Under The Dome (film)

''Under the Dome'' () is a 2015 self-financed Chinese documentary by Chai Jing, a former China Central Television journalist, concerning air pollution in China. It was viewed over 150 million times on Tencent within three days of its release and had been viewed a further 150 million times by the time it was taken offline four days later.

Chai Jing started making the documentary when her as yet unborn daughter developed a tumor in the womb, which had to be removed very soon after her birth. Chai blames China's air pollution for the tumor. The film, which combines footage of a lecture with interviews and factory visits, has been compared with Al Gore's ''An Inconvenient Truth'' in both its style and potential impact. The film openly criticizes state-owned energy companies, steel producers and coal factories, as well as showing the inability of the Ministry of Environmental Protection to act against the big polluters.

Despite demonstrating the failure of China's regulations on pollution, the Chinese government at first did not censor the film. Instead, the ''People's Daily'' reposted the film alongside an interview with Chai, while Chen Jining, the recently appointed minister for environmental protection, praised the film, expressing in a text message his gratitude. However, within a week, the Communist Party’s publicity department confidentially ordered the film to be removed. An employee of China Business News was suspended for leaking the order.

Synopsis

The documentary is narrated by Chai, who presents the results of her year-long research mostly in the form of a lecture, reminiscent of Al Gore's ''An Inconvenient Truth''. The Great Smog of 1952 in London served as historical evidence Chai in creating her film. She reveals footage and data from factory visits and interviews with government officials, environmental experts and business owners. She also speaks with officials from London and Los Angeles on how their respective cities have managed to deal with historic issues of pollution. She says she has a personal grudge against smog, and sets out to answer three questions: What is smog? Where does it come from? And what can we do about it? For the rest of this 104 min-long ‘Ted Talk-style’ film, she answers these questions, using animations, charts, interviews, historical clips, and site visits.

Within the documentary, Chai features two child figures, one being her baby daughter in Beijing, and the other a six-year-old in Shanxi, both victims of air pollution. Chai begins with the story of her daughter's tumor ''in utero'' and its removal shortly after her birth. Chai claims the tumor was caused by air pollution. She must keep her daughter inside "like a prisoner" on days where the air quality is particularly bad, which Chai's measurements indicated were about half of the days in 2014. In her interview with the six-year-old, Chai asks, "Have you ever seen a real star?" The child responds, "No." “What about blue sky?” Chai asks. The girl says, “I’ve seen one that’s a little blue." “What about white clouds?” Chai asks. “No, I haven’t,” the child replies.

The film shows that China is losing its "war on pollution,” which was officially launched by Premier Li Keqiang on March 5, 2014. She advocates cleaning up dirty energy in China to current US standards, by washing coal, using better quality oil, installing filters, and other clean-up technology. She advocates replacing coal, the dirtiest energy source, with natural gas and oil. The targets of her film include state-owned oil companies such as China National Petroleum Corporation, which has also been the subject of the government's anti-corruption crackdown. Chai also critics PetroChina and Sinopec. These companies set their own production standards and the Ministry of Environmental Protection is largely powerless to respond. Steel producers and coal plants also ignore regulations to maximize profits. Chai visits a steel producer in Hebei province with a government inspector to measure levels of pollutants. Months later, it has yet to pay its fines but a provincial official tells her that it is not possible to shut down such factories and sacrifice employment for the sake of the environment.

Towards the end of the film, Chai urges individuals to take responsibility. She convinces a restaurant to use more environmentally sound equipment. She says: "This is how history is made. With thousands of ordinary people one day saying, 'No, I'm not satisfied, I don't want to wait. I want to stand up and do a little something.'"

Release and ban

Release

''Under the Dome'' was released online February 28, 2015, on the Saturday preceding the meetings of the National People's Congress and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. The documentary was initially streamed on three major internet platforms, including Tencent, Youku, and the People's Daily Online, which is the online version of the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party. The documentary was viewed more than 147 million times on Tencent on the evening of March 2 and received abundant discussion online. Many mainstream online platforms including Sohu, NetEase, and Sina, also posted reviews about the documentary soon after its release. Traditional newspapers, however, did not respond to the documentary, with the Beijing Youth Daily posted a review of the documentary 'Chai Jing: My Personal Battle with Smog' as its headline on March 1, 2015, being the only exception.

Ban

After the initial surge in viewers for the documentary, the Chinese government blocked access to the online video. By the end of March 1, 2015, all reports and reviews about the documentary ''Under the Dome'' were withdrawn from online websites including the People’s Daily Online and other mainstream platforms. The documentary was banned on March 7, 2015, in mainland China, by the Publicity Department of the Chinese Communist Party. The reason of banning was said to be the pressure of public perception of smog and the fear of collective action of the people. The advocation for grassroots movements from everyday people, as witnessed at the end of the film, instead of obeying the top-down hierarchical system in place in China was probably another factor that contributed to the ban. The documentary featured blatant environmental violations by factories and frank speech by authoritative figures, reasoning that punishments would likely do more harm by hurting the economy and people's livelihoods.

Removal and censorship of ''Under the Dome'' from various websites caused a stir and prompted discussion among netizens across Chinese social media platforms. On Weibo, the topic reached 330 million views and over 740,000 comments. Upon release of ''Under the Dome'', Chai Jing had access to official web-channels and the online network. Early support shown by officials and access to official online platforms prompted speculation over government environmental policy and interest. However, the fact that the film was first lauded by the Communist Party official, but then subsequently banned, illustrates the internal debate within the Chinese government over tackling the country’s dire pollution problems. The banning of the film in China evoked considerable criticism from within as Zhan Jiang, a professor of journalism and media studies in Beijing, declared that the documentary had “been spirited away by gremlins.” The contradictory actions of the government on ''Under the Dome''—from supportive to against—implies that social media and censorship under China’s current conditions appear paradoxical and competitive in a political fashion.

Impact

According to the BBC
...