Film Screening:

Beijing Taxi
(Miao Wang, 2010, 78 min, USA, Mandarin with English subtitles, Color, DVD)

Q&A with Director Miao in person to follow!

Beijing Taxi is a feature-length documentary that vividly portrays the ancient capital of China undergoing a profound transformation. The intimate lives of three taxi drivers are seen through a humanistic lens as they navigate a quickly morphing city, confronting modern issues and changing values. The three protagonists radiate a warm sense of humanity despite the struggles that each faces in adapting to new realities of life in the modern city. With stunning imagery of Beijing and a contemporary score rich in atmosphere, Beijing Taxi communicates a visceral sense of the common citizens' persistent attempts to grasp the elusive and to reconcile enormous contradictions of adjusting to a new capitalist system that can seem foreign to some in the Communist-ruled and educated society.

Cost: Free and open to the public.

Sponsors: , Asian Pacific Studies Institute (APSI) and Asian & Middle Eastern Studies (AMES)