution is portrayed as the extreme opposite, an era of desperation, which showed no respect for individual human beings and was a disaster for China’s culture and economic development. In China Rises, we learn of the Revolution from the touching personal story of Ai Weiwei’s

father, one of the most famous poets of his day. According to his mother Gao Ying,

“The whole family was banished to Xinjiang and lived in a hole.” Ai Qing had to undertake a lot of physical work and attend several self-criticism meetings everyday.

As Ai Weiwei recalls, he was terrified one day by the sight of his father coming home pitch-black because of ink thrown all over his body. When he recalls his history, the shots are interlinked with flashbacks of old black and white photos and historical footage, which aims to create a sense of plausibility and history. Accompanied by slow traditional Chinese music, the narration of the individual experience of Ai Qing during the Cultural Revolution gives a strong sense to the audience that the Revolution must have been a dark and tragic time period.

China Rises makes it clear that Western culture and ideology have permeated into every aspect of Chinese daily life, lifestyle, private life, and more importantly, into the minds of individuals. The respect for individual freedom and democracy is starting to be advocated and developed in China. Ai Weiwei, one of the designers of Olympic Stadium, claims to be a “free individual, [who] has the right and ability to choose”

after his thirteen years living in New York. In his sequence in China Rises, we see black-and-white photos of him in front of the New York subway and a tower in a zoomed-out shot. He was so disturbed by what he suffered during the Cultural Revolution that he left to make a new life in the States in 1980. Due to his overseas experience, his mind has been engraved with strongly Western political beliefs.

6.2.2 Episode Two: Getting Rich

It is already acknowledged in the Western world that China is in a transitional state, moving from a “poor and isolated” country a generation ago to become an economic power. This message is brought to the audience in China Revealed. Here once again, it is demonstrated by comparing rich enterpreneurs and higher officials with poor migrant workers. These successful business figures are shown to be role-models in Chinese society. Like Luo in China Revealed, they are wealthy, ambitious, and pursue a Western life style. They personify the goal of the lower social classes.

The episode starts with an establishing shot of a luxurious mansion located in

Chongqing, which belongs to the Chinese motorcycle enterpreneur, Mr. Shen Zong.

The camera brings us to this beautiful residence, an epitome of European style, both in its decor and private gardens. In this montage, a piano concerto played by a symphony orchestra is used as the acoustic music in consistency with the Western style of the house. The gilded statues and the fountain in the middle look like a replica of the statues in Versailles. Zong’s hobby is collecting dogs and horses from around the world. In these shots, we can tell that he actively pursues a Western lifestyle.

In contrast with Zong’s astonishingly luxurious life, the film also shows the story of a migrant worker, who works in Zong’s factory. The clothing and home of Mr. Yang and his wife bear no resemblance to Zong’s. With China’s booming economy, migrant workers are moving to cities where more job opportunities and better working conditions exist, so that they are able to support their families in the countryside by earning well above the rural average. While working in the urban cities, they engage themselves in the most dangerous jobs. We are shown the Yangs’ annual visit home to celebrate the traditional Chinese New Year with their family. The whole family sit happily around a table to eat and drink together on this festival. The scene is full of happiness, warmth and comfort. Underneath this harmonious scene, however, lies the harsh reality that the migrant worker couple are trying desperately to please their children, but the children cannot even recognize them and treat them like total strangers. In the Yangs’ story, from an overhead shot, we feel the pathos of the moment when their little nephew does not know who they are and refuses to talk to them. He flinches back and plays with his toys when Yang and his wife approach him. It can be seen that Chinese migrant workers are leading an underprivileged life.

The sequence goes on to present the life and work of another successful IT enterpreneur, Mr. Yun Ma. This is followed by a series of images of the Great Wall, which represents China’s antiquity. As one of the most remarkable historical sites in human history, the Great Wall is a must-see for Western tourists these days and also essential to contemporary Western media representations of China. The portrayal of

this ancient Wall is accompanyied by a montage of a top official (Mr. Zhou) from the state-owned Bank of China, who enjoys hiking to the Wall every now and then. Shots of the Wall in this montage are stunning and magnificent. In the camera images, the mountains are covered in green trees while the sky is blue and clear, and clouds are floating in the sky. The light tone of this montage is colorful and fresh, with no yellow tones to highlight a sense of history as in China Revealed. The whole montage ends up with a long shot of the Wall stretching towards the sky. In this context, the same signifier, the Great Wall, is not used to create intense historical connotations. Rather, the wide-angled and medium shots invite us to celebrate the astonishing beauty of the Wall and the surrounding landscape.

In this specific context, the signification of the Great Wall is extended to symbolize national solidarity, and this positive message is conveyed by the combination of the impressive images and the banker’s words. Zhou tells us that millions of Chinese people worked together in ancient times, to construct this architectural miracle without any modern technology. He suggests that if all contemporary Chinese people made a joint effort, they should be able to create another miracle. A large population means abundant labor resources and is therefore considered to be an advantage for the construction of the national infrastructure; and of course, this view reminds us of the desire for population growth so prevalent in the early European immigrants to America, for they believed that the more people joined them in their new land, the more quickly they would become a powerful group.

Zong and Ma are not the only enterpreneurs being affected by Western culture.

Another example given in China Rises is the air-conditioning manufacturer, Mr. Yue Zhang, another multi-millionaire industrialist from Hunan province. He built his corporate headquarters in imitation of the French style of landscaping, so that you almost feel as if the sequence has been shot in a small European town. To inspire his employees, he has constructed a European style palace as a training institute, surrounded by statues of famous Western scholars, heroes and innovators, such as Adam Smith, Martin Luther King Junior, Thomas Edison, James Watt and the Wright brothers. Yue Zhang is not only deeply influenced by Western culture; he is further

inspired by the Western conception of innovation, technology and sustainable development. He is very passionate about implementing green energy and modern technological expertise. This short montage shows that Zhang is quite determined to learn from advanced Western technology so that his staff are able to improve their products to contribute to environmental protection. Zhang’s story in this episode indicates that China is to some extent transitioning towards being a more open, international and Westernized country.

6.2.3 Episode Three: Food is Heaven

In the beginning of the third episode, we once again revisit the clichéd images of horrible Chinese food, with an ECU of fish heads and wriggling scorpions. In this episode, a cooking show made by Mr Wang (a master chef living in Canton) for local television is included in the footage, and is even compared with Jackie Chan’s²⁶⁶ Kung Fu performances. Although real Kung Fu is not included in this documentary series, the addition of this cooking show can be seen as a practical variant of martial arts in daily life. During Mr Wang’s show, he is filmed from a low angle throwing up bottles of vinegar and oil and catching them again. This low-angle shot indicates a respect for the chef, or perhaps we should call him, the “Kung Fu”’ master. Yet, during his show, we cannot help noticing that the shrimp have been thrown alive into the hot pan. They jump on the plate. In Mr Wang’s opinion, shrimp have to be alive to be truly fresh.

Chinese cuisine, one significant component of Chinese culture, is indispensable to China-themed Western documentaries. As we saw in the sections on historical images in this dissertation, Chinese cuisine has long been seen as exotic by Westerners. To Western knowledge, Chinese people eat “practically everything”²⁶⁷. Viewers were shown all those terrifying animals as ingredients in a Beijing restaurant in the previous case study, with fish-heads and scorpions being prepared for the main course.

266 Jackie Chan, one of the Kung Fu movie stars, is to some extent taken as a representative figure of Chinese martial art stars.

267 Quote from the narration of China Rises.

The sharp contrast between rich and poor is intensified by presenting life in the city and the country. The internal revolution benefits some people by giving them splendid opportunities to get rich, but people living in the countryside are left far behind this growth. From the close-up shots of colorful and various foods on restaurant tables, we can tell that people in Canton have no lack of wonderful food;

they believe that “appeasing hunger is an old story”. The montage then cuts to a peasant couple living in a village on the Loess Plateau, located in the northwest of China. From a series of aerial shots, full shots and wide shots of this village, audiences are provided with a picture of the harsh living environment in the Chinese countryside. Trees are sparsely rooted on the mountain, making khaki the main color tone in this place. The peasants work on the dry land to grow plants which can barely support them. We see from the selection of images that they cannot afford much choice in their diet, and eat noodles practically every day.

In this episode, we have been presented with the familiar images of a family reunion over a meal, of a primitive agricultual land unchanged for hundreds of years, of the harsh living environment of the rural areas. In addition to these frequently filmed images, the codes to represent Chinese culture and tradition are also covered in the film. Chinese painting, for example, is used again by the director to represent China’s distinguished civilized culture in this documentary. The storyline proceeds to the filming of a Chinese painter who specializes in painting fish, and who explains to us the symbolic meaning of fish in tradtional Chinese culture. In keeping with the theme, the music for this sequence is Chinese folk music, which creates an atmosphere of a unique Chinese tradition and antiquity.

6.2.4 Episode Four: City of Dreams

In the episode expository, our attention is attracted by a night club, a beautiful night view of the Shanghai skyline, crowded modern buildings, fast-motion shots of automobiles zooming down the road, a runway model, fashion brands, etc. This montage brings us into a fast-growing Chinese city. Shanghai is a heavily Westernized Chinese city where it is easy to find bars, pubs, Western restaurants and shops scattered in the downtown area. The zoom-in close-up shots make

eye-catching luxurious brands like Hugo Boss stand out for the audience. We are thus impressed that China, once seen as “poor and isolated” (narration of China Rises), is becoming a newly rising consumer market, including luxury consumption.

This episode begins with a scene showing the working life of a representative of the new urban middle class, Mr. Liang Ma, an independent film director living in Shanghai. We observe that in the montage of Ma’s commercial shoot, the models are pretty and nicely dressed, the environment in the park is clean, quiet and filled with ancient Roman-style pillars surrounded by little yellow flower blossoms. The images of beautiful models, a suburban park and flowers indicate the aesthetic romance of his commercial adverisement. In the interview with Ma, there are three artistic dolls hanging in the background, which implies Ma’s sense of taste and artistic identity. Another member of the urban middle class, Jenny Ji, is working as a fashion designer in Shanghai after studying in Italy. In Jenny Ji’s montage, she is filmed in her own exquisite fashion boutique, which is decorated in an antique style in soft tones. When she is interviewed, our eyes are attracted to the mannequin in a red fashionable dress and lily flowers in the background. The light tone of Jenny’s montage is soft, gentle and creamy, which gives it a comfortable, relaxed atmosphere. From the setting and design of her shop, we can see her personality. In Jenny’s own words, “I feel great, and I have no restrictions and no boring attitude”.

Jenny has achieved career success, as she is the only female designer to be invited to the Shanghai International Fashion Festival. She is young, talented and ambitious.

In contrast with the clean natural enviornment of Ma Liang and Jenny’s boutique, the fancy stories of a commercial director and a fashion designer, the sequence is followed by a sharp contrast between rich and poor: the image of shabby ruined houses surrounded by new buildings, which is also adopted in Mr Luo’s montage in China Revealed. This short montage of ruined houses shows us local residents in blue trousers and muddy black shoes living in small houses without electricity or running water. The camera brings us into a world of terrible living conditions, where cracked stones and dog excrement are all over the place. In a close-up of an aged lady, we observe her frowning eyebrows and feel strongly her grief and anger. This contrast between the new urban middle class and the poor again reinforces the