The World of the Chinese
China is playing an increasingly important role worldwide. Under President Xi Jinping, substantial investments are being made in communication and cooperation and industrious Chinese people are settling abroad in large numbers. Documentary maker and China expert Ruben Terlou visits them in the new VPRO travel series ‘The World of the Chinese’. Who are they, what do they want to achieve and what impact does their presence have on the local population?
Overview
China is playing an increasingly important role worldwide. Under President Xi Jinping, substantial investments are being made in communication and cooperation and industrious Chinese people are settling abroad in large numbers. Documentary maker and China expert Ruben Terlou visits them in the new VPRO travel series ‘The World of the Chinese’. Who are they, what do they want to achieve and what impact does their presence have on the local population?
Episodes
1. Kenya
Ruben Terlou sees Kenyans expressing their love for the Chinese motherland through song in fluent Chinese, but discovers that the arrival of the Chinese and their investments also lead to conflict. The rise of China in Africa is great. The New Silk Road of China comes to fruition on the east coast of Kenya. Ruben travels in a Chinese train with a Chinese driver on train tracks that are built by Chinese, through safari parks, to Nairobi. Masai talk about a violent escalation, in which a Chinese died. A Chinese pancake baker discovers that pancakes yield little profit and takes up gambling in the local Chinese casino.
2. Cambodia
On the coast of Cambodia, in only a few years a sleeping backpacker village has been transformed into a gigantic city with casinos, hotels and nightclubs. Sihanoukville is built and populated by Chinese citizens and Chinese investors and fortune seekers flood the city. Cambodians are in the minority, unable to compete and no longer recognize their own city through all the Chinese billboards that are being put up. Ruben Terlou drinks $6,000 cognac with the boss of a nightclub, gets to know a Chinese dancer and meets a Cambodian worker who has lost friends and family after a Chinese construction project had collapsed.
3. Madagascar
Chinese companies enjoy doing business in the exotic, remote Madagascar. There is a lot to be gained, because the country is rich in natural resources. And because the population is poor, labor is cheap. Ruben Terlou goes diving with local fishermen and talks with the crew of a Chinese fishing fleet that has just been chained down by Madagascar's new president. Inland, Ruben sees entire families working on Chinese cotton plantations under a scorching sun. And he meets a Chinese cotton boss, whose investment went horribly wrong.
Cast & Crew
Ruben Terlou
Presenter
