Tag: liu bai

Home at all costs

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(October 30, 2013) In April 2012, Liu Bai, a retired journalist dedicated to exposing the plight of Three Gorges Dam migrants and the project’s resettlement legacy of shattered lives, set out to discover what had happened to the first group of migrants who were moved from their homes in the ancient town of Dachang, in Wushan County, Chongqing Municipality, and resettled elsewhere around 11 years ago to make way for the world’s largest dam. What Liu Bai did not expect to find at the other end was that the resettlement of these migrants had not stuck! The majority of this first group of migrants had in fact returned home.

Dammed and betrayed

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(October 3, 2012) Wang Like is a Three Gorges Dam migrant who moved thinking it was his duty and honour to do so. Wang and his family, along with so many others, gave up everything for the construction of China’s concrete colossus – an edifice that would later be described as equal parts vanity project and technological marvel – in the belief that it was for a greater good. But on arrival in their new resettlement area, Wang’s family experienced what has become standard for countless Three Gorges Dam migrants: a welcome of open hostility, corruption of resettlement funds, broken promises and incomprehensible ill-treatment – as though he and his fellow migrants were being punished for their sacrifice. Wang’s story is rendered in powerful detail here, in a letter he wrote to a sympathetic journalist, in the hopes his voice would be heard.

Absence of Justice

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(January 1, 2010) First in a series of oral histories, banned and famed Chinese environmentalist and journalist Dai Qing organized a team of journalists to record a remarkable collection of oral histories from the riverside towns and villages affected by the Three Gorges dam on China’s Yangtze River. “On November 18, 2002, the government of Dachang Zhen (Great Prosperity Town) in Wushan County, Yangtze River, sent the following dispatch about the wharf and the house belonging to Lu Chengming, who was to be relocated:…”

Bright Sun City’s Dark Intent

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(January 1, 2010) The third in a series of oral histories from China’s Three Gorges region. Banned and famed Chinese environmentalist and journalist Dai Qing has organized a team of journalists to record a remarkable collection of oral histories from the riverside towns and villages affected by the Three Gorges dam on China’s Yangtze River.

The Wushan Governor’s Murder

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(January 1, 2010) Second in a series of the Three Gorges oral histories from the riverside towns and villages affected by the Three Gorges dam on China’s Yangtze. River. — A county governor accused of spending thousands ear-marked for Three Gorges resettlement on lavish feasts and women is murdered in cold blood. …

The Yangtze River Tow Men

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(January 1, 2010) “The Yangtze River Tow Men” is the fifth in a series of oral histories from China’s Three Gorges region. — “When I was 10, I followed my dad into life on the boats. When I worked the boats then, we used to see a lot of cedar boats, really huge ones. It was only later that a few little steam ships appeared on the river. Older people used to say, “You can become a scholar after 10 years of study, but it’s nearly impossible to become a river man.” I remembered this my whole life—to try and be a true river man.”

THREE GORGES ORAL HISTORY SERIES: Bright Sun City’s Dark Intent

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Trusting Three Gorges migrants are lured to Bright Sun City by the promise of prime land, new housing and government support, only to be cheated out of their resettlement compensation by corrupt officials. Frustrated, the migrants protest their treatment, but are branded troublemakers, harassed and thrown in jail.

Chinese journalist Dai Qing and Three Gorges Probe proudly present "Bright Sun City’s Dark Intent" by Liu Bai, the third in a series of oral histories brought to you from the Three Gorges region.

Absence of Justice

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On November 18, 2002, the government of Dachang Zhen (Great Prosperity Town) in Wushan County, Yangtze River, sent the following dispatch about the wharf and the house belonging to Lu Chengming, who was to be relocated:

In order to accomplish the task of properly resettling those who are being relocated from our village, and to ensure the total success of the clearance from the dam area, a number of county, town and village cadres have repeatedly been to Lu Chengming’s home in Xingsheng Cun (Abundant Village) to persuade him to see reason, but comrade Lu Chengming still refuses to be resettled…

The Wushan Governor’s Murder

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On the evening of September 22, 1998, the Governor of Wushan County, Cai Jun, was shot and killed in his own home in an attack by an assailant carrying a gun. His wife and their baby weren’t injured, and nothing was taken.

Cai Jun was of indeterminate age and from Chongqing’s Kaixian County. His educational background and employment career were also relatively unknown to the people of Wushan…