Tracking shots

Music

01.00.00.00

of mountains

from aeroplane, Hutcheon in plane, people looking out aeroplane windows, mountains, map

Jane Hutcheon:  Snow covered peaks in summer are a hint we're heading to somewhere different, a place the Chinese named Xizang, or Western Treasure but everyone else calls Tibet.

00.11

The outside world believes Tibet is a peaceful, spiritual nation, oppressed by the invading Communists.  The Chinese say to the contrary, they have liberated Tibet from oppression replacing feudalism with progress.

Announcer:  Please fasten your seat belt, thank you.

Hutcheon walking towards camera up set of stairs

Super:

JANE HUTCHEON

Jane Hutcheon: (to camera):  The Chinese Government only allows a few groups of journalists into Tibet each year.  The itinerary has been arranged for us and we're not allowed to meet any people who oppose Chinese rule.  In short, the agenda is to show us just how well China is looking after Tibet.

05.52

Crew disembarking off bus, two men walking along, people walking up stairs, Hutcheon going into house, people in flat, tea being poured

Jane Hutcheon:  It's a matter of weeks before President Clinton visits Beijing.  And China wants Tibet to look good.  My fellow travellers are two American networks, a TV agency and two minders from the Chinese controlled Tibetan Autonomous Region Government.

01.17

For each of the six days the schedule is tightly packed from morning till night.  On the agenda today, a visit to an ordinary Tibetan home.

01.38

A gaggle of journalists invade the four room flat belonging to an old lady, but she's out. 

01.50

People in room,

Our minder explains.

pan to man speaking

Dorji (minder):  She's not here.  She went to her relatives but she hasn't come back.  So I sent someone to go and find her.

01.59

Man sitting on floor speaking, people sitting around, man speaks

Mr Zhao (minder):  I think for you correspondents to find a family very unprepared, just go directly to visit may be more interesting.

02.17

Man:  Can we do that?

Jim:  Also, we're coming in force here so just be sheer numbers we falsify and make uncomfortable, unnatural, anything that could possibly evolve out of this.

Old woman walks through crowded room, sits at table, people in room, Hutcheon asking question

Jane Hutcheon:  But twenty minutes later, old Pubu walks in, the picture of poise.  She doesn't bat an eyelid despite four intrusive cameras in her living room.

02.42

And why would she, after all, she's here to parrot the Party line.  And in case she's forgotten, she gets a reminder in Tibetan, which no one else here understands.

02.55

Minder:  Tell them what I have already told you.

Jane Hutcheon:  So life is much better now with China ruling Tibet, than it was before?

03.14

Old woman Pubu being interviewed

Pubu:  In the past one mother had a lot of kids so they were unable to bring them up, so our life was a little bit poor then.  After China started ruling Tibet, life became a little better, the kids could find jobs, I could be looked after by my kids, there is a change.

03.18

Pubu with crews, minder speaking, crew

Jane Hutcheon:  In translating her words, the Government minder embellishes what Pubu says.  He makes the past sound unbearable.

03.44

Dorji (minder):  Especially all of my children, they have got jobs, but in the old days, it was impossible for them, even though they were very young.  It was such a dark society.

03.54

Hutcheon and crew walking out, truck and traffic on street, building, workers

Jane Hutcheon:  But now it seems life is quite reasonable.  She even has a certificate in Marxist studies on her wall.

04.17

Jane Hutcheon:  I'm just wondering how come she came to study Marxism.

Minder:  This was given when you were studying Marxism.

Jane Hutcheon:  But away from the government minders, it is possible to scrape away a layer of propaganda.

04.37

Forty-seven years after what China calls the peaceful liberation of Tibet, the capital Lhasa looks like a badly designed Chinatown.

04.50

While other provinces try to restrict the arrival of migrants to stop them taking jobs from the locals, Tibet actively encourages it. 

Cart, traffic, people watching, Palace

Officially, there are 35 Tibetans to every Chinese, but to the observer, Lhasa's ratio feels more like three to one.  The Chinese soak up the street space.

05.11

The Potala Palace is the former residence of the Dalai Lama and Tibet's most famous landmark.

Children on little cars, and carts

But even here, the Chinese invasion continues, an insult to Tibetan sensibilities.  A playground for the rich kids, in the most indiscreet of places.

05.40

China says, this is progress.

Poster, zoom out to include Hutcheon speaking to camera

Jane Hutcheon: (to camera)  In 1994 President Jiang Zemin authorised the biggest injection of state aid to Tibet, 287 million U.S. dollars for 62 long term projects.  It's China's attempt to export an economic boom to its far Western frontier, using wealth to achieve what force has so far failed to do.

05.59

Women sewing, picture on wall, women speaking

Jane Hutcheon:  Day Two and off to a showcase Tibetan craft factory where the women sew traditional boots for a dollar fifty a day.  Financially their lives are better than every before, but an illegal picture of the Dalai Lama hanging above the workshop, is a sign they're missing something.

06.22

When the minders turn their backs, a brief moment of truth - their lives are not complete without their God-King.

06.42

Woman:  If the Dalai Lama was here the situation would be better.  As he's not here, the situation is worse.

06.52

Reporter:  Do you want the Dalai Lama come back?

06.56

Woman:  We all want him to come back.  I want him to come back even in my dreams.

06.59

Jane Hutcheon:  The women are unable to withhold their emotions.

07.06

Women praying on street, people walking along, traffic stopping

The Buddhist religion remains the glue that holds Tibetans dreams together.  It's the cornerstone of Tibetan identity but an impediment to China's goal of integration.

07.21

After attempting to quash Buddhist in the Cultural Revolution, China has turned to conservation - with a program to rebuild some of the key monasteries.

Hutcheon in bus,

Music

tracking shots

from bus, landscape shots, monastery, monks walking

Jane Hutcheon:  Two hours drive from Lhasa, winding nearly four thousand metres above sea-level, is the remote, sprawling Ganden Monastery.

08.01

In its heyday before the Chinese occupation, three thousand three hundred saffron robes flowed through these halls, today because of a government decree limiting their number, there are fewer than five hundred.

08.21

Monks praying

Chanting

Jane Hutcheon:  Two years ago, when relations between China and the Dalai Lama worsened, a ban on displaying Dalai Lama photographs erupted into protests. 

08.41

Human rights groups say several monks died during the unrest and hundreds arrested.

Hutcheon  speaking to camera, monastery in background

Jane Hutcheon: (to camera)  Here at Ganden Monastery was where some of the worst violence occurred.  And the monastery had to be closed for several days.  The Chinese authorities ousted the troublemakers and then began a campaign to politically re-educate Tibet's forty-six thousand monks, a campaign that continues to this day.

09.00

Hutcheon walking down stairs with man

Jane Hutcheon:  Xiao Denzeng is a former monk and now second-in-command of Ganden's Democratic Work Committee.

09.20

Jane Hutcheon:  Can you tell me about the problems in 1996?

09.27

Interview with man

Super:

XIAO DENZENG

Xiao Denzeng:  In May 1996, some Lamas from this monastery attacked the guards and the religious cadres from our work unit stationed here.

Ganden Dem. Work

Committee

Jane Hutcheon:  Did any of them go to gaol?

09.51

Xiao Denzeng:  Yes, some of them.  More than twenty of them were sent to prison.

Monks standing, sitting

Jane Hutcheon:  These democratic committees are government units, set up in every monastery at the time of the disturbances.  They shadow and check the monastic leadership, running classes in patriotism which every monk must attend.

10.00

Interview with Xiao Denzeng

Xiao Denzeng:  In the past, the monks didn't understand the law of the country or the policies of the Party.  So sometimes they broke the law.  After learning about our laws and policies, they can undertake normal religious activities. They know that religion is free now.

10.15

Monks walking up steps, tracking shot through monastery, monks watching

Jane Hutcheon:  The government claims political education has won over the monks but during a visit to the Potala Palace, a monk hands me a scrap of paper.  It reads:  Tibet is not Chinese, please help us.

10.39

At great risk, the monk agrees to talk to us outside the Palace.  It is too dangerous to wear his robes.

10.54

Interview with  man with obscured face

Jane Hutcheon:  If you are against the Dalai Lama, you can stay in the Palace forever?

11.04

Monk:  Yes, that's right.

Jane Hutcheon:  Do all Tibetans love him?

Monk:  Yes, we Tibetan people all love him.  Many monks are afraid of the Chinese Government.

Jane Hutcheon:  Are you afraid?

11.23

Monk:  I am not afraid.

Man with prayer wheell, women walking, people on streets, market, Hutcheon walking along with man

Jane Hutcheon:  There are others who will not renounce the Dalai Lama, but instead choose to ignore politics.  They call themselves realists who accept Chinese rule.  Tashi Tsering is one of them.

11.31

Jane Hutcheon:  Tibet was really quite an isolated place wasn't it before the Chinese opened it up?

Tashi Tsering:  Well yes, indeed, it was.

Jane Hutcheon:  As a young boy in the 1930s he came from a rural family to join the Dalai Lama's dance troupe and from their became the sexual favourite of an influential monk.

11.53

This was once an accepted form of advancement of a teenage boy without means.  It has blackened his view of the old society.

12.06

Interview with Tashi Tsering

Tashi Tsering:  I disagreed with what was going on in our own Government, so corrupted, and I hate.

12.15

Jane Hutcheon:  Later, he studied in the United States and was gaoled on his return to Tibet in the 1960s, accused of being a spy and independence advocate.

Super:

TASHI TSERING

Businessman

Tashi Tsering:  I run into such a great disaster, the Cultural Revolution.  This was the historical disaster, nightmare, therefore accidentally I ran into this kind of situation.  As soon as I was thrown into gaol, immediately I thought, today I'm in prison, I'm sure some day I will be out.

12.36

Hutcheon with Tashi, shows her carpets

Jane Hutcheon:  For Tashi there is real economic benefits from Chinese rule.  It has made his business better.  He sells traditional Tibetan carpets to Westerners living overseas. 

13.09

Tashi Tsering:  Therefore I feel when I had been doing all this business, my money is coming from very clean source.

13.22

Drawings of schools, Tashi shows Hutcheon photos

Jane Hutcheon:  The proceeds from his carpets go towards building much needed schools for children in the countryside.  The shortage is a hangover from the old society when education was the sole preserve of the monasteries.

13.34

Jane Hutcheon:  This looks like a very poor area.

13.48

Tashi Tsering:  It is, indeed.

Jane Hutcheon:  Since 1990 Tashi has built 46 schools in his home county of Non Ling, six hours away.  The government hasn't built enough so Tashi makes up the shortfall.  We weren't permitted to film the schools.

Hutcheon interviewing Tashi

Jane Hutcheon:  So why is your schools program so necessary when China is doing such a good job with Tibetan education?

14.07

Tashi Tsering:  The Tibetan educational standard is so low everywhere.

14.15

Jane Hutcheon:  Still so low?

Tashi Tsering:  Oh, yes.  So low everywhere like my generation most of them are illiterate.  For instance my wife Sangyela, she is my age and she is illiterate, you see?

Men swaying and

Singing

singing, woman

Hutcheon and others drinking, Tashi speaking with wife

Jane Hutcheon:  Tashi's wife Sangyela runs a lounge serving one of Tibet's favourite drinks, a barley-based alcohol called Chang.  Tashi says that despite Sangela's illiteracy, she contributes to society and pays her taxes.

14.42

Tashi Tsering:  Chang business is her business and she is very expert at making Chang and at the same time she's very very well trained at receiving customers like this.

14.58

Jane Hutcheon:  She's a good hostess?

Tashi Tsering:  She's a good hostess, yes.

Jane Hutcheon:  He has a less flattering view of his fellow Tibetans who claim the influx of Chinese is taking away jobs.

15.19

Interview with Tashi

Tashi Tsering:  Twenty years ago there were a lot of Tibetan shoe menders around my house.  But now there are none, full of Chinese, because they are very very hard-working people.  Like myself, I can compete with any Chinese to do anything and I'm doing very well.  Why can't other Tibetans do that?

15.27

Woman with child, child on street, people on street pan to buildings

Jane Hutcheon:  Even though these words may be just what the minders have ordered, they do raise legitimate views about the future of Tibet.  People like Tashi Tsering, are impatient for Tibet's modernisation.  For them, a return to the feudal past is a misplaced dream. And it's something many outside Tibet don't understand.

Tashi Tsering:  To me, Western understanding on the whole is some kind of fantasy, some kind of Shangri-La story.

16.17

Jane Hutcheon:  Is the Dalai Lama propagating that view, that Tibet is a Shangri-La?

Interview with Tashi

Tashi Tsering:  To me, in many ways, he's a very very realistic man.  And at some point he said that maybe my reincarnation is the last. 

16.33

People praying, prayer wheels, people walking along praying, carrying heavy loads

He says that I am not God, I am a human being.  I am a priest, just a priest.  Whereas a great many Tibetans think he is something totally different from us, hot human being, it's God.

16.46

ENDS

17.23