Yangtze riverscape

Music

01.00.00.00

boats, mountains

tracking shots, boats

Hutcheon:  A hundred years ago, sailing the Yangtze through the centre of China was one of the greatest adventures in the world. 

Music

Hutcheon:  Stretching from Tibet to Shanghai, the six thousand kilometre river was once torrid and changeable, narrow in parts and treacherous to navigate. 

00.21

FX:  Horn honking

Woman with child, people riding in

Hutcheon:  But for the commuters and tourists travelling the river these days, it's an adventure of a different kind.

00.36

boat

FX:  People talking

Hutcheon:  The lack of seats aboard our boat creates tension for some, others find different ways to pass the time.

00.47

Man looking through binoculars, Jane Hutcheon takes them and puts them

Woman:  Sir, what are you looking at?

Man:  I'm looking at the scenery.

on, tracking shots

interspersed with them looking through binoculars

Woman:  Is it good?

Man:  Yes it's good.

Woman:  Can I borrow that and have a look?  Thanks

Hutcheon:  My fellow traveller is in the Cashmere business, for him travelling by boat is a convenience.  The same distance by car takes nearly twice as long. 

01.06

In five years time, the Three Gorges Dam will begin to transform the river - flooding the valleys so that eventually only the mountain tops will be  visible above the water.

01.17

But ask the Chinese how they feel about this transformation and their response is pragmatic.

Intv with man

Businessman:  If a country wants to develop, but holds too much to its past there's no hope.  Signs of history are everywhere if we yield to them, this will hinder development.  Because things are always changing, it's impossible to always maintain history whilst seeking development.

01.36

People on boat along river, man with camera, woman watching, tracking along river bank

Hutcheon:  Whatever the coming changes, you can still catch a glimpse of the old river.  Italian filmmakers Attilio Viti and Laura Panigadi are searching for a stretch which hasn't been destroyed by progress, a location for a film based on John Hersey's novel A Single Pebble, set 70 years ago.

01.53

Intv with Laura, tracking shots, intv with Laura continues

Laura:  It's the story of a young American engineer who comes on the river in 1927 and he has a project to build a big dam.  He's sent by a company to see if there is a possibility to build a dam.

12.14

Hutcheon:  The once imaginary dam is finally being built - by China rather than the Americans.  But if the filmmakers are trying to recapture the romance of the old Yangtze they'd better hurry.  In ten years, all of this will be under water.

12.31

Hutcheon:  Do you think the river now would be different compared to the 1930s?

12.47

Laura:  Oh yes, and on the Three Gorges the difference is there are no more rapids, because they blast all the big rocks in the 1950s and so it's not dangerous any more.  In the 1930s it was an adventure to go through the Three Gorges.

Man talking in microphone, skipper, intv with man

Hutcheon:  Up on the bridge, Captain Peng Guo Fu watches carefully for the rocks that can put this boat aground.

03.13

The damming of the river will ease navigation, but Captain Peng admits to feeling a tinge of regret that all of this will one day disappear.

Captain:  I feel some pity, yes, a little pity because in the future we won't be able to see them - we won't be able to see the relics in future.  So people are taking pictures - taking pictures of the relics to preserve the memory of them.. 

03.30

Hutcheon on boat looking out, tracking shot, boat docked, men working, Hutcheon

Hutcheon:  As the journey progresses, it's hard not to feel disillusioned about the state of a river the Chinese call ‘the Great'.

03.49

walking along,

speaks to man

Our boat docks at a town of Yunyang, a place where foreboding seems etched into its existence.  In the town's main thoroughfare, I come across a blind man who claims to see into the future.

Hutcheon:  Hello there, can I take one?

04.15

Blind man:  Double happiness is the name of this card.  You have picked up a lucky card.   

If you have a person of learning in your home a pair of magpies will come and express good news.

The person of learning will become an intellectual.  The pair of magpies will deliver good news to you.

Hutcheon:  It's a little cryptic, but amidst the disillusionment, the message appears to be one of hope.

Boats on river

Perhaps like the locals, one should look at the Yangtze as they do, something that was once great but is no longer romantic, better viewed as a muddy highway which passes through the centre of the Middle Kingdom.

04.46

ENDS

05.04