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- China Today Newsreels (Socialism on Film, AM Explorer) Produced predominantly by Peking’s Central Newsreel and Documentary Film Studio of the Peoples’ Republic of China, the collection of China Today newsreels date from the beginning of the 1950s to 1964. The ethos of the ‘Great Leap Forward’ is present throughout the series in the depiction of a China that is hyper-productive, united and thriving under modernisation. Portraying a diverse cross-section of everyday life in Mao’s China, the series covers topics from
- Revolution, War, Conflict in China & Korea series (Socialism on Film, AM Explorer) The Chinese experience of the twentieth century was a tumultuous one. Foreign invasions, civil wars, and revolutions all loom large in the history of modern China; the Korean peninsula also experienced conflicts and foreign occupation. Films concerning China and the two Koreas feature prominently in Socialism on Film, covering almost the entire century, from the Boxer Rebellion (Yihequan Movement) to continuing tensions between the two Koreas in the 1980s.
- Ethnographic Video Online, Volume I-II: Foundational Films This link opens in a new window Ethnographic Video Online, Vol. I-II: Foundational Films contains classic and contemporary ethnographies, documentaries and shorts from every continent, providing teachers visual support to introduce and contextualize hundreds of cultural groups and practices around the world.
- Ethnographic Video Online, Volume III: Indigenous Voices This link opens in a new window Ethnographic Video Online, Vol. III: Indigenous Voices contains documentaries, feature films and shorts made by and for indigenous people and communities. Topics are simultaneously local and global, with particular emphasis on the human effects of climate change, sustainability, indigenous and local ways of interpreting history, cultural change, and traditional knowledge and storytelling.
- Ethnographic Video Online, Volume IV: Festivals and Archives This link opens in a new window Ethnographic Video Online, Vol. IV: Festivals and Archives contains award-winning titles from contemporary ethnographic film festivals. The collection also includes field recordings and edited films by students and faculty from universities and institutions around the world, including Berkeley Media and Manchester's Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology.
- Ethnographic Video Online, Royal Anthropological Institute Teaching Edition This link opens in a new window Ethnographic Video Online, Royal Anthropological Institute Teaching Edition contains a curriculum-aligned collection of videos and segments curated to support the teaching of introductory anthropology courses. Each video and segment within this collection are accompanied by a teaching guide providing background information, lesson plans, and classroom exercises and activities.
- Academic Video Online This link opens in a new window Academic Video Online delivers more than 67,000 titles spanning a range of subject areas including anthropology, business, counseling, film, health, history, music, and more. It includes documentaries, films, demonstrations, and other content types. Films in the Boston University Libraries catalog are licensed to Boston University for educational and research use only, for BU students, faculty, and staff.
- Kanopy This link opens in a new window Kanopy is a provider of documentaries, training films, and theatrical releases available as streaming video. Clips from the videos can be embedded in presentations or shown in class. Films in the Boston University Libraries catalog are licensed to Boston University for educational and research use only, for BU students, faculty, and staff.
Browse Films
- Pollution in China: The People Protest (streaming, Academic Video Online) Since the economic reforms of the 1980s, runaway economic growth has turned China into a major creator of pollution. The film by Televisio de Catalunya explores this problem in cities like Chongqing on the Yangzte River, one of the most industrialized and polluted areas in China, and Linfen, one of the world's most polluted cities. English
- Last train home = 归途列车 (streaming, Kanopy) "Every spring, China's cities are plunged into chaos as an astonishing 130 million migrant workers journey to their home villages for the New Year's holiday. This mass exodus is the largest human migration on the planet, an epic spectacle that reveals a country tragically caught between its rural past and industrial future. Working over several years in classic verite, Chinese-Canadian filmmaker Lixin Fan ... travels with one couple who have embarked on this annual trek for almost two decades. Emotionally engaging and starkly beautiful, Last Train Home's intimate observation of one fractured family sheds light on the human cost of China's ascendance as an economic superpower
- China Upside Down: The Paradox of Chinese Society (streaming, Academic Video Online) Since 1992 China's "socialism" has adapted to the entrepreneurial spirit. Success stories abound, but in the Chinese cultural tradition, it is often the family, rather than the individual, which achieves success. This film by Freddy Coppens profiles several families who rose from subsistence incomes to relative luxury through the inventiveness and ambition of the extended family.
- The Kazakhs of China (streaming, Academic Video Online) The Kazakhs of Xinjiang (Sinkiang) are one of the fifty-five national minorities that now live within the borders of the People's Republic of China. The policy of the Chinese Communist Party toward these people has been one of Sinofication, a neutralization of 'reactionary' local leaders and an alliance of Han Chinese with the indigenous culture.
- Inside China: 7. Environmental Timebomb? (streaming, Academic Video Online) The Chinese want the same life style as the West – but at what cost? The air and water are polluted, causing much suffering and protest – as well as a drought crisis. Chinese leaders talk of moving away from fossil fuels, but how much changes at local level?
- Morning Sun (dvd) Morning Sun attempts, in the space of two hours, to create an inner history of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (c.1964-1976). It provides a multi-perspective view of a tumultuous period as seen through the eyes - and reflected in the hearts and minds - of members of the high-school generation that was born around the time of the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, and that came of age in the 1960s.
- Heart of Asia (Sinkiang) (streaming, Socialism on Film, AM Explorer) A feature exploring the Sinkiang region in China with footage of cattle herding families, youth organisations volunteering their time to assist with the harvest, the trading of goods, engineers and surveyors choosing sites for future industrial and mining sites, traditional silk production, and the education of girls and boys.
- Peking: City of Beauty (streaming, Socialism on Film, AM Explorer) Includes close-ups of architectural details at the Forbidden City, imperial palaces, buddhas, lakes and other sites. Also, footage of the Great Wall of China.
- A Tour of Peking (streaming, Socialism on Film, AM Explorer) A documentary feature on the city of Peking, with footage of newly constructed streets like the Avenue of Enduring Peace, a public swimming pool and the traditional pagodas.
- In the New Shanghai (streaming, Socialism on Film, AM Explorer) Short colour film charting everyday life in communist Shanghai in 1950, with a focus on work, education and transport.
China - Religion
- Some Na Ceremonies (streaming, Academic Video Online) The Na people (also known as Moso) of southwest China, along the confluence of Chinese and Tibetan cultures, are best known in the West for their matrilineal kinship system. Western representations of Na culture usually overlook the significance of religion, a central aspect in the lives of Na people.
- Daba / Na Shaman (streaming, Academic Video Online) After more than a quarter of a century without any form of religious ceremony, the Na, an ethnic group living on the Himalayan plateau, began openly practising their religion again in the early 1990s. Their priests are called daba. Among the few old shamans who are still living today, Dafa Luzo is the most remarkable. As the main character in the film, we see him looking after his farm and his family, as well as performing rituals to expel all unclean spirits and demons and honour the
- The Bamboo Cross: Chinese Christianity on the Rise (dvd) Chinese Christians are growing in number-but are their beliefs compatible with Western teachings? Why does the Communist government look so favorably on a "foreign" faith? Has the Gospel become a tool of authoritarianism? This program searches for answers as it explores the startling ascent of Christianity in China.
- The Gods Come Home: China's Traditional Faiths Persevere (dvd) After decades of Communist oppression and neglect, Buddhist temples are now thriving across China. But are Buddhism and Taoism even relevant in a country that has thoroughly embraced materialism? How does government bureaucracy affect those religions? And can far older spiritual traditions survive in such a rapidly evolving society?
- Protestants in China: A Growing Spiritual Movement (dvd) China's economy is booming-and so is its Christian community. This program examines the rise of the country's nondenominational Protestant movement, its basic structure and organization, and its relationship with the government. Spotlighting new, moderate religious freedoms in Chinese society, the film visits Christian churches in Nanjing Province and interviews a number of ministers and congregation member
China - Women, Family & Gender
- One Child for All: Family Duty in Post-80s China (streaming, Academic Video Online) In this film, subjects’ testimonies dispel American misconceptions and complicate the discourse on modern Chinese society and the one child policy.
- Last matriarchy family (streaming, Academic Video Online) Few people know that in southwestern China, live the Mosso, one of the world's last matriarchal societies. Men visit their sweethearts at night and leave at dawn. Meet two generations of women, one the beloved mother, who is manager of a fifteen member family and takes care of five brothers in walking marriages and Binma, her daughter who wishes to be set free to pursue her true love.
- Looking for China Girl (streaming,Academic Video Online) Since 1980 when China decreed that couples should have just one child, there has been an alarming disproportion of young men over young women. This BBC News documentary explores some of the issues that have arisen due to these circumstances. Some of the subjects chronicled are 24-year-old Xinhau Lu, who leaves his parents rural farm to find a wife 860 miles away in Beijing, a young woman named Qing, only 16 years old when she was snatched and forced to live with a desperate bachelor, and Shao Ying, a young women who against tradition is pursuing a career and enjoying the single life.
- Love and Sex in China (streaming, Academic Video Online) This film explores how rapid industrialization, urbanization and Westernization have impacted traditional relationships between men and women. The guide for this journey is a young journalist, Yang Li Ne, whose parents have just divorced and whose own marriage is unraveling. She speaks about love and sex with young people from Beijing, as well as older couples from the villages. Issues discussed in this film include the role economic concerns play in love relationships, prostitution and homophobia in Chinese society.
- Inside China: 8. Education and Women's Rights (streaming, Academic Video Online) The communist revolution gave women theoretical equality, but centuries-old oppressions still persist. Women have suffered through the "one child" policy. But women are now among China's top entrepreneurs.
- Beauty in China (streaming, Academic Video Online) This film by Elodie Pakosz examines the alarming trend among young women in China to Westernize their appearance through plastic surgery in order to get ahead professionally and socially.
- China From the Inside (dvd) This documentary series takes viewers to observe the difficulties of navigating politics and culture in the vast country of China. Episode 2: Women of the Country: Chinese women are beginning to fight for their rights and their futures.
Taiwan
- The Dragon Legacy (streaming, Academic Video Online) Modern day Taiwan is in many ways a reflection of ancient China, preserving the cultural legacy of the world's oldest existing civilisation. While post-war mainland China went through its revolutionary turmoil, setting aside most of its traditions in the process, Taiwan chose to preserve them. This film also explores Chinese philosophy and religion, from Confucius to Taoism, as it is still being practiced.
- Lands of Legends, The Night of Silver Helmets (Taiwan) (streaming, Academic Video Online) Today exists ethnic minorities whose daily lives continue to bear witness to contemporary myths: these legends are their faith, and the animals, their gods.
- Tears for Sale (streaming, Academic Video Online) Tears of mourning...it’s an act of filial piety, a tribute to the dead of how much he or she is being missed with their passing. The more tears that are shed at the funeral, the better. So enter a unique group of people, the professional mourners whose tears are for sale. Shot in China, Taiwan and India, this documentary enters the lives of these professional mourners as they try to keep the tradition alive and their arduous journey walking down the valley of death.
- Terraced Fields in Bayan Village (streaming, Academic Video Online) This video is about the terraced fields in Bayan Village in Taiwan.
- My uncle's tatala (streaming, Academic Video Online) eing grateful is the biggest asset of the Tao people, for the fact that they understand how to cultivate natural resources with diligent work. The Tao director recorded the making of the TATALA (laminated boat) in a documentary that also carries the deepest messages of love and affection.
- Dialogue Between Blue & Green (streaming, Academic Video Online) Taiwan's democracy is the envy of Chinese people all over the world. At the same time, when this two-party system – "œblue"(Kuomingtang) and "œgreen"(Democratic Progressive Party) – get at each other's throats, it seems to cast a dark cloud over this beacon of advancing democratization. How does the young generation, many of them first time voters, feel about the political environment they've inherited?
- Alang's Mom's Home Movies (streaming, Academic Video Online) In the little island of Taiwan, 15 indigenous tribes live side by side harmoniously. A Home Video of Alang’s Mom charts a boy’s childhood and education of the Bunun tribe. Alang, now 12, has his hitherto life lovingly recorded by his mother, a career woman who dedicates her life to the continuation and innovation of the Bunun culture.
- Is Taiwan Part Of China? (streaming, Academic Video Online) Taiwan could cause an all-out war between China and America. The island’s sovereignty has been disputed for centuries—and tensions could soon come to a head.
