Downloads: Press Release
Armed with Laptops, Cellphones and Digital Cameras, a New Breed of Citizen Reporters Tells the News the Government Won’t
A Co-production of ITVS and the Center for Asian American Media
“It’s impossible not to feel connected with these guys and this movie.”
—Beth Carter, Wired
Watch High Tech, Low Life – Trailer on PBS. See more from POV.
As if China’s government hasn’t had enough trouble maintaining its control of information in the face of rapid economic growth and global integration, it now has to contend with the likes of “Tiger Temple” and “Zola.” These are the Internet pseudonyms of two bloggers who began in 2004 and 2007, respectively, to document and report all the bad news–crime, corruption, economic inequality–that the government doesn’t see fit to print or broadcast. High Tech, Low Life is the gripping story of how these two men, independently and for different reasons–and using common tools of the Internet age–turned themselves into one-man news stations while skirting government censorship and dodging arrest. They are models for what may be China’s most dangerous advocate of free speech: the citizen reporter.
Stephen Maing’s High Tech, Low Life has its national broadcast premiere on Monday, July 22, 2013 at 10 p.m. (check local listings), as part of the 26th season of the award-winning PBS series POV (Point of View). American television’s longest-running independent documentary series, POV was recently honored with a 25-year retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art and a MacArthur Foundation Award for Creative and Effective Institutions.
High Tech, Low Life is the cinematic journey of 57-year-old Zhang Shihe, aka Tiger Temple, a wandering writer and self-described romantic, who earned the title of China’s first citizen reporter after he impulsively documented an unfolding—and unreported—murder in his neighborhood, and of 26-year-old Zhou Shuguang, aka Zola, a vegetable seller with big dreams, who saw an opportunity for fame and fortune in reporting suppressed news throughout China. The film is also a fascinating snapshot of what happens when 20th-century power politics meet 21st-century communications technology.
Among the striking revelations of High Tech, Low Life is how openly ordinary citizens have taken to criticizing the government—and how hungry they are for factual, independent news. Zola and Tiger Temple show via the Internet the kind of scenes the government wants suppressed: poor people clinging to homes facing demolition by developers backed by government officials, the rape and murder of a young girl by an official’s relative, herdsmen deprived of their grazing lands for farms, homeless people living in holes called “dog houses” near Tiananmen Square, the degraded living conditions of migrant construction workers in Beijing.
In the face of such grassroots journalism, the government has deployed the so-called “Great Firewall,” its Internet censorship system. But Tiger Temple and Zola’s success in getting the news out, armed with nothing more sophisticated than laptops, cellphones and digital cameras—not to mention bicycles—seems to mock the system.
Zola got his start when a family in a neighboring province was resisting unlawful eviction by city developers. Curious, he closed his vegetable stand and went to see for himself. After posting reports on his blog, he was amazed to receive thousands of hits–and soon after, requests to report on alleged injustices elsewhere. This unexpected turn jumpstarted his ambition to achieve fame as a roving citizen reporter. In the face of fierce opposition from his parents, who wanted him to stick with the vegetable business, Zola began traveling the country, playing a cat—and—mouse game with government censors and security forces. The game goes on, Zola explains, because “nobody knows what principles govern the Great Firewall’s censorship.”
In Beijing, 1,200 miles and a generation away from Zola—and three years before Zola began his reporting—the older Tiger Temple was frustrated when his candid murder photographs were censored from China’s news reports. He posted them on his blog—and they weren’t immediately taken down because, he ventures, “blogs were still a new thing.” Emboldened and increasingly angered by the state media’s whitewashing of news and echoing of propaganda focused on maintaining social stability, he committed himself to reporting untold stories. He took to the roads on a bicycle equipped for digital recording and Internet uploads, a striking image of the old China joined with the new.
Like Zola, Tiger Temple has gained notoriety and receives many bids for his attention and, like Zola, he tries to work just short of provoking his own arrest. However, he is more rooted in a sense of history and contemporary politics than Zola is. When they meet at a bloggers’ conference, Zola tells the older man, “Some people are passionate about their country. Young people like me just want to have fun.” Tiger Temple admits his generation cares “about the country, about the world. . . . We’re addicted to political issues.”
Playing sometimes like a thriller, sometimes like a step through the digital looking glass, High Tech, Low Life recounts the inspired work of two Chinese citizen reporters who walk a risky line between social commentary and political dissidence. From very different perspectives, they must come to terms with the costs–and for Zola, the potential gains–of an emerging sense of individuality and social responsibility, enabled by widespread access to digital technology. With the explosion of social media use in political events around the world, their work challenges us to reconsider the value, meaning and future of journalism.
“The number of Internet users in China has more than doubled from 250 to over 513 million since we started this project in 2008, and online censorship continues to be one of the government’s most useful political tools,” says director Stephen Maing. “In the early years after the Great Firewall was installed,
I was intrigued by the stories of young Chinese ‘netizens’ who were circumventing the online barriers, what they call ‘leaping the GFW.’ I wanted to make a film about youth, activism and technology, but after getting to know Zola and Tiger Temple over the course of four years of filming, I realized their stories revealed a deeper narrative about a new China still trying to reconcile with its Maoist past.
“Since we completed the film in April 2012, advancements in online censorship include increased numbers of Internet police and engineers as well as Web monitors employed by privately owned Internet companies. As a new China hurtles towards a rapidly changing future, the government and online netizens continue to try to outsmart each other, and people like Zola and Tiger Temple are emerging as the forefathers of a brave new civil society.”
High Tech, Low Life is a co-production of Mud Horse Pictures, ITVS and American Documentary | POV in association with the Center for Asian American Media.
About the Filmmaker:
Stephen Maing, Director/Producer/Cinematographer/Editor
New York-based filmmaker Stephen Maing co-produced and edited the award-winning documentary Lioness, which premiered on PBS’ Independent Lens; produced and shot the short documentary The Hunted and the Hated; and directed the narrative film Little Hearts. He works as a director, cinematographer and editor and is an adjunct professor at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston.
Maing, whose parents emigrated to the United States from South Korea, was born in New York and grew up in Colonia, N.J. He graduated from Boston University with a double major in art history and film production. He is a fellow of the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program and a recipient of grants from the MacArthur Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts and ITVS. High Tech, Low Life is his first feature documentary as a director.
Credits:
Director: Stephen Maing
Producers: Stephen Maing, Trina Rodriguez
Cinematographer: Stephen Maing
Editors: Stephen Maing, Jonathan Oppenheim
Original Music: Brendon Anderegg, Brad Hyland, Kevin Micka
Running Time: 86:46
POV Series Credits:
Executive Producer: Simon Kilmurry
Co-Executive Producer: Cynthia López
Vice President, Programming and Production: Chris White
Coordinating Producer: Andrew Catauro
Awards and Festivals:
- Best Documentary Special Jury Prize, Independent Film Festival Boston, 2012
- Best Documentary Film, Little Rock Film Festival, 2012
- Best Cinematography, Woods Hole Film Festival, 2012
- Emerging International Filmmaker Award, Open City Docs Fest, 2012
- Sprit Award, EBS International Documentary Festival, 2012
- Official Selection, Tribeca Film Festival, 2012
- Opening Night Film, Lens Politica Film and Media Art Festival, 2012
- Official Selection, Hot Docs, 2012
- Official Selection, Sheffield Doc/Fest, 2012
- Official Selection, Movies that Matter Film Festival, 2013
- Official Selection, Docaviv International Film Festival, 2013
- Official Selection, One World International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival, 2013
For a complete list of awards and festivals, visit www.hightechlowlifefilm.com.
The Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to presenting stories that convey the richness and diversity of Asian American experiences to the broadest audience possible. We do this by funding, producing, distributing and exhibiting works in film, television and digital media. For more information, visit www.caamedia.org.
Produced by American Documentary, Inc. and beginning its 26th season on PBS in 2013, the award-winning POV is the longest-running showcase on American television to feature the work of today’s best independent documentary filmmakers. POV has brought more than 365 acclaimed documentaries to millions nationwide. POV films have won every major film and broadcasting award, including 32 Emmys, 15 George Foster Peabody Awards, 10 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards, three Academy Awards® and the Prix Italia. Since 1988, POV has pioneered the art of presentation and outreach using independent nonfiction media to build new communities in conversation about today’s most pressing social issues. Visit www.pbs.org/pov.
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POV’s Community Engagement and Education team works with educators, community organizations and PBS stations to present more than 600 free screenings every year. In addition, we distribute free discussion guides and standards-aligned lesson plans for each of our films. With our community partners, we inspire dialogue around the most important social issues of our time.
American Documentary, Inc. (www.amdoc.org)
American Documentary, Inc. (AmDoc) is a multimedia company dedicated to creating, identifying and presenting contemporary stories that express opinions and perspectives rarely featured in mainstream media outlets. AmDoc is a catalyst for public culture, developing collaborative strategic engagement activities around socially relevant content on television, online and in community settings. These activities are designed to trigger action, from dialogue and feedback to educational opportunities and community participation.
POV has the honor of receiving a 2013 MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions. Major funding for POV is provided by PBS, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, the desJardins/Blachman Fund and public television viewers. Funding for POV’s Diverse Voices Project is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Special support provided by The Fledgling Fund and the Lucius and Eva Eastman Fund. POV is presented by a consortium of public television stations, including KQED San Francisco, WGBH Boston and THIRTEEN in association with WNET.ORG.
