MCLC: Tiger Temple

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: Tiger Temple
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Go to the link below to view the video "op-doc" itself.

Kirk

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Source: NYT (5/14/13):
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/15/opinion/a-long-ride-toward-a-new-china.ht
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OP-DOCS
‘A Long Ride Toward a New China’
By STEPHEN MAING

Every summer, the 59-year-old Chinese blogger Zhang Shihe rides his
bicycle thousands of miles to the plateaus, deserts and hinterlands of
North Central China. In this Op-Doc video, we meet Mr. Zhang, known to his
many followers online as “Tiger Temple,” as he goes to great lengths to
document the stories of struggling rural villagers whose voices are seldom
heard in China’s state-monitored media.

In a country with one of the most sophisticated media and Internet
censorship systems, Mr. Zhang and other bloggers must exercise great
caution when writing about politically sensitive content — often skirting
the label “citizen reporter.” But as Mr. Zhang told me during filming: “If
they want to get you, they can find a way. Not even a wise man can be wise
all the time.”

In 2010, he was taken by the police and put under house arrest for 10
days, during the country’s annual parliamentary meetings. News spread
quickly. That day he received more than 2,000 text messages — good wishes
poured in from concerned friends and readers who supported his efforts to
help flooded villagers, defrauded farmers and the Beijing homeless. On
this day, he said, he “felt the true power of the Internet.”

In 2012, Mr. Zhang was forced by the police to pack up his Beijing
apartment and leave the city indefinitely. He now lives and blogs in the
city of Xi’an with his elderly mother. As the summer months near, he
prepares to set off on his seventh year of grueling bicycle trips deep
into the countryside to continue his reporting.

When I asked Mr. Zhang why he continued his work, despite the persistent
risks and challenges, he replied: “My blog is about hope. Having hope one
story at a time.”

Stephen Maing is a filmmaker based in New York City. This Op-Doc expands
on themes explored in his recent feature-length documentary “High Tech,
Low Life <http://hightechlowlifefilm.com/>,” which made its debut at the
2012 Tribeca Film Festival and will have its television premiere this
summer on the PBS series “POV <http://www.pbs.org/pov/hightechlowlife/>.”