Yung Chang, a Chinese Canadian director, released his documentary, Up the Yangtze, in 2007. Aiming to capture the cultural, environmental, and human cost of the Three Gorges Dam project, he traveled on one of the “farewell cruises” up the river. During this time, Chang primarily followed the lives of a young girl, Yu Shui and her peasant family. Living in poverty and with their home facing submersion because of the dam, Yu Shui’s parents send her to work on one of the cruises on the river. Chang documents both the changes in Yu Shui’s life and those of the environment around her. This is the original promotional poster for Chang’s documentary, which was released at the Vancouver International Film Festival. I added this to my collection because the film illuminates the non-monetary cost of the Three Gorges Dam. In this way, it functions as another testimony to the dam’s impact on the communities and environment surrounding it.
