Insight from Green Anhui’s Zhou Xiang

Cross-cultural collisions are often part of international grantmaking, but this particular collision could only happen in Hollywood: alongside blockbuster films, famous movie stars, and million dollar special effects, this year’s Academy Awards are also bringing recognition to the work of a longtime Greengrants grantee, a Chinese grassroots environmental organization called Green Anhui.

Green Anhui is prominently featured in a film nominated for this year’s “Best Documentary Short.”  The film, The Warriors of Qiugang, follows the long struggle of a group of Chinese villagers against pollution from nearby factories. It’s drawn positive reviews, and with this award nomination, it’s brought international attention to China’s growing environmental movement.

You can watch the film here.

Green Anhui and Qiugang

Green Anhui began its activism in Qiugang, a small village of 1900 residents in the heart of China’s industrial center, in 2004. The group was compelled to act when the construction of three chemical factories began. By the time they were completed in 2006, the factories were directly polluting more than 10 ponds and the paddies of several hundred small farmers.

“The village was surrounded by a kind of strange smell; the rivers had become stale for a long time. This kind of condition not only caused the fish and shrimp to vanish and crops to underproduce, it also became damaging the local villagers’ health,” said Green Anhui’s director, Zhou Xiang. “The biggest victims were the children.” Students in local elementary schools “experienced dizziness, stomach problems, and other symptoms; in order to avoid air pollution, students were taught to cover their noses at school.”

A Time for Action

Green Anhui helped villagers transform their scattered opposition to the factories into a movement.  While The Warriors of Qiugang shows many of Green Anhui’s activities, the reality proves to be even more labor intensive. According to Zhou, Green Anhui organized volunteers to survey pollution and health and to catalogue information on pollution victims. The organization then provided environmental education, reached out to local and international media, organized local assemblies, and used legal means to help the victims of pollution. The force that Green Anhui was able to generate was ultimately successful: by 2010, the factories were forced to move out of the village.

Looking Towards the Future

Zhou Xiang is one of a growing number of environmental activists in China. Influenced by the environmental issues in his hometown in a coal mining region of Anhui province, Zhou began participating in activism in his college years. For Zhou, “the most serious environmental problems in China are water pollution, climate change, waste management, and food health.”

Zhou hopes that the The Warriors of Qiugang’s Oscar nomination will attract international attention to environmental movements in China. The movie ends with the citizens’ success—the factories close—but there’s still more work to be done; whether they will get compensation for their land and health remains to be seen.  Across China, there’s enormous need for more activism. According to Zhou, “China has had great developments in its economy, but environmental problems are becoming more and more serious. There are many poor and polluted areas. Chinese civil organizations are still in start-up periods and need more support.”

a small village of 1900 residents in the heart of China’s industrial center