Under the Dome

I want to share a film with you that was released in China this past month called 'Under the Dome: Investigating China's smog'. It was created by a former journalist for CCTV named Chai Jing. In a documentary style that feels similar to Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth", Ms. Chai presents a very clear picture of China's pollution problems. As someone who has experienced the pollution issue firsthand here in almost every city I visit or live, I was fascinated by the facts she presents in her film. In fact, within the first 48 hours of it's release, this documentary went viral in China and was viewed over 100 million times. Then within days of its release, it disappeared, blocked by the Great Firewall (the common term for the firewall that blocks any content or site the government finds objectionable).

I first heard about this documentary upon my return back to China in the beginning of March, after my long vacation. My friend told me about it and how it was spreading all over the blogs and social media sites. I was intrigued so she showed me the video. At the time it had no translation yet, so I watched in the original Chinese gaining a general idea but knowing I was missing a great deal. But from what I did understand of her presentation, I was immediately encouraged that this had been released and surprised that the government was allowing it. And then it disappeared.

But thanks to the power of the internet (magical secrets ;) it did not disappear completely. I was told by my fellow teacher here in QHD that it had been put up on YouTube. Thank heaven for YouTube. And now it has English subtitles! After watching it, I felt compelled to share it. As someone who has a vested interest in what happens in this country, I thought this was both a grim depiction of the hard reality of the pollution issue, but also a message of hope for the possibility of change. Wherever you stand on the environmental issues, this film in my opinion is a must-see.

It is about 103 minutes long. Under the Dome Documentary