Hongren is a village on the eastern shore of Dianchi, a lake outside of Kunming, in China’s southwestern Yunnan province. The region used to be surrounded by plots of rice paddies, vegetables and lotus. In the early 2000s, the arable lands on the eastern shore of Dianchi Lake were transformed into urban areas, and Hongren became an “urban village,” an enclave within a megalopolis. As the rural community is being obliterated by forced urbanization, the villagers took action to shape the process of urbanisation. In 2005, villagers began to build a modern urban community adjacent to their village. However, the local government decided to demolish this new community on the very day of its completion. In May 2010, a citywide policy of “urban village reconstruction” was launched, which targeted places such as Hongren, destroying both the new urban community the villagers had built and the old village. The Hongren residents launched their resistance and invited a group of anthropological scholars and students to participate in their fight. This film documents the ensuing events.
 
The screening will be followed by a short discussion with the director Prof. Zhu Xiaoyang.
 
This film is part of the Season Three Asia and the Pacific Screens: Survival Politics, sponsored by the Australian Centre on China in the World.

Directed by Zhu Xiaoyang & Li Weihua
2013, 122 mins
Mandarin Chinese with English subtitles