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 "excerpt": "Up the Yangtze (2007) is Yung Chang's EyeSteelFilm and NFB documentary following teenagers Yu Shui (Cindy) and Chen Bo Yu (Jerry) working a Three Gorges Farewell Cruise; 93 minutes, Sundance selection, 96% Rotten Tomatoes.",
 "snippet": "Up the Yangtze (2007) is Yung Chang's EyeSteelFilm and NFB documentary following teenagers Yu Shui (Cindy) and Chen Bo Yu (Jerry) working a Three Gorges Farewell Cruise; 93 minutes, Sundance selection, 96% Rotten Tomatoes.",
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 "markdown": "# Up the Yangtze\n\n**Up the Yangtze** is a 2007 feature documentary directed by the Chinese-Canadian filmmaker Yung Chang, following two teenagers from very different backgrounds who take jobs on a luxury cruise ship sailing the Yangtze River as the [Three Gorges Dam](https://www.edgepedia.org/three-gorges-dam) floods the landscape behind them. It was produced by EyeSteelFilm and the [National Film Board of Canada](https://www.edgepedia.org/national-film-board-of-canada), runs 93 minutes, and is in English, Mandarin, and Sichuan dialect with English subtitles.<sup>[1](https://chinaindiefilm.com/films/up-the-yangtze/)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[2](https://zeitgeistfilms.com/film/uptheyangtze)</sup> The film premiered on the festival circuit in 2007, screened as an Official Selection at the [Sundance Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/sundance-film-festival), and received a limited United States theatrical release on April 25, 2008 through Zeitgeist Films.<sup>[2](https://zeitgeistfilms.com/film/uptheyangtze)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/up_the_yangtze)</sup>\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Director | Yung Chang, a Montreal-based Chinese-Canadian filmmaker; his first feature-length documentary<sup>[1](https://chinaindiefilm.com/films/up-the-yangtze/)</sup> |\n| Production | EyeSteelFilm and National Film Board of Canada co-production; producers Mila Aung-Thwin, John Christou, and Germaine Ying Gee Wong<sup>[4](https://www.idfa.nl/en/film/1bcef6a3-f7f5-4068-b2a5-171637f2b608/up-the-yangtze%21/)</sup> |\n| Principal subjects | Yu Shui (\"Cindy\"), 16, daughter of subsistence farmers near Fengdu, and Chen Bo Yu (\"Jerry\"), 19, an urban only child from a middle-class family<sup>[5](https://www.eyesteelfilm.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/uptheyangtze.presskit.pdf)</sup> |\n| Setting | A \"Farewell Cruise\" on the Yangtze River, operated by Victoria Cruises, sailing toward the Three Gorges Dam<sup>[5](https://www.eyesteelfilm.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/uptheyangtze.presskit.pdf)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[6](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2008-may-22-et-kenny22-story.html)</sup> |\n| Release | Limited US theatrical release April 25, 2008 (Zeitgeist Films); 93 minutes; grossed $783.4K in the US<sup>[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/up_the_yangtze)</sup> |\n| Reception | 96% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer (53 reviews); Metascore of 84 on Metacritic<sup>[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/up_the_yangtze)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[7](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/up-the-yangtze/critic-reviews/)</sup> |\n| Awards | Golden Gate Award at the San Francisco International Film Festival (May 7, 2008); Special Jury Prize at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival; Best Canadian Documentary at the Vancouver International Film Festival<sup>[8](https://www.international.ucla.edu/ccs/article/92899)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[2](https://zeitgeistfilms.com/film/uptheyangtze)</sup> |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot\n\nThe Yangtze River, mid-2000s. The Three Gorges Dam nears completion, and the water behind it prepares to rise over cities and farmland. A luxury cruise boat is marketed to Western tourists as one last chance to see the famous gorges before they vanish.\n\nThe first scene is on the riverbank, in the home of Yu Shui's family. Her parents are farmers; her father is illiterate, and there is no money to keep her in school past the early grades. When a job opening comes up on the cruise ship, her parents send the shy sixteen-year-old off to work it, over her own quiet reluctance. Aboard the ship, the staff assign her a new identity for the passengers' benefit: she is now \"Cindy.\" Her co-worker is Chen Bo Yu, a cocky, city-smart nineteen-year-old from a one-child family, rechristened \"Jerry.\"\n\nThe training montage is one of the film's sharpest pieces of comedy. Managers drill the young crew in the etiquette of serving rich Westerners: \"Never compare Canada to the United States... Don't talk about royalty... Don't ever call anyone old, pale or fat!\" There is to be no discussion of Quebec independence either. The scene plays as farce, but it is also a crash course in the service economy Cindy is entering, a world where her real life is best left unmentioned<sup>[19](https://variety.com/2007/film/markets-festivals/up-the-yangtze-1200554193/)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[20](https://povmagazine.com/eastern-promise/)</sup>.\n\n**The film's most famous image follows Cindy's father as the flood approaches: an aging farmer climbing a concrete embankment with an enormous wooden dresser strapped to his back, moving his family's belongings to higher ground.** Chang cuts all sound except the man's labored breathing and the soft slap of his sandals on the concrete. The shot lasts long enough to become unbearable, and it says more about relocation than any narration could<sup>[21](https://www.hammertonail.com/reviews/up-the-yangtze-film-review/)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[22](https://ips-dc.org/if_she_is_still_there/)</sup>. Afterward, in time-lapse shots, the family's house disappears under the floodwaters. Cindy is not there to see it; she is at sea, working.\n\nIntercut with the family's story are scenes on shore as the water rises. In one of the film's most wrenching interviews, Chang speaks with an antiques vendor whose shop and home are doomed. A riverside merchant explains that people along the Yangtze must \"sacrifice the little family for the big family,\" then breaks down in bitter tears beside a bust of Mao<sup>[19](https://variety.com/2007/film/markets-festivals/up-the-yangtze-1200554193/)</sup>. On the ship, meanwhile, Jerry thrives. He collects tips that can reach thirty American dollars in a single evening and boasts that his salary is the first in his family, out-earning both his mother and his father. Cindy struggles more with the performance of cheerfulness, and in later conversations reflects on her family's sacrifice and her own uncertainty about the life she has been pushed into.\n\nThe film ends with two images held in tension. The family, partly on the strength of Cindy's wages, resettles into an apartment in a city, resigned rather than protesting; no confrontation with authorities ever comes, and the quietness of their acceptance is the point. The film's crowning final image, which Chang struggled to find, shows a six-year-old girl dancing to a [George Michael](https://www.edgepedia.org/george-michael) song in a Chinese club called 'The Gentile', captured on a black-market cell phone camera — an image he saw as the future of China<sup>[20](https://povmagazine.com/eastern-promise/)</sup>.<sup>[22](https://ips-dc.org/if_she_is_still_there/)</sup>\n\n### Characters\n\nYu Shui (\"Cindy\") is the film's center: a thoughtful, shy sixteen-year-old, the daughter of an illiterate farmer, pulled out of a future in school and into a future in service, learning English phrases and tray-carrying while her home drowns<sup>[23](https://archive.pov.org/uptheyangtze/film-description/?amp=1)</sup>. Chen Bo Yu (\"Jerry\") is her foil, a confident nineteen-year-old hustler from a one-child family who takes to the cruise-ship world easily and sees it as the ladder out<sup>[24](https://povmagazine.com/documentary-essentials-up-the-yangtze/)</sup>. Cindy's parents, especially her father, carry the film's grief, voicing what relocation costs a family that has lived on the river for generations.\n\n### Interpretations and controversies\n\nThe film declines to editorialize about the dam, which some critics read as restraint and others as evasion; the *New York Times* praised it precisely for refusing to lecture<sup>[25](https://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/25/movies/25yang.html)</sup>. After release, Chang screened the film for its participants. Yu Shui said it let her \"see her fate and her destiny,\" decided to leave the cruise boat, and returned to high school; Chang's production company paid three years of her tuition and started a fund for her family that later broadened to help other Three Gorges migrant families<sup>[26](https://filmmakermagazine.com/1313-yung-chang-up-the-yangtze/)</sup>.\n\n## Origin and production\n\nThe idea came from a trip Chang took in 2002, when he accompanied his parents and grandfather on one of the \"Farewell Cruises\" that carried tourists through the Three Gorges region for a last look before the dam's reservoir submerged it. Arriving at night in [Chongqing](https://www.edgepedia.org/chongqing), he saw a marching band strike up \"Yankee Doodle Dandy\" beside the waiting cruise ship, and that contrast between surreal spectacle and the river's reality became his starting point.<sup>[5](https://www.eyesteelfilm.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/uptheyangtze.presskit.pdf)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[9](https://archive.pov.org/uptheyangtze/interview/)</sup>\n\n**Development took years.** Chang began developing the film in 2003, pitching it at Toronto's Planet in Focus festival, where it won Best Pitch, and later at the Banff Television Festival and Hot Docs. He shot demo reels in 2004 and 2005 before principal photography between May and December 2006, with post-production running from December 2006 to July 2007.<sup>[5](https://www.eyesteelfilm.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/uptheyangtze.presskit.pdf)</sup> Chang moved to Chongqing for about a year during the 2006 shoot.<sup>[10](https://archive.pov.org/uptheyangtze/turning-the-lens-on-china/?noamp=mobile)</sup>\n\nAccess came through a cold call to Victoria Cruises, a company based in Queens, New York, owned by the Taiwanese-American engineer James Pi. The family granted access to the ships above and below deck and let Chang observe the recruitment process, which is how he found his two subjects.<sup>[5](https://www.eyesteelfilm.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/uptheyangtze.presskit.pdf)</sup>\n\n## The two subjects\n\n**Yu Shui (\"Cindy\").** Yu Shui was 16 at the time of filming, the eldest of three children in a family of subsistence farmers living near Fengdu, the town known in [Chinese mythology](https://www.edgepedia.org/chinese-mythology) as the \"Ghost City.\" Her family's home and farmland were to be submerged by the dam's rising waters, and hospital and school fees had put them in severe debt. She could not speak English and was below the cruise line's required height, but the managers hired her anyway, and she trained as a dishwasher in the galley.<sup>[5](https://www.eyesteelfilm.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/uptheyangtze.presskit.pdf)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[9](https://archive.pov.org/uptheyangtze/interview/)</sup> She had completed middle school but her family could not afford to let her continue to high school, so they sent her to work to help support the household.<sup>[11](https://www.educationaboutasia.org/article/id/957/)</sup>\n\n**Chen Bo Yu (\"Jerry\").** Chen Bo Yu, 19, was raised by his grandparents in the town of Kai Xian near the Yangtze. An only child from a middle-class urban background, he embodied what the film's materials call the \"little emperors,\" the over-indulged generation of single sons that came of age under China's one-child policy. Tall, confident, and proficient in English, he fit what Victoria Cruises wanted and worked as a lounge singer, collecting tips from Western passengers.<sup>[5](https://www.eyesteelfilm.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/uptheyangtze.presskit.pdf)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[12](https://observer.com/2008/04/china-syndrome/amp/)</sup> His family, too, was among those displaced by the final phase of flooding.<sup>[5](https://www.eyesteelfilm.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/uptheyangtze.presskit.pdf)</sup>\n\nBoth teenagers were given Westernized names by upper management for the largely foreign clientele. Chang found them during the cruise line's actual recruitment visits to local high schools and universities, which he described as a natural casting process.<sup>[9](https://archive.pov.org/uptheyangtze/interview/)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[2](https://zeitgeistfilms.com/film/uptheyangtze)</sup>\n\n## The Three Gorges backdrop\n\nThe Three Gorges Dam, which began construction in 1994, is the largest hydroelectric project in the world and the film's constant backdrop. In a PBS interview, Chang described it as about 6 kilometers wide and about 185 meters high, with a reservoir he said would cover an area the size of [Lake Superior](https://www.edgepedia.org/lake-superior).<sup>[13](https://www.timeout.com/movies/up-the-yangtze)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[9](https://archive.pov.org/uptheyangtze/interview/)</sup>\n\nThe scale of displacement is reported differently across sources. The Los Angeles Times critic Kenneth Turan wrote that the dam would displace about 2 million people; the film's press kit places the Yu family \"among the two million losing their livelihood to the dam\"; the New York Observer put the figure at 3 million; and Chang himself said in September 2007 that the government's estimate had doubled, with a possible additional 2 million people relocated for a total of 4 million.<sup>[6](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2008-may-22-et-kenny22-story.html)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[5](https://www.eyesteelfilm.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/uptheyangtze.presskit.pdf)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[12](https://observer.com/2008/04/china-syndrome/amp/)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[9](https://archive.pov.org/uptheyangtze/interview/)</sup>\n\nChang said he deliberately avoided the engineering and policy debate. His film treats the cruise ship as a microcosm of modern China: Western tourists on the upper decks consuming a last glimpse of a vanishing world, and young Chinese workers below deck serving them, competing for the few permanent positions while their own families' homes fill with water.<sup>[10](https://archive.pov.org/uptheyangtze/turning-the-lens-on-china/?noamp=mobile)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[1](https://chinaindiefilm.com/films/up-the-yangtze/)</sup>\n\n## Release and reception\n\nThe film circulated widely on the international festival circuit, including Sundance, and was one of the top-grossing documentary box office releases of 2008.<sup>[2](https://zeitgeistfilms.com/film/uptheyangtze)</sup> It premiered on US public television on POV on October 8, 2008.<sup>[9](https://archive.pov.org/uptheyangtze/interview/)</sup>\n\nCritics responded strongly to its visual style and its indirect treatment of the dam's human cost. On Rotten Tomatoes it holds a 96% Tomatometer from 53 reviews, with the critics' consensus calling it \"a visually stunning meditation about the changes confronting modern China\"; its Metacritic Metascore is 84, with all 17 counted reviews positive.<sup>[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/up_the_yangtze)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[7](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/up-the-yangtze/critic-reviews/)</sup> Stephen Holden of The New York Times called it \"an astonishing documentary of culture clash and the erasure of history amid China's economic miracle,\" and Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times praised its \"striking visual quality\" and \"haunting images that show both the beauty and uncertainty of this pivotal time.\"<sup>[14](https://www.internationalfilmseries.com/fall-2008/9467/up-the-yangtze)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[6](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2008-may-22-et-kenny22-story.html)</sup> Some reviewers noted what the film leaves out: a Foreign Policy Association review observed that it lacks information about the dam's history, and Time Out called Chang's personal narration about his grandfather the one superfluous element.<sup>[15](https://fpa.org/up-the-yangtze-2007/)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[13](https://www.timeout.com/movies/up-the-yangtze)</sup>\n\n## Aftermath\n\nThe film changed its central subject's life. Chang said that Yu Shui, after watching the finished documentary, told him she could see her own fate in it and decided to leave the boat and return to high school; the production company helped pay for her education and started a fund for her family through its website.<sup>[16](https://dialogue.earth/en/energy/1870-film-review-up-the-yangtze/)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[9](https://archive.pov.org/uptheyangtze/interview/)</sup>\n\nUp the Yangtze established Chang's career. He followed it with the feature documentaries China Heavyweight (2012), The Fruit Hunters (2013), This Is Not a Movie (2019), and Wuhan Wuhan (2021).<sup>[17](https://www.nfb.ca/directors/yung-chang/?language=all)</sup> Scholars have since paired it with Feng Yan's independent documentary Bing Ai (2007) as one of two contrasting documentary treatments of the dam's construction and the people living in its watershed.<sup>[18](https://ir.lib.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/55131/files/48099)</sup>\n\n## References\n\n1. [Up the Yangtze, Chinese Independent Film Archive](https://chinaindiefilm.com/films/up-the-yangtze/)\n2. [Up The Yangtze, Zeitgeist Films](https://zeitgeistfilms.com/film/uptheyangtze)\n3. [Up the Yangtze, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/up_the_yangtze)\n4. [Up the Yangtze! (2007), IDFA Archive](https://www.idfa.nl/en/film/1bcef6a3-f7f5-4068-b2a5-171637f2b608/up-the-yangtze%21/)\n5. [Up the Yangtze press kit, EyeSteelFilm](https://www.eyesteelfilm.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/uptheyangtze.presskit.pdf)\n6. [CRITICS' PICKS: Up the Yangtze, Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times (May 22, 2008)](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2008-may-22-et-kenny22-story.html)\n7. [Up the Yangtze critic reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/up-the-yangtze/critic-reviews/)\n8. [Coming Ashore: an interview with Up the Yangtze director Yung Chang, UCLA International Institute](https://www.international.ucla.edu/ccs/article/92899)\n9. [Filmmaker Interview: Up the Yangtze, POV, PBS](https://archive.pov.org/uptheyangtze/interview/)\n10. [Discussion: Turning the Lens on China, POV, PBS](https://archive.pov.org/uptheyangtze/turning-the-lens-on-china/?noamp=mobile)\n11. [Tan, Paige (2010). \"Up the Yangtze,\" Education About Asia 15(1)](https://www.educationaboutasia.org/article/id/957/)\n12. [China Syndrome, The New York Observer (April 2008)](https://observer.com/2008/04/china-syndrome/amp/)\n13. [Up the Yangtze review, Time Out (April 22, 2008)](https://www.timeout.com/movies/up-the-yangtze)\n14. [Up the Yangtze, International Film Series, University of Colorado (Stephen Holden, The New York Times)](https://www.internationalfilmseries.com/fall-2008/9467/up-the-yangtze)\n15. [Up The Yangtze (2007), Foreign Policy Association](https://fpa.org/up-the-yangtze-2007/)\n16. [Film review: Up the Yangtze, Sam Geall, Dialogue Earth (April 4, 2008)](https://dialogue.earth/en/energy/1870-film-review-up-the-yangtze/)\n17. [Yung Chang, National Film Board of Canada](https://www.nfb.ca/directors/yung-chang/?language=all)\n18. [Kishino, Hidemi, and Araki, Yoko. Voices of \"Others\" in Two Documentary Films on the Construction of the Three Gorges Dam, Hiroshima University repository](https://ir.lib.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/55131/files/48099)\n19. [https://variety.com/2007/film/markets-festivals/up-the-yangtze-1200554193/](https://variety.com/2007/film/markets-festivals/up-the-yangtze-1200554193/)\n20. [https://povmagazine.com/eastern-promise/](https://povmagazine.com/eastern-promise/)\n21. [https://www.hammertonail.com/reviews/up-the-yangtze-film-review/](https://www.hammertonail.com/reviews/up-the-yangtze-film-review/)\n22. [https://ips-dc.org/if_she_is_still_there/](https://ips-dc.org/if_she_is_still_there/)\n23. [https://archive.pov.org/uptheyangtze/film-description/?amp=1](https://archive.pov.org/uptheyangtze/film-description/?amp=1)\n24. [https://povmagazine.com/documentary-essentials-up-the-yangtze/](https://povmagazine.com/documentary-essentials-up-the-yangtze/)\n25. [https://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/25/movies/25yang.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/25/movies/25yang.html)\n26. [https://filmmakermagazine.com/1313-yung-chang-up-the-yangtze/](https://filmmakermagazine.com/1313-yung-chang-up-the-yangtze/)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Films by genre, form, and subject › Documentary and biographical films › Documentary films by subject: arts, music, sports, and place*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n",
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 "credit": "\"Up the Yangtze\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/up-the-yangtze. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.",
 "credit_md": "\"[Up the Yangtze](https://www.edgepedia.org/up-the-yangtze)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/up-the-yangtze](https://www.edgepedia.org/up-the-yangtze). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).",
 "credit_html": "\"<a href=\"https://www.edgepedia.org/up-the-yangtze\">Up the Yangtze</a>\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), <a href=\"https://www.edgepedia.org/up-the-yangtze\">https://www.edgepedia.org/up-the-yangtze</a>. <a href=\"https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\">Edgepedia Community License 1.0</a>.",
 "speakable": "Up the Yangtze is Yung Chang's EyeSteelFilm and NFB documentary following teenagers Yu Shui and Chen Bo Yu working a Three Gorges Farewell Cruise; 93 minutes, Sundance selection, 96% Rotten Tomatoes."
}