Tag Archives: China

The Revolutionary

Sidney Rittenberg arrived in China as a GI Chinese language expert at the end of World War II. Discharged there, he joined the Chinese Communist Party, and was an active participant and eye-witness in the Chinese communist revolution and its aftermath, including the Cultural Revolution, the Great Leap Forward and The Hundred Flowers Campaign.

An intimate of the Party’s leadership, including Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, he gained prominence at the Broadcast Administration, one of the most important agencies of government. But in the convulsions of a giant country constantly reinventing itself, he twice ran afoul of the leadership, and served a total of 16 years in solitary confinement. He returned to the United States in 1980.

Rittenberg’s story would be just a footnote to history, except for his exceptional intellect, uncompromising honesty, and engaging personality. Over a five-year period, award-winning former-CBS journalist and China specialist, Irv Drasnin, interviewed Rittenberg to produce a compelling, complex and unique understanding of the 20th century’s biggest revolution. From Sid first meeting Mao in the caves of Yan’an, to his becoming famous and powerful during the Cultural Revolution, to his battling insanity in solitary, his journey and his profound insight illuminate a much greater history—a history few Chinese are aware of, let alone many Americans, told by an American who was there.

Red Reign

The Chinese Government’s brutal oppression of Falun Gong – a spiritual discipline based on the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance – is well documented. Falun Gong practitioners make up the largest group of prisoners of conscience in the world. Between 450,000 and one million are extra-judicially detained at any given time. All the while the Communist Party has initiated a nationwide crackdown on this “heretical organisation,”” even blocking websites that mention Falun Gong.

Red Reign exposes the until now concealed story of the systematic execution of those Falun Gong members held in custody to service a growing demand for harvested organs.

The scale of this trade and the manner in which it is executed amount to a modern day genocide. Desperate western clients are reluctant to ask how it is possible for organs to be “booked” in advance without an execution-to-order taking place, and as a non-smoking or drinking practice, the Falun Gong are uniquely vulnerable to this trade. Despite previous attempts by the media to uncover this story, a black-out has been instigated by the Chinese Communist Party interfering with public broadcasters and television festivals around the world.

Red Reign uncovers the systematic murder of the Falun Gong through Organ Harvesting as well as the work of courageous doctors, politicians & lawyers around the world who are bringing this monstrous injustice to the light of day.

How Ping Pong Saved the World

How Ping-Pong Saved the World recounts the events of April 1971 when a U.S. Table Tennis team became the first Americans allowed to enter communist China in decades. Their invitation paved the way for President Nixon’s landmark visit just eight months later.

For eights days, 15 unlikely American Ping-Pong playing diplomats discovered the little known world behind the Bamboo Curtain. These unlikely diplomats were about to reshape history and in the process make a breakthrough of historic proportions and in doing so, foster the beginning of the end of the cold war.

Ping-Pong soon became a metaphor for the on-going difficult relations between the United States and China – two ideological opposites on the brink of detente. ‘Ping-Pong Diplomacy’ marked the beginning of a new relationship between the United States and the People’s Republic of China; one that over the next 40 years would evolve into the world’s most important bilateral alliance.

When China Met Africa

A historic gathering of over 50 African heads of state in Beijing reverberates in Zambia where the lives of three characters unfold. Mr Liu is one of thousands of Chinese entrepreneurs who have settled across the continent in search of new opportunities. He has just bought his fourth farm and business is booming.

In northern Zambia, Mr Li, a project manager for a multinational Chinese company is upgrading Zambia’s longest road. Pressure to complete the road on time intensifies when funds from the Zambian government start running out.

Meanwhile Zambia’s Trade Minister is on route to China to secure millions of dollars of investment.

Through the intimate portrayal of these characters, the expanding footprint of a rising global power is laid bare – pointing to a radically different future, not just for Africa, but also for the world.

Tibet: A Buddhist Trilogy

Four years in the making and hailed as a “masterpiece” on its theatrical release in 1979, Tibet: A Buddhist Trilogy takes you to the heart of an ancient Buddhist culture. Filmed in the Dalai Lama’s residence in Dharamasala, and captured on film with startling beauty, the trilogy begins by observing Tibetan monks engaged in furious metaphysical debate giving lie to the stereotype of the placid Buddhist. The film goes on to create an intimate portrait of the Dalai Lama’s everyday life, before he was known to the western world, in his dual role of political leader and spiritual teacher, from naming children to orating on the value of preserving Tibetan culture. In elegant cinematic style, the first part explores the ways in which inner knowledge of Tibetan Buddhist culture is developed in monasteries through vigorous debate and solitary meditation, and communicated to the masses.

With extraordinary authenticity Part II of the Trilogy journeys deep into the mystical inner world of monastic life. The film follows the lamas of the Phulwary Sakya Monastery through their contemplative retreats, the building of an intricate cosmogram, and the performance of an ancient protective ritual known as ‘A Beautiful Ornament’. Gracefully shot and with a subtitled commentary based on the teachings of the great 20th century master Dudjom Rinpoche, the essence of tantric Buddhism is powerfully revealed.

Set in the majestic mountain landscape of Ladakh, Part III is a meditation on impermanence and the relationship between the mind, body and environment. It follows the monks and farmers through a day, ending with an unflinching depiction of the monastery’s moving ritual response to a death in the community. As described in the “Tibetan Book of the Dead”, the departed is guided through the dream-like intermediate state between death and birth.

From a portrait of the Dalai Lama, as a spiritual and temporal leader, to the unprecedented revelation of the mystical inner world of monastic life and its rituals, Tibet: A Buddhist Trilogy brings you face to face with the unbroken continuity of Tibet’s ancient culture.