Along the Banks of the Yangtze — Season 1, Episode 1: The Chinese Dream
Documentary • 44 min • 1 season, 6 episodes • ★ 8.2/10
Episode synopsis
Over the past few years, Shanghai has been inundated with immigrants. The world's largest port city has nearly 10 million newcomers, all seeking to live their dream of being financially successful in this city. Ruben meets some of these dreamers and newcomers and explores the key success factors of Shanghai. For example, a woman can't have too high cheekbones, for that means bad luck. And young migrants really have to get used to the fact that there are no parents to clean up after them as they were used to in the country. But if China's President Xi Jinping has anything to say about it, everything will have to give way to the Chinese Dream - for successful individuals make a successful nation.
About Along the Banks of the Yangtze
A six-part series in which photographer Ruben Terlou travels from Shanghai, the most westernized part of China, to the much more traditional Tibetan city of Shangri-La. Through the stories of people he meets along the 6,300-kilometre river, Ruben discovers the real China, forty years after Mao’s death.