Blue Sky Days

Saw a chinese movie called "Up the Yangtze." It dealt with the Three Gorges Dam in human terms. The family depicted had been relocated as the waters rose and would be moving again soon as their little plot of land and hut were inundated.

The father was ostracized during the cultural revolution -- his father had been an official with the nationalists -- so he had been denied any opportunity for education and had been only able to get coolie labor wages. So when they had been forced out of their home, they squatted on a hillside and raised chickens and grew their own food.

The daughter had just completed middle school and wanted to go on to high school and university, but both her parents convinced her instead to put off her schooling and get a job on a cruise boat on the river. Her wages would help her parents and two young siblings to survive.

The documentary also displays the pollution problems of China (and not just Beijing) -- on the river as waters rise and become filled with trash of all kinds and in the skies as the sun always has a murky orange tint.

The film's website has a request for donations to the Yu family. www.uptheyangtze.com