三峡ダム建設をめぐる二つのドキュメンタリー映画にみる「他者」の声 : 『 秉愛』とUp the Yangtze

This paper focuses on “others,” the people depicted in two documentary films about the construction of the Three Gorges Dam, 『秉愛』(Bing Ai, 2007) by Chinese filmmaker Feng Yan, and Up the Yangtze (2007) by Chinese Canadian filmmaker Yung Chang. Chapters 1 and 2 examine the uniqueness of each work, and Chapter 3 investigates their similarities and differences. Both directors have roots in China and both released their films in 2007, the year after the dam was completed. However, the directors differ in terms of their nationality, gender, age, and social background. Further, by visualizing the different types of watershed residents they focus on, we elucidate the attitudes shown in the respective films.
We first review the background of the film in order to understand Feng’s 『秉愛』 representation and then rethink three points: the lack of music used in the film, the lack of adequate image and sound processing, and the visualization of not only 秉愛, who continues to resist the government’s recommendation and is later ordered to relocate, but also the residents who are forced to face the same situation. In addition, it is pointed out that Feng contrasts Chinese government officials with the residents, highlighting the economic, educational, and cognitive disparities that arise between them.
On the other hand, this paper analyzes the representation of the sightseeing boats on the Yangtze River in Up the Yangtze, after reviewing the background of the film. In fact, since this film serves more as a narrative than a documentary, viewers could associate it with the Bible. However, in Up the Yangtze, it is not God who puts the world in danger of being submerged, but human who have constructed the largest dam in the world and sought a more comfortable, secure, and modern life. In addition, the film shows foreign tourists visiting an apartment complex for farmers relocated from a flooded area. Through this depiction, Yung demonstrates the reality of farmers who are forced to cultivate crops with which they are inexperienced, in a new land.
To further discuss the two films, we examine the following three aspects and explains the similarities and differences: the filmmaker’s point of view, the relationship to the Chinese economy and capitalism, and the positions presented by the Feng and Yung. It can be seen that『秉愛』is a long-term, in-depth story of a poor woman living in the Three Gorges region before the completion of the dam, documenting the situation of migration from a local perspective by a filmmaker who is also Chinese but from the middle class (and above) and educated in China or Japan. Up the Yangtze, in contrast, depicts the Chinese transition to a consumerist, capitalist economy before and after the completion of the dam and its impact on the residents of the Three Gorges region from an outside perspective, that is, from the perspective of Canadians who have enjoyed the affluence of a capitalist society. The two films show implications of the complex Chinese social context behind the dam’s construction in detail. Further study of films depicting similar themes is needed in order to shed light on the massive phenomenon of the Three Gorges Dam from more diverse perspectives.