Student Work
1∕4
Title
Stories of the Three Gorges Dam, 1919-2006
Project Description
This term paper is developed into two parallel chapters. In the first chapter, “Make the Mountain Bow, Make the River Yield” and Other Chinese Myths, Weng discusses the decision making process of the Three Gorges Dam, from 1919 until 1993. In particular, this chapter examines how the traditional Chinese myths were deliberately reread and reinterpreted to serve the political persuasion of the project; and how the myths were used to justify the displacement and environmental disturbance that happened during the period of construction. The second chapter, Official Narratives and Unorthodox Activism of the Three Gorges Dam, shifts the time frame to 1993 until 2006, the dam construction and the displacement period. In this Chapter, Felker on one hand discusses the official narratives attached to the displacement and environmental disturbance; On the other hand, examines the unorthodox activism through the remnants of stories from the other side told by artists through their work. In the analysis of these artworks, Felker exhibits how the mythical metaphors of water overarch in between the official narrative and the unorthodox activism. The metaphors are not only used to create the fictions for the authority to lubricate the Three Gorges Project, but also used by the artists to express the uncoated reality.