Leah V Thompson
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Videos

The world has heard much of late about the scale and scope of China’s mass migration from the poor rural countryside to its booming cities. Some think the number of these migrant workers will soon reach some 400 million souls. They have created massive new urban megaplexes like Chongqing, which now has a population of close to 30 million. But such precipitous, rapid, and massive urbanization inevitably causes reactions. And in this beautifully shot short film by Leah Thompson and Sun Yunfan, we are introduced to one urban “back-to-the-lander,” Ou Ning, who for all the understandable reasons has moved his family from Beijing to the countryside in the storied Huizhou region of Anhui Province. The film is a lovely evocation of how urban malaise has led one city intellectual to forsake the increasingly polluted, expensive, hectic, and crowded capital in search of a quieter, cleaner, and more sylvan setting for his family. Whether he will prove a harbinger of things to come in China is as yet uncertain. But what does seem beyond question is that as China’s enormous and environmentally hazardous cities grow ever larger and more polluted, Ou Ning’s pioneering escape will become a tempting model for many others to follow. —Orville Schell

Down to the Countryside

The world has heard much of late about the scale and scope of China’s mass migration from the poor rural countryside to its booming cities. Some think the number of these migrant workers will soon reach some 400 million souls. They have created massive new urban megaplexes like Chongqing, which now has a population of close to 30 million.

But such precipitous, rapid, and massive urbanization inevitably causes reactions. And in this beautifully shot short film by Leah Thompson and Sun Yunfan, we are introduced to one urban “back-to-the-lander,” Ou Ning, who for all the understandable reasons has moved his family from Beijing to the countryside in the storied Huizhou region of Anhui Province. The film is a lovely evocation of how urban malaise has led one city intellectual to forsake the increasingly polluted, expensive, hectic, and crowded capital in search of a quieter, cleaner, and more sylvan setting for his family.

Whether he will prove a harbinger of things to come in China is as yet uncertain. But what does seem beyond question is that as China’s enormous and environmentally hazardous cities grow ever larger and more polluted, Ou Ning’s pioneering escape will become a tempting model for many others to follow. — Introduction by Orville Schell

Down to the Countryside Screenings

Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capitol, Washington DC, March 2014

US State Department's Earth Day film series, Washington DC, April 2014

Lusk Public Lecture, South Dakota State University, Brookings, South Dakota, October 2014

Sundial Film Festival, Redding, California, June 2015

Architecture Film Festival, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, October 2015

COAL + ICE at 17,723 ft.

Published

"COAL+ICE at 17,723 ft.: Video and Interview with David Breashears," Asia Blog, July 24, 2012.

Moving House: Preserving Huizhou’s Vernacular Architecture

In 1996, art historian Nancy Berliner, working with the Peabody Essex Museum, purchased a vacant Qing dynasty merchant’s house from the Huizhou region of China and, piece by piece, moved it to the United States to be meticulously reconstructed at the museum in Massachusetts. Now, houses in the same graceful vernacular style are becoming collector’s items for China’s wealthy, who dismantle, relocate, and repurpose them, with little attention to their history. Experts like Berliner worry the trend endangers the identity of the Huizhou region, prompting them to call for better protection of the cultural heritage they feel should belong not just to a handful of collectors but to the Chinese people.