Documentaries are non-fictional motion pictures and a way of showing reality through interviews, narration, and footage. And here are the Chinese documentaries or to be more precise, documentaries about China. This list has mentioned some of the incredible documentaries which will give you another perspective on China as a country, ancient or current. The stories of these films have social, economical, and political aspects, and the Chinese citizen’s views and experiences to show.
1. One Child Nation
One Child Nation is a documentary on China’s One Child Nation Policy, which limited and indirectly forced Chinese families to have only one child. This ‘Family Planning’ policy existed from 1980 to 2015/16. The propaganda by the communist Chinese government intended to impose the idea of controlling population growth. These restrictions caused forced sterilization and human trafficking. The documentary shows the interviews of families and parents, who went through this experience, a retired nurse who was involved in around 5k sterilizing processes, and others.
Directed By: Nanfu Wang, Lynn Zhang
2. Plastic China
Plastic China is about two families who survive by recycling plastic waste imported from the U.S, Europe, and Asia. Plastic China documentary puts the spotlight on social issues like poverty, child labor, no education for children, and bad working conditions. The devasting visuals in this film are a glimpse of rural Chinese families. Though later, China bans the importation of plastic waste due to the trade wars.
Directed By: Jiu-Liang Wang
3. Last Train Home
The story is about Chen and Zhang, a married couple, and another 130 million factory workers; who are on their journey back home every year’s Chinese New Year. These families work in the cities and mostly in factories for survival. They visit their hometown with all emotions to meet their family and neighbors once a year. This film was a process of several years of documentation, taking the Zhang family in the picture, who visit their daughter from Guangzhou to Sichan every year.
Directed By: Lixin Fan
4. Please Vote For Me
The documentary took place in a classroom of a Primary School in Wuhan city and the homes of the student-children. Predicting the title, it shows a 3rd-grade classroom and eight years old children struggling to become the class monitor. The struggle involves their parents as well. The teaching of this documentary lies in the practical explanation of the Democracy concept. These three student candidates can make you earn Democracy through a new experiment.
Directed By: Weijun Chen
5. Morning Sun
The documentary is the focal point of the propaganda footage during China’s Cultural Revolution (a communist movement). It is Mao Zedong’s communist movement, which existed during the 1960s and ’70s. The cultural transformation in the citizens' lives during that period has narrated in this documentary. Morning Sun could be a great, knowledgeable film about ancient China and the Chinese Mao period to watch.
Directed By: Carma Hinton
6. Up The Yangtze
It basically denotes and sums up the surrounding of the Yangtze river and the lives of the people. The rising water of Yangtze led to destroying people's lives and the creation of the Three Gorges Dam. It is a hydroelectric gravity dam and has been controversial for the displacement of 1.3 million people. This film tells the story of two teenagers on a cruise, which is sailing toward the Yangtze river.
Directed By: Yung Chang
7. Petition
The word Petition is social support for the people who are appealing a formal request by groups, society, or communities. The documentary, Petition is the story of Chinese petitioners and their city. The city where all the petitioners raise their grievances is the capital city, Beijing. They live making a shelter near the railway station. The director has followed these petitioners for 13 years to know and document their stories and truth. Their struggle lies in months of waiting for approval, insults, beatings, corrupt officers, and the Chinese government's negligence.
Directed By: Zhao Liang
8. The Chinese Mayor
It's the story of Geng Yanbo's positive and dream mission. He is the former mayor of Datong, a city in China. His radical attempt to relocate half a million people by demolishing 140,000 households. In order to gain clean economic growth by means of tourism and culture, replace the coal mining center.
Directed By: Zhou Hao
9. American Factory
A Chinese businessman reopens a factory that was earlier a General Motors plant. The narration, interviews, and current factory of workers made this documentary merge into an example of cultural differences and issues in the U.s and China. The cultural aspect is depicted here because of the workers in the factory, their different ways of doing things, and clashes.
Directed By: Julia Reichert, Steven Bognar
10. Ghost Town (2008)
Ghost Town is a Chinese documentary that speaks about the cultural past of a haunted city, Zhiziluo, located in Yunan Province. This was the first independent documentary from China, screened at the New York Film Festival.
