A new face for Beijing

Migration Thousands of Chinese have poured in from the countryside looking for work. What kind of life are they living? Are they riding high on China's Olympic boom?

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Les commentaires

Justin Renard
july 23, 2020
It's interesting to hear the taxi driver speak about how 'some buildings must come down, while others can stay up' It's as though there is an acceptance among people that change is inevitable and that some of the past needs to be eradicated, perhaps forever...

Mark
july 22, 2020
So they are actually living in the parking lot!? How does that work? I can't begin to comprehend how something like this passes and its OK for everybody. I mean having a pair of elderly people guarding bikes in a parking lot is no type of life.

Cedric Sam
july 21, 2020
Congratulations Tiffany and Jennifer. I'm a Chinese Canadian, born and raised in Montreal. I was very thrilled to hear about your project in the first place. I also visited China in April and May of this year (and two weeks in Beijing), and met many other Chinese Canadians (born or raised in Canada) who are now living in China, either to study Chinese, or work, despite not knowing, or just knowing very little Chinese (of any given dialect). I interviewed some of them for my blog "Comme les Chinois", and many gave me strangely similar answers (to my strangely similar questions...), such as that they are always happy to "pass under the radar", as Chinese-looking people, but as soon as they open their mouth, it's as if they've lost their cloak of invisibility. Bravo, and we hope to see more material from you soon!

Fernando Chu
july 18, 2020
It is just getting better and better!!! Well, well done!

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Tiffany Hsiung

�Film has the ability to break ignorance, prejudice and provide people with hope and confidence within themselves. I am in love with the empty and disgusted with the full, and will always seek an empty glass to fill.�

To expose, educate and promote societal change has been the driving message behind Tiffany Hsiung�s work and inspiration behind her award winning short film �Binding-Borders�. A graduate of Ryerson University�s film production program in June 2007, Hsiung�s work has earned her numerous film awards including the Best Toronto Focus Film Award, People�s Choice Award at the Cabbage Town Film Festival and the Grand Jury prize for R.C.I �Digital Diversity�. She gained recognition after awarded the William F. Whites Equipment Grant Award, as well as the Kodak Film Grant for her short film and the 2007 Norman Jewison Film Production award. At 24 years old, Tiffany has worked closely with accomplished directors such as Academy award nominee Deepa Mehta and music video director Christopher Mills.

Her next project to complete is a documentary that pieces together the broken fragments of her mother�s childhood. Hsiung�s mother was sold at the age of 6 by her own father, and had not seen her birth parents in over 37 years. Nor did she know the truth behind her mysterious past. Tiffany was determined to do just that, find out the truth. Her journey is documented in the feature film, Sing Me a Lullaby. It is currently in post-production.

Jennifer Hsiung

I came to Beijing, China on July 12, 2020 to pursue my dream of a career in broadcasting. I once wrote a mission statement. I promised myself to be on TV before the age of 25. Well the promise came early � 366 days early, to be exact. Just one day before my 24th birthday, I anchored my first live sports show on CCTV International.

When I was a little girl I wanted to be Connie Chung because she was the only famous Chinese person next to Bruce Lee and Michael Chang. And since I wasn�t a dude, I thought that she would be a fitting role model. I went into journalism after high school because I sucked at math and didn�t want to end up with a general BA and work at Indigo for the rest of my good years. In June 2005, I graduated with Honours from Ryerson University's School of Journalism and won a bunch of journalism awards � mostly because my grades were high.

My first on air job came 3 months after graduating. I worked as an overnight traffic reporter for 680News. The hours sucked but the experience was invaluable (Thank you Scott Metcalfe for giving this lost girl a chance). I'm an extremist who yearns for balance; a perfectionist who is all too familiar with fixing things that aren�t broken to begin with.

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