Salvaging Memories from the Ruins of the Three Gorges

Authors

Daisy Yan Du, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Date of this Version

2012

Document Type

Article

Citation

2012 Jan 24 in The China Beat http://www.thechinabeat.org/

Comments

Copyright 2012 Daisy Yan Du.

Abstract

The Three Gorges Dam is the largest hydro-electric power station in the world. The construction of the dam began in 1994 and was completed in 2009. Proponents bill it as a symbol of China’s rise on the global stage, while critics worldwide see it as a huge humanitarian crisis that has the potential to worsen in years to come. The biggest controversy of this project concerns the forced migration of around two million people, who, due to the rising water, have been displaced from their hometowns along the upper reaches of the Yangzi River in Chongqing and Sichuan and Hubei provinces. Many novels and films have found fertile topics for exploration in these ongoing drastic social-historical changes, large-scale population movements, and everyday narratives of displacements and loss of homelands.