Part of the film series
Waking the Green Tiger: Documentaries from the Front Lines of China's Environmental Crisis
(August 18-27, 2014)

Waking the Green Tiger
Dir. Gary Marcuse. Canada/China. 2011. 78 min. Chinese with English subtitles.

Seen through the eyes of activists, farmers, and journalists, Waking the Green Tiger follows an extraordinary grassroots campaign which successfully stopped a huge dam project on the upper Yangtze river in southwestern China. Featuring astonishing archival footage never seen outside China and interviews with a government insider and witnesses, the documentary also examines Chairman Mao’s campaigns to conquer nature in the name of progress. An environmental movement takes root when a new law is passed and, for the first time in China’s history, ordinary citizens have the democratic right to speak out and take part in government decisions. Activists test their freedom to challenge a dam. The movement they trigger could transform China.

Q&A featuring Shi Lihong, an environmental activist who contributed footage and is interviewed in this film, moderated by Orville Schell, Arthur Ross Director, Center on U.S.-China Relations, Asia Society.

Watch the Q&A on video here. 

Reception to follow.