Hand of local officials behind
- Source: Global Times
- [01:30 January 13 2010]
- Comments
By Chen Chenchen
The shooting of a new version of the television series Water Margin (one of the four great Chinese classical novels) isn't finished yet. But the crew's "Pollutiongate" is no less drama.
The filming unit is revealed to have ruined the environment at the Yellow River wetland. When the sling cart rolled in, mechanical and human noises drove away migratory birds. Horses gnawed the bark of wild rose willows and clouds of black smoke was released to create war scenes.
Facing netizens' criticism, the serial director Ju Jueliang said, "We came to shoot with permission. The large crew has been here for so many days before being flayed for offensive action. Someone approved our being here, but no one enforced the law. Aren't the relevant departments, too, responsible?"
Ju has a point. Zhengzhou's Yellow River Wetland Management Center didn't call a meeting and eject the shooting until the damage was done. Meanwhile, the crew apologized and bought 108 saplings to be planted in the wetland in the name of the 108 heroes in the script. The crew insisted that they left on their own.
The drama uncovered the conflicting role of local officials. It is their job to enforce the law on environmental protection, but, for the sake of earn-ing revenue, they allowed commercial activity in the ecological district.
The Fujin Ecological Tourism Development Company, which runs the Yellow River Wetland Ecological Park, signed a contract with the TV crew and provided shooting space. On the question of evaluating and checking the crew's impact on the environment, the division of power and responsibility between local government and the contracting company is not clear.
There have been instances of ecological intrusion by TV and film crews in Shangri-La, Jiuzhaigou valley, Shennongjia forest and other protected areas. Local governments conveniently turn a blind eye to the goings-on. The splendiferous fairylands seen in TV plays are free advertisement for the scenic spots.
It's not hard to imagine swarms of tourists heading there after the films hit the screen. No one cares about the crude scaffoldings, dirty throwaway lunchboxes, ravaged flowers and leftover garbage there. Except that they are out of the camera shots.
The well-known scenic spots are lucky compared with the less-known areas that suffer from the trail of damage caused by film shooting. Cui Sheng of Friends of Nature, China's oldest environmental NGO, said that many places pander to shooting units in return for publicity.
Now, I wonder whether the exposure of pollution is part of a local "publicity-boosting" game played by officials in collusion with the film crew. Or, am I seeing things that aren't there?
