When Chen Changnian says "The economic situation in Beijing before the Olympics was very bad but has been improved a lot..." and his son, Chen Ming stops him and tells him that he's hurt by this and it's something he's been trying to avoid them discussing... what is Chen Ming preventing his father from talking about on camera?
shareI had the same thought, I really wanted to hear what he had to say.
What I assume Chen Ming was stopping his father from doing was talking about China in the negative - on camera. I think he was worried about doing that and that negatively talking about China and it's technology literally hurt his son emotionally and in his profession.
In the interview conducted by our director, Chen Changnian was alluding to the environmental costs associated with Deng Xiaoping’s reforms – ones that transformed China into the workshop of the world economy. But his son, Chen Ming, was alarmed because, as he admits, he had been trying to avoid such issues during the cross country road trip that the film-makers had previously accompanied him on. As a tour guide for the auto-club arm of Beijing traffic radio FM 103.9, Chen Ming would have presumably wished to keep away from politically-charged discussions, especially on camera in matters that risked triggering hostile reactions from government officials. For the film makers, this cinéma vérité moment echoes one of the main themes of "Surviving Progress" – that our blind short-term approach to economic development is unsustainable and possibly catastrophic. Why? Because it ignores mounting evidence our species has begun to live off the capital – rather than the interest – of nature.
share