Home       |   Top News   |   China   |   World Business | Environment |     Arts     | Sports Travel       |     Opinion     |  Photos Bilingual News
Arts
Documenting Tibetan lives
September-30-2009
Global Times September 30, 2009
A seminar on the documentary A Year in Tibet by famous writer and director Sun Shuyun was held Saturday in Beijing and drew a big crowd of scholars to discuss the work's implications and influences since it was released last year.
The five-episode documentary, filmed in Gyantse, the third largest county in Tibet Autonomous Region, records the life of eight Tibetans and their everyday ups and downs. The crew spent a year following a village shaman, a doctor, a junior Party official, a hotel runner, a rickshaw puller, a builder and two monks from Palkor Monastery.
Sun's work presents a changing Tibet where local people bound by tradition face the challenges of rapid progress and where customs survive among burgeoning modernity. A Year in Tibet offers a panoramic insight into the real lives of the local people.
"It was very courageous for Sun to shoot a documentary in Tibet and it has been very difficult for her to present the most extraordinary place in the world to the outside in an objective and smooth way," commented Liu Xiaoli, a well-known documentary expert.
"Here is neither an imaginary Shangri-La, nor a wild place as many people would think and what I want to present to the world is a true and dynamic Tibet from itself, the lives of Tibetans, their happiness, their sorrows and most importantly their daily lives," Sun told the Global Times.
Sun also wrote an English book of the same title, published by Harper Collins last year. The Chinese version has recently been published by the Beijing October Arts & Literature Publishing House.
Sun explained that the book allowed her to be much more intimate and detailed than the documentary did. "It is a different form of creation. In my book, my inner-most feelings were expressed," she said.
Both the book and documentary have been well received.
"The response is beyond my expectations, we spent a year making the film and eight months editing the film as well as five months writing the book, all together it was two years, plus preparation it was three years and when the book and documentary were released last March," Sun explained.
"They became the focus of the world and nearly all of the reaction was proactive, the only protest came from the Free Tibet Campaign," she added.
A Year in Tibet was shown in the UK on BBC4 in March last year and was recently aired on CCTV in China, it is also scheduled to be shown by Hong Kong-based Phoenix TV in the near future.
"I am so delighted to learn that the documentary has brought joy to audiences. Apart from myself, many others who were born in Tibet, live in Tibet and work in Tibet are eager to learn about and promote the region. It is our job to listen to and record their voices and show the progress made," Sun said.

1   2    
More News

Home       |   Top News   |   China   |   World Business | Environment |     Arts     | Sports Travel       |     Opinion     |  Photos Bilingual News
Back to Top ^