Up the Yangtze: New vs. Old China and the Presentation of Culture

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The film Up the Yangtze is a very powerful film that explores the changes in China with the coming of change for the sake of progress. The film focuses on a girl and a boy from very different backgrounds. Yu Shui is fresh out of school with aspirations of a higher education who is instead sent to go work on a cruise ship for tourists. The other focus is on Chen Bo Yu, a teen boy who grew up with a much more luxurious style than Yu. Although we never see Chen’s home we can infer this form the fact that we first find him buying his friends drinks in a karaoke bar. In comparison to Yu’s families shack on the side of the river he is living a luxurious life. Two teens with two different backgrounds were chosen to represent the changes in China within this documentary and we are going to explore why.
The narrator of this documentary mentioned multiple times how the China his grandfather once knew no longer exists. This could be caused by normal change or the fast rising of the water, but the affect is the same. If his grandfather came back to China present day there is a good chance he would not recognize the place he previously called home. I believe this is one reason that they chose Yu and her family as a subject of this film. They demonstrate many of the old ways of China and much less of the new than I believe Chen’s family would be. Yu’s father could even be a representation of what its like for the people who represent China butting heads with the newer generations. We could see how unhappy the young girl was when she was denied a higher education and instead was sent to work. On the other hand, the teen boy more closely resembles the new China with different values than Yu possesses. It would’ve been harder to compare these two ...

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...ll people, ““smiled, slept, had sex and children, wept, and, in the end, died.” Although this is true, the real differences between them can’t be explored in a world of forced smiles and censored conversations. I found it funny that they were showing the side of their culture that consisted of the flashy robes and the songs that tell you how it easy it is to learn Chinese while the crew just give them a big smile. Some of their families live in ragged huts on the side of the river, are being beaten when they don’t move out, and its even said by a shop keeper that says its hard to be a common person in China. Where’s that part of their culture? Below deck in the heart of the crew.
In the end, this is a beautiful documentary about a changing culture and the divide between older members of old China losing touch with the new, which can be their children in many cases.

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