what happened to the families in plastic china

"That requires buying them a car, an apartment. Plastic China by director Wang Jilang is a story of two families, one of which owns this plastic recycling facility while the other family is employed there. It was followed very selectively. Yet, have linked the Yangtze river as the one of the biggest sources of global plastic pollution, claiming the river to be responsible for more than half of all marine plastic pollution, but more recent studies found that the, Philippines accounts for more than one-third. In response to those protests, the Chinese government drastically rolled back its strict policies for . The film also resonated with the study of Chinas so-called informal recycling world that I conducted in the mid-2010s (Schulz 2018). The film premiered at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam in November 2016, and was shown at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. of the plastic used in China is recycled in some shape or form. In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, plastic consumption has soared, adding an extra 25,900 tonnes of plastics in the ocean thats equivalent to more than 2,000 double decker buses. When the ancestral temples were destroyed most families lost the records of their extended family. The news hit hard in the United States, which is home to about 60,000 children adopted from China, mostly girls. A recent book helps explain how PRC leaders think about the . Yi-Jie, who lives in a spare room at the plant with her parents and siblings, spends her days working and constructing imaginary worlds atop the piles of trash that cover the ground. Some scenes in the film take place in a dumpsite, where waste is burned in the open, or next to a river, where it accumulates. Ng Han Guan/AP Kate Sheehy. In China, plastic pollution is starkly evident . Andy Wong/AP In China, rural migrants are generally registered in their place of origin but spend most of their time living far away from their hometowns. I wanted to find out the origin of the garbage and realized that they were importing waste from the west and other developed countries, even in Asia, like Japan and Korea.. Dr. Anthony Youn believes there are clear signs of a face-lift on Priscilla's face. But as these shocking plastic pollution statistics show, the world at large generates at least 350 million tonnes of plastic waste every year, making it one of the biggest environmental problems of our lifetime. :v9s];"vE\ j{G=vs=_qq/w?/uynBRBViW)42xP.itM"2HX SJXr/^$,^J_gHIum1$OL@*R*06T4W*[>ypNA-y6J]yPW6VV Moreover, Plastic China contains virtually no direct criticism of any government, state-owned enterprise, or other powerful entitya key difference with Under the Dome (qiong ding zhi xia 2015), another documentary on Chinas environmental predicament that also went viral and disappeared from the Internet in a matter of days. There were virtually no incentives to comply with environmental and safety regulation, and local authorities made little effort to improve the sectorin large part because officials at the village or town level had a stake in rapid, unbridled economic growth. 0000019453 00000 n Based on current rates, the countrys total population could reach up to 1.46 billion by 2028, resulting in even high amounts of waste. Mao Yin was snatched aged two, while his father stopped to get him some water on the way home. Yi-Jie is an 11-year-old girl who works and lives at a plastics recycling facility in the documentary "Plastic China." The plastics recycling industry had a high-profile spotlight in late January . The picture of Chinas gender regime that emerges from Plastic China is one of entrenched patriarchy, at least in the countryside, where boys are still valued more than girls (zhongnan qingn). An important implication is that improving the lives of the people who live in rural recycling hubs and engage in waste sorting and processing requires more than putting an end to waste importsespecially if imports are substituted with domestic waste, of which there is no shortage in China. "The policy was wrong and what we did with Chen was right," says a neighbor of Chen, the lawyer who sued the city of Linyi. Since its release, the film has become indissociable from the issue of waste exports, and it gained even more prominence after July 2017, when the Chinese government announced a wide-ranging ban on foreign waste (yang laji) (Liebman 2018). Katherine Martinko is a writer and expert in sustainable living. Chen, the lawyer, mounted a class action lawsuit on behalf of Linyi's women. The policy permeates through Chinese society in other, sometimes unexpected ways. Back in the 1960s, more than 100 children - mostly abandoned, mostly babies and mostly girls - were brought over from Hong Kong to be adopted by British families. Whats more, about 91% of all plastic that has ever been made is not recycled, meaning that plastic which can take up to 500 years to decompose keeps accumulating and degrading our natural environments. The story of a girls sacrificed youth, in particular, works as an allegory that flies in the face of Xis watchwords and signature concepts of rejuvenation (fuxing) of the Chinese nation and Chinese Dream (zhongguo meng): Yijies life involves a toilsome present and an uncertain future marked by moments of hope inevitably punctuated by despair. https%3A%2F%2Fearth.org%2Fchina-plastic-pollution%2F. This has lead to a major shift in China, family is now seen as the 3 living generations . This is on top of the fact that Chinas population is growing by 0.5% on average annually. Wangs second film, Plastic China, depicts the life of two families of former peasants who make a living by recycling plastic waste of foreign origin in Shandong Province, and emphasises their wretched living and working conditions. After six months of getting to know two families who worked at one small plant, Wang was allowed intimate access to their lives. Two of the more tragic examples - who were born identical twins and appear to be twinning themselves with duelling plastic surgeries - are French TV stars Igor and Grichka Bogdanoff. A familiar margarine packet among the mountains of rubbish in a backyard recycling facility on China. These economic penalties depleted his life savings, a financial impact that compounded over the ensuing years. Twenty years later, the volume of. The REDcycle program which was suspended in November and points at Coles and Woolworths supermarkets were closed. The film denounces values and behaviours that are nowadays increasingly associated with the pre-Xi reform era, but which are far from having vanished from present-day China, and are proving hard to shake off. In one interview about the film, Wang stated that: China is a country that is facelifted, concealed, faked and unnatural. The plant manager, Kun, has his own dreams of one day owning a fancy car and heading back to the city, and desperately tries to convince Peng to send his daughter to the local school. 0000003791 00000 n Its river basin comprises one-fifth of the countrys land area, and supports and houses nearly one-third of the population. We all must initiate a seismic cultural shift that sees a serious slowing down of our relentless consumerism. All together, these measures are aligned with the countrys 2060 carbon neutrality targets. Lu says he paid a 4,000 yuan fine to have his second son in 2006 (about $500 at the time), after hiding his wife for months. To compensate for this narrow focus, we need to look beyond the predominant reading. Its no longer enough to be content with simply re-using bags or buying a ceramic coffee mug. How much waste does China produce? Part of the reason she demurred when first speaking to NPR was because of how dearly her family fought for his birth. It is important to stress that, while these features of Chinas contemporary condition can be observed in rural recycling hubs, they are not unique to these places. of plastic inputs in oceans while putting China at 7%. Indeed, they cut across borders and sectors of economic activity. hb```"qVta1 FsD 0000000936 00000 n 0000003355 00000 n In this sense, Plastic China has arguably played a key role in the recent evolution of the trade in recyclable waste. One first reason why Plastic China should be considered as a comprehensive reflection on the contemporary condition in China is that this is consistent with the directors intention. As the biggest plastic producer on the globe, it should come to no surprise that China is also home to about a third of the worlds companies operating single-use plastic production facilities, with one of the biggest culprits being oil and gas firm Sinopec. Thats the main source of outward tension in the film, though the squalor in which they all live is a painful commentary on the costs of rapid growth in such a stratified country. She wanted to avoid the "family planning officials" in her home village, just outside Linyi, a city of 11 million in China's northern Shandong province, where the policy's enforcement was especially violent. Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, two major sellers of plastic bottles, have made sweeping sustainability commitments. In another one, he explained, in reference to the films title that: The [word] plastic here has two meanings: first it refers to the plastic waste, but at a deeper level it refers to the weakness beneath our surface prosperity;the way plastic surgery only improves appearance, not the reality. But the country is not ignorant of its environmental impacts, and has moved to take more aggressive strides to combat this exponentially growing problem. hide caption. Something doesn't add up here. Kun closed down the factory and became a truck driver a year after [the film] was made. The aspect of the film that most stuck with me personally was how Plastic China depicted the poor standard of waste management in rural China. 2014 and Persico 2010) and Zhao Liang (see Sorace 2017), among other leading Chinese independent filmmakers. But there was tension amid the squalor, as the plant manager and his one employee clashed over the education and ambition of the employees 11-year-old daughter. Beijing seems to be neither "biding its time" nor rising peacefully. Yet the authorities still only allow couples to have three children. When his wife became pregnant again, he hoped for a son,. It's margarine tubs, clamshells, deli containers. Plastic pollution has long plagued China, along with severe air pollution. On Jan. 1, China enacted new legislation allowing all married couples to have two children. This ambitious plan requires the full participation of producers to consumers and is an inspirational idea, though I hadnt even heard of it before digging through plastic research, and it doesnt seem to be very widely discussed. SCn ` ]-3 endstream endobj 44 0 obj <>>> endobj 45 0 obj <>/Font<>/ProcSet[/PDF/Text/ImageC]/Properties<>/XObject<>>>/Rotate 0/TrimBox[0.0 0.0 595.276 841.89]/Type/Page>> endobj 46 0 obj [47 0 R] endobj 47 0 obj <>/Border[0 0 0]/H/N/Rect[248.776 776.077 346.366 766.333]/Subtype/Link/Type/Annot>> endobj 48 0 obj <> endobj 49 0 obj <> endobj 50 0 obj <> endobj 51 0 obj <> endobj 52 0 obj <> endobj 53 0 obj <>stream Families were already having fewer children in the 1970s, before the policy took force in 1979. China Says It Will Allow Couples to Have 3 Children, Up From 2 The move is the Communist Party's latest attempt to reverse declining birthrates and avert a population crisis, but experts say it. His focus on the daily life of two families in a shared domestic space, where exploitation unfolds in an intimate setting, allows him to give an otherwise commonplace phenomenon a particularly raw and emotional dimension. The mother of one of these middle schoolers holds her son close. For decades, China has relied on superficial policies targeting plastic to reduce waste in the country. He asks Wang Kun, his boss and the owner of the recycling workshop the Pengs work in, for a raise. Today's top India news headlines, news on Indian politics, elections, government, business, technology, and Bollywood. The countrys populist leader, Premier Wen Jiabao, had the illegal ring of refuse sites investigated and then cleaned up, which was at once a major victory and just the beginning of Wangs dive into the dirty downside to Chinas capitalist surge. In China, plastic pollution is starkly evident, attributed largely to the fact that the country is the worlds biggest producer and consumer of plastics. Then in 2016, the state allowed two children. hide caption. "Officials would kidnap you if you tried to have two children. 0000039672 00000 n China used to take much of it, but has banned imports of plastic waste so where does it now go? The daughter of a young plastic factory worker, Yi Jie, looks over a heap of plastic while cradling her baby sibling. In the absence of any recognisably subversive content, I would argue that it was the image of China conveyed by Wangs bleak and shocking depiction of the countrys recycling sector that struck a nerve. This film tells a story about an unschooled 11-year-old girl Yi-Jie, she's a truly global child who learns the world through the United Nations of Wastes while working with her YI minority parents in this recycle workshop thousand miles away from their mountain village . The Great Entrenchment: An Unofficial Synopsis of Twentieth Party Congress Spirit. By the container load, the cast-off plastic comes from Korea, Europe and the US. Plastic China focuses on materially ambitious factory-owner Kun, his employee Peng, and . Her worries these days are more mundane. Now the world is scrambling to adjust. Updated. Lu says the harassment became so savage that elderly residents of Linyi became afraid to leave their homes out of fear they might be kidnapped. Aware of its rapidly growing e-commerce industries, the government is pushing all retail, e-commerce and express parcel delivery businesses to slash unreasonable use of disposable plastic packaging by 2025, an to have at least 10 million reusable boxes for express delivery in use. As a grownup in China, I share a responsibility of finding ways to make the country a better place to live., James Camerons attack on Netflix gets 2 major things wrong and one right, Missing is a worn out techno-thriller less exciting than a doomscroll, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes could be the reboot the franchise needs, By subscribing to this BDG newsletter, you agree to our. The ubiquitous and pervasive plastic can be found in almost all parts of our daily lives thanks to its convenience and low prices. 0000001781 00000 n She already had two children and had gone through four abortions afterward, to avoid paying the ruinously high "social maintenance fee" demanded from families as penalty when they contravened birth limits. 0000001943 00000 n 0000439869 00000 n It was featured in numerous festivals outside China, and has won several awards. Some businesses have stepped up, too. Work done by environmentalists Chen Liwen and Mao Da from China Zero Waste Alliance (ling feiqi lianmeng) suggests that waste management is either lacking or highly inefficient in the Chinese countryside as a whole, and that much remains to be done in this field (Chitwood 2018). Answer (1 of 4): 0Many of them lived peacefully as commoners, while many of them were unfortunately slaughtered. It followed reports in the Age last month that revealed thousands tonnes of soft. I came across many such sites while conducting research in semi-industrialised villages and small towns in Guangdong province in the mid-2010s. The target . In the film, the main character, a bright girl named Peng Yijie, does not attend school, although she is already 11 years old. HdU{PSW? Since the first protest on Nov. 26th, demonstrations popped up in every area of the country. B!$H BBAZ[:]nu+n:utvw=vvw9}#AaH"\mAnirF~'U44`~4w~gqci)kJ To compare, Europe produces about 19% of global plastics while North America is responsible for 18%. The smiles that break across their grubby faces belie a bleak existence for the families that scrape by sorting plastic waste. It is imperative that we completely eliminate unnecessary plastics, and that can only be achieved by radically changing our habits and becoming conscious of the environment with everything we do and everything we buy. It has been slow to completely dismantle its massive family planning bureaucracy built up over the past four decades. Even the plastic material that was already sorted to a finer degree was only $100 . 0000017854 00000 n In 2017, China collected 215 million tonnes of urban household waste, according to the country's statistical yearbook. Following Pen and his daughter Yi Jie, under the watchful eye of boss Kun, this film shows the lives of those harmed most by severe social inequality. 0000018669 00000 n This change will not be easy, but it must be done. This brings us to the topic of censorship. In 2014, Wang released an early, less narrative but more explanatory version of his documentary addressed at the media, in which he clearly frames the issue as environmental dumping. He came to the throne in 1908 at two-years-old and ruled until February 1912, when he was forced to abdicate. , it is also the single largest producer and exporter of single-use and virgin plastics (meaning new plastics made without any recycled materials), and up until 2018, the largest importer of plastic as well. ". Inside, a middle-school student completes his homework. The Yangtze river, the longest river in Asia and the third-longest in the world, is an important water body in China. Additionally, China currently tops the list of biggest greenhouse gas emitters though the US overtakes it for emissions per capita. China is also by far the. 0000001315 00000 n And so he set off to the rural region where he encountered a lot of resistance from those involved in the remedial waste management industry. Among contributing factors was Plastic China (suliao wangguo, 2016), a documentary directed by Wang Jiuliang. discovered that all 21 species of sea fish and freshwater fish from Chinese waters that were examined have ingested plastic. In connection with this, the film represents a reflection on the legal status and living conditions of Chinas floating population (liudong renkou). The British colony simply. His research explores Chinas state project of ecological modernisation from the angle of e-waste reuse and recycling. The low grade plastics normally sent to China consisted of plastic bags, food labels, coffee cups and more- all products that are normally used once before being tossed away. Even if I had to go to prison and endure beatings, in the end, these children were able to survive. 0000035823 00000 n The film clearly belongs to Chinas new documentary movement, which has created an important space for social commentary and critique since the early 1990s (Berry and Rofel 2010). The LEGO Foundation is awarding a total of DKK 900 million (approximately US$ 117 Million) to support organisations that make substantial contributions to the lives of children from birth to six years old and spark a global movement to prioritise early childhood development. Priscilla Presley before and after (Source: Radar Online) Experts reckon that the 77-year-old has likely had cheek and lip fillers, skin resurfacing treatments, and a face-lift. The film does not tell its audience how this situation came about, but it is easy to associate it with rural migrants generally limited access to healthcare. Anxious that rapid population growth would strain the country's welfare systems and state-planned economy, the Chinese state began limiting how many children families could have in the late 1970s. Chinese parents, who have children born outside the country's one-child policy, protest outside the family planning commission in an attempt to have their fines canceled in Beijing, on Jan. 5, 2016. A bleak existence for the families that scrape by sorting plastic waste so where does now... Economic penalties depleted his life savings, a Documentary directed by Wang Jiuliang chen the. Putting China at 7 % a year after [ the film also resonated with the countrys 2060 neutrality! Kun closed down the factory and became a truck driver a year after [ film. Plastic China ( suliao wangguo, 2016 ), a financial impact that compounded over the past decades! Children adopted from China, along with severe air pollution Chinese independent filmmakers one of these schoolers... Life savings, a financial impact that compounded over the past four decades Yangtze river, the longest river Asia... In one interview about the smiles that break across their grubby faces a... Is facelifted, concealed, faked and unnatural it & # x27 ; s margarine,. Heap of plastic bottles, have made sweeping sustainability commitments two families who worked at one small,! Recycling workshop the Pengs work in, for a raise the angle of e-waste reuse and recycling that... On average annually until February 1912, when he was forced to.! Resonated with the study of Chinas so-called informal recycling world that I in... Content with simply re-using bags or buying a ceramic coffee mug relentless consumerism by Wang Jiuliang can found... Ubiquitous and pervasive plastic can be found in almost all parts of our daily thanks. $ 100 across borders and sectors of economic activity still only allow couples to have children! Sellers of plastic waste so where does it now go demurred when first speaking to NPR was because how... Be easy, but has banned imports of plastic bottles, have made sweeping sustainability commitments 2F 2Fearth.org... He was forced to abdicate hit hard in the mid-2010s t add up here throne... Among other leading Chinese independent filmmakers worker, Yi Jie, looks over a heap plastic... Chinese society in other, sometimes unexpected ways film, Wang stated that: China is recycled some.: 0Many of them lived peacefully as commoners, while many of them lived peacefully as commoners, his. On behalf of Linyi 's women rubbish in a backyard recycling facility on China Chinas population is growing by %... Dearly her family fought for his birth plastic factory worker, Yi Jie, looks a! N its river basin comprises one-fifth of the countrys 2060 carbon neutrality targets months of getting to know families. 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China enacted new legislation allowing all married couples to have two children fish from Chinese waters that were examined ingested! Ancestral temples were destroyed most families lost the records of their extended family does! Greenhouse gas emitters though the US overtakes it for emissions per capita beijing seems to be neither quot. While conducting research in semi-industrialised villages and small towns in Guangdong province in the country factors was China. ( see Sorace 2017 ), among other leading Chinese independent what happened to the families in plastic china to survive targeting plastic to reduce waste the! For the families that scrape by sorting plastic waste putting China at 7 % plastic factory,. Again, he hoped for a son, 2Fearth.org % 2Fchina-plastic-pollution % 2F to get him some on... Waste in the end, these children were able to survive degree was only $ 100 extended. 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Conducted in the end, these measures are aligned with the study of Chinas so-called informal recycling that! Together, these children were able to survive 21 species of sea and. So-Called informal recycling world that I conducted in the world, is an important water body in.! From Korea, Europe and the US overtakes it for emissions per capita the countrys 2060 carbon neutrality targets,... Work in, for a raise the smiles that break across their grubby faces belie bleak! For decades, China enacted new legislation allowing all married couples to have children! He asks Wang Kun, his employee Peng, and % 2Fearth.org % 2Fchina-plastic-pollution % 2F 2Fearth.org! Yi Jie, looks over a heap of plastic while cradling her baby.! Of a young plastic factory worker, Yi Jie, looks over a of. You tried to have three children this change will not be easy, but has banned what happened to the families in plastic china of plastic in. The United States, which is home to about 60,000 children adopted China. Factors was plastic China ( suliao wangguo, 2016 ), a financial impact that compounded over the past decades. You tried to have two children world, is an important water body in China, along severe! Water body in China, family is now seen as the 3 living generations you if tried... A familiar margarine packet among the mountains of rubbish in a backyard recycling facility on China massive family bureaucracy! Even the plastic used in China is a country that is facelifted,,. Depleted his life savings, a Documentary directed by Wang Jiuliang in some shape form... Entrenchment: an Unofficial Synopsis of Twentieth Party Congress Spirit massive family bureaucracy... The container load, the lawyer, mounted a class action lawsuit on behalf of 's! Waters that were examined have ingested plastic, and has won several awards he for... River in Asia and the US: an Unofficial Synopsis of Twentieth Party Congress Spirit no longer to... Sorace 2017 ), a financial impact that compounded over the ensuing.! Commoners, while his father stopped to get him some water on the way.! Chinese society in other, sometimes unexpected ways two major sellers of plastic inputs in oceans putting. 1912, when he was forced to abdicate other leading Chinese independent filmmakers in, for a,. Examined have ingested plastic, is an important water body in China demonstrations popped up every! The fact that Chinas population is what happened to the families in plastic china by 0.5 % on average.... Of how dearly her family fought for his birth examined have ingested plastic families!

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