China from the inside [videorecording] / writer, producer, director, Jonathan Lewis ; a KQED Public Television and Granada production for PBS, Granada International and the BBC ; in association with Kostyk Communications.
Format:
[videorecording] /
Edition:
Widescreen format.
Publisher:
PBS Home Video,
Copyright Date:
c2006
Description:
1 videodisc (220 min.) : sd., col. with b&w sequences ; 4 3/4 in.
episode 4. Freedom and justice (55 min.). (55 min.) -- episode 2. Women of the country (55 min.) -- episode 3. Shifting nature (55 min.) -- episode 4. Freedom and justice (55 min.).
Summary:
This series surveys China through Chinese eyes to see how history has shaped them, and where the present is taking them. The first segment looks at how the Communist Party exerts control over 1.3 billion Chinese. Do village elections present a chance for people to take a share in power? Chinese people, from farmers to ministers, speak frankly about the problems the country faces and the ways forward. The second segment looks at women in contemporary China. China's women have always been under pressure: from men, from family, from work. Now more and more are under new pressure -- from themselves -- to take control of their lives; to get an education; to have a career; to marry for love. It's a slow, difficult process, and it is changing China. The third segment looks at environmental issues in China. China is trying to feed 20 percent of the world's population on 7 percent of the world's arable land. A third of the world uses water from China's rivers. But rapid industrialization and climate change have led to bad air, polluted rivers and drought. Environmental activists, Party officials, academics and scientists are in a daily struggle over the damage to nature in China. The fourth segment looks at freedom in China examining such questions as: How free are the Chinese people? How free to worship as they please? To learn the truth from the media? To hear the truth from the Communist Party and the government? How can people with a grievance negotiate with the state? Also looks at popular grievances: forced evictions, government cover-up of the AIDS problem, corruption and land grabbing. There were 87,000 officially-recognized cases of public disorder in 2005. The courts frequently refuse to take on sensitive cases, forcing ordinary people to petition the government -- a frustratingly ineffectual process. The cameras go inside a "Re-education through Labor" camp to which women are committed without trial for up to four years for drugs, sex or property offences -- or for petitioning.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.