| Publicity: | Eighteen year old Lhamo hasn’t seen much of the world. She’s barely been beyond her village, in a remote part of Yunnan Province up near the border with Tibet. She’s never played a computer game or seen a freeway or eaten in a fast food restaurant or done any of the things most modern teenagers take for granted. Her favourite food is potatoes, because she knows little else. |
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| That’s all about to change, thanks to the impending impact of China’s exploding economic development and to Ben Hillman, a Tibet specialist who has set up a training institute in a place recently renamed Shangri-La. Hillman is aiming to help young ethnic Tibetans like Lhamo make the most of new opportunities. Until now there hasn’t been much on offer beyond a subsistence life in remote villages and small farms. Now Lhamo and her generation are being offered the opportunity to develop the skills they need to get work. |
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| ‘Tibetans throughout the plateau, will continue to live in many ways the same way that they’ve lived for hundreds of years, but it’s not going to be possible for all Tibetans to prosper, to thrive while pursuing those same practices.’ Ben Hillman, Eastern Tibet Training Institute |
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| China correspondent Stephen McDonell travels with Ben Hillman as he travels through the stunning Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, where south-west Yunnan borders Sichuan and Tibet. It’s wild, rugged and beautiful, and peopled by ethnic Tibetans who’ve been living along the same routine for centuries. |
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| Hillman is looking for recruits for his project, a school that helps locals learn the skills they need to get jobs in the booming tourism industry. After some family reluctance, he convinces Lhamo and her 16 year old cousin Droma to take the mini bus to the nearest town, where they’ll live in a dormitory and begin lessons in computers, English, and customer service. |
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| The town has been renamed Shangri-La in an attempt to attract more visitors, and it’s working. There’s a huge growth in infrastructure but most of the new jobs are going to Han Chinese who are coming from elsewhere and already have the skills and know-how. Hillman wants to get ethnic Tibetans educated so that they, too, can take advantage of the changes. |
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| Foreign Correspondent accompanies Yongzong - a successful graduate - back to her village. For the first time in her life she has money in her pocket earned from a job making beds in a prestigious new hotel. Yongzong is putting her younger brother through high school, and paying to renovate her widowed mother’s rundown cottage. It may not sound like much, but for this poor family, it means the world. |
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| Clouds | Music | 00:00 |
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| MCDONELL: In South Western China they pay an economic price for living in the clouds. | 00:04 |
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| Music | 00:10 |
| Tibetans crossing river | MCDONELL: While the East of the country has been booming, most Tibetans are still waiting to get a slice of the financial miracle. | 00:19 |
| Village | There are problems of distance, altitude, ethnic tension and what some say is a life under Chinese occupation – but even here change is coming. BEN HILLMAN: “There is tremendous diversity | 00:31 |
| Ben Hillman | among Tibetan areas. Tibetans themselves from different regions speak different dialects, have different economic and cultural practices”. | 00:46 |
| Clouds/Tibetan landscapes | Music | 00:55 |
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| MCDONELL: The massive area where Tibetans are is much wider than the official Tibetan Autonomous Region. Greater Tibet spills over into four other provinces, taking up roughly a quarter of China’s land mass. | 01:00 |
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| Music | 01:14 |
| Driving to Tibetan Yunnan | MCDONELL: Much of the region has a government ban on foreign reporters, but we drive up into the wild reaches of Tibetan Yunnan, which doesn’t have the same restrictions as elsewhere. | 01:26 |
| Hillman with McDonell in car | We’re with Australian lecturer Ben Hillman, a Tibet specialist who’s become part of the fabric here. | 01:40 |
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| MCDONELL: “So would you describe this as an economically depressed area?” | 01:47 |
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| BEN HILLMAN: “Well there are pockets of prosperity, particularly along the main highways and along the river that we’re passing now, but once you go back up into the mountains, you find people are doing it pretty tough”. | 01:52 |
| Driving past waterfall | MCDONELL: Ben Hillman is running a unique experiment which sprang from his original academic research. It’s a program designed to catapult Tibetans out of poverty. | 02:05 |
| Driving alongside river | In search of recruits, he and his team head out to places set apart from the modern world. | 02:16 |
| Hillman with McDonell in car | BEN HILLMAN: “It’s about giving young people in these remote parts an opportunity, because the skills that have served them in the past are not going to serve them in the future”. | 02:25 |
| Arriving in Bazhu. McDonell greets Lhamo and family | MCDONELL: We arrive in Bazhu and get a warm reception. Family and friends have turned out to see why we want to speak to 18-year-old Lhamo. | 02:37 |
| Pig weighing sequence | At the moment Lhamo’s existence is that of a pretty standard mountain village farmer but she’ll soon leave all this behind if the visitors are successful. | 02:56 |
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| A life of weighing pigs for market will be replaced by computers, English and interaction with outsiders. Her family is sure of certain things – that these two pigs weight 24 kilos and that they can be sold for around $30 each. But as for letting their daughter go off to live in town for an unknown benefit, well that’s another matter. | 03:09 |
| Lhamo’s father with Ben | LHAMO’S FATHER: “In this area if you are from a poor family, people will bully you. People will look down on you”. | 03:38 |
| Ben around table with family | MCDONELL: Ben Hillman tells the family about his Eastern Tibet Training Institute or ETTI. That it offers free job specific training for young Tibetans and that after just four months studying, most students get jobs. But Lhamo’s father is not totally convinced. | 03:47 |
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| LHAMO’S FATHER: “I told the village chief that my daughter might go and study at ETTI. He said it’s a rubbish school and that I shouldn’t let her go”. | 04:08 |
| McDonell with Lhamo | MCDONELL: Lhamo has hardly left this valley in her life and she’s painfully shy. “Tell me, how is life here? | 04:18 |
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| Do you like living here?” LHAMO: “I like it”. MCDONELL: “Why?” LHAMO: “Because the scenery is beautiful… MCDONELL: “Really?” LHAMO: “Yes… and the food is great here”. MCDONELL: “What food do you like?” LHAMO: “I like potatoes most”. | 04:26 |
| Droma walks with father and greets Ben | MCDONELL: Lhamo’s 16-year-old cousin Droma walks for two hours with her father to meet the foreigner offering training. In a world of sophisticated integrated global economies, she’s only completed primary school. Her family’s combined annual income is $760. She’s almost certainly going to sign up for the school. | 04:48 |
| McDonell with Droma | “Your whole life has been here – | 05:17 |
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| now you may need to go far away, aren’t you worried? DROMA: “I am worried”. MCDONELL: “You are worried?” DROMA: “Yes… worried”. MCDONELL: “Why is that?” DROMA: “Because I don’t know what it’s like down there”. | 05:21 |
| Cloudy, misty landscapes | Music | 05:41 |
| Mushroom picking in forest | MCDONELL: The farmers who live around Bazhu pick mushrooms for the Japanese market to supplement their meagre incomes, but having barely any cash doesn’t mean they go hungry. It’s a fertile place and living off the land they seem to have plenty to eat. Yet Lhamo’s dad wants something more for his daughter so he’s agreed to let her go and study. She may never live in this village again. | 05:50 |
| McDonell with Lhamo’s father | “Are you going to miss her?” LHAMO’S DAD: “Yes”. | 06:21 |
| Night-time fire, and dinner sequence |
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| MCDONELL: The communal existence up here has been like this for an eternity and on the night before they leave, the two young women get one last taste of familiarity amongst the people they know and love. From tomorrow their lives will take another course. | 06:31 |
| Sunrise |
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| Lhamo and Droma carry bedding and belongings to bus stop | Morning comes and they head down the mountain to reach the nearest road. Lhamo and Droma carry their bedding and just a few personal belongings. They’ve been doing walks like this ever since they can remember. It’s not uncommon to hike for half a day just to go to the shops. The women arrive at what must be one of the coolest bus stops on the planet. There are no timetables, you just stay here until the next mini van comes along. | 07:02 |
| Lhamo and Droma wait for bus | LHAMO: “We’re waiting… waiting”. DROMA: “I am dying”. LHAMO: “It’s hot. The sun’s hurting my eyes”. | 07:46 |
| Minibus arrives. Lhamo and Droma board bus | MCDONELL: Finally a mini bus stops. It’s the last chance to turn back. Without hesitation, they get on board. The place that awaits them was once a backwater, but it’s now going through something of its own boom. | 07:54 |
| ‘Shangri-la’ | Music | 08:15 |
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| MCDONELL: The Tibetan area in Yunnan Province is called Diqing and this is its capital. The town of one hundred and fifty thousand used to be called Zhongdian but in a blatant attempt to attract tourists, it’s been given a name change. | 08:23 |
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| Music | 08:48 |
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| MCDONELL: “For Chinese people this is a mysterious and romantic place | 08:55 |
| McDonell to camera | so it didn’t seem even the slightest bit over the top when it was officially renamed Shangri-la. After all the area is supposed to represent legendary utopian ideals bound up in a remote and mystical mountain lifestyle and tourists hoping to taste just a little bit of this, are arriving here by the busload”. | 09:00 |
| Tourists in Diqing |
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| With new roads, an airport and trains coming soon, Diqing is attracting people like never before. BEN HILLMAN: “Say the mid ‘90s where there would have been visitors from numbers of arrivals in the tens of thousands, now in 2011 we’re talking about millions. | 09:27 |
| McDonell and Ben walk through old town | Some of the buildings would go back at least one hundred years”. MCDONELL: Ben Hillman first came to this area | 09:46 |
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| in 1999. He fell in love with the place and ended up doing his PhD on development policy in Western China. He says it’s probably tourism that’s saved the old part of town from demolition, with traditional houses being renovated to become cafes, bars and small hotels. | 09:52 |
| Ben. Super: | BEN HILLMAN: “The hotels, the travel agencies, that have mushroomed over the last few years require people with skills, but the problem is that local people don’t have the skills that these new businesses need”. | 10:19 |
| ETTI classroom | MCDONELL: So this is where his school comes in. Employers had been bringing in Han Chinese workers from outside to fill the many job vacancies. Ben Hillman said he realised that young Tibetans could land these jobs instead if they could only get some specific training. So he set up his institute which now gets funding from the US Government and other international donors. | 10:32 |
| Droma and Lhamo at ETTI | Droma and Lhamo have arrived for their first day in class and utter their first words in English. It’s not going to be an easy road. | 11:07 |
| ETTI computer class | When computer class starts, many of the students are using one for the first time. Their fingers touch a keyboard as if it were an alien, but in these devices, they can see a better future. QILING PEIZU: “If it’s possible, I want to be a tour guide | 11:22 |
| Qiling | otherwise I’ll find a job in a hotel”. MCDONELL: “What sort of hotel job?” QILING PEIZU: “Well, like a… waiter or at the front desk – that kind of thing”. | 11:44 |
| Qiling in computer class | MCDONELL: 17 year old Qiling Peizu lives not too far from the town. If he wasn’t studying right now he’d be working with his family in the fields, where he was just days ago. | 12:03 |
| Villagers in barley fields |
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| This time of year is barley cutting season. It’s not for sale but is used by the villagers to survive the approaching winter. | 12:26 |
| Qiling with McDonell in barley field | QILING PEIZU: “It’ll last until next March or April – then we’ll plant some more”. | 12:36 |
| Barley harvest | MCDONELL: Harvesting is a battle against time and the elements. After they cut it, they must hang the barley quickly to dry. If they cut too quickly, the barley won’t be ready and the grain won’t fall out. If they don’t get it up to dry before the rain comes, it will rot and be useless. While one batch is being hung, another is being cut. Qiling Peizu has seen his parents’ hard life and this is his chance to escape. “After your training, if you get a job, | 12:49 |
| Qiling with McDonell in barley field | what will you do with the money?” QILING PEIZU: “I’ll use it to support my family. Then if I have enough, I’ll spend some on myself”. | 13:23 |
| Toilet building | MCDONELL: There are now many more potential students than there are places at the institute so they give priority to those from the most disadvantaged backgrounds. And it’s not only the service industry they’re being trained for. Of all the projects the school’s been involved with, | 13:43 |
| McDonell to camera | for many this would have to be the most impressive. On the outskirts of Shangrila, overlooking Napa Lake, they’re building a dunny with a view. | 14:07 |
| Mark at building site | We meet Mark Singleton, an electrician from the south coast of New South Wales. He’s a volunteer teaching green energy and construction. | 14:21 |
| McDonell with Mark. Super: | MARK SINGLETON: “It’s a composting toilet so basically using aerobic function where the composting material, the human manure as we call it, is composted down using aerobic bacteria”. | 14:34 |
| Girl with drill | MCDONELL: Most of these kids couldn’t see the point in finishing high school. He’s hoping he can help them find work in the construction industry, currently dominated by Han Chinese workers. MARK SINGLETON: “If someone can just have you on a work site for a few days, | 14:50 |
| McDonell with Mark | they can see that, you know, a little bit about how to use drills, how to use power tools, how to work in a work site, then you’ll just have that advantage over any other kind of applicant for that job”. | 15:07 |
| Moon in night sky |
| 15:19 |
| Droma and Lhamo in girls’ dormitory | MCDONELL: Night falls and at the girls’ dormitory study continues. Droma and Lhamo help each other. | 15:22 |
| Boys’ dormitory | Meanwhile, in the boys’ dormitory downstairs, enough study for today -- time for the male heroics. Here you can find the truly bizarre- but also the surprisingly peaceful [boy singing]. | 15:32 |
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| BEN HILLMAN: “Most of the young people that join our program, tend to be very shy, | 16:09 |
| Ben. Super: | they come from rural areas and when they’re in the city they feel like they don’t belong, and so we’re able to see tremendous transformation”. | 16:13 |
| Diqing | MCDONELL: Diqing might be more relaxed than other Tibetan areas in terms of allowing in foreigners, but there are still pressures that loom under the surface. | 16:48 |
| McDonell on street to camera | “We can’t ask the students what they think about certain subjects, like the Dalai Lama or the Chinese Government’s attitudes towards Tibet, because we don’t want to land them in hot water just when they’re getting a break in life. Likewise we can’t ask the school staff about these subjects because we think it just might result in the school being shut down. So in one way the Chinese Government wins because we’re not talking about subjects that it doesn’t like. On the other hand, though, it loses because these restrictions on freedom of speech prevent a more all encompassing discussion of the region, one which would also include any positive things that the government is doing in Tibetan areas”. | 17:01 |
| Monastery/ Tourists | Music | 17:40 |
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| MCDONELL: And there is both good and bad news. Government transport spending brings the tourists that create jobs, but a lack of government funded training is why ETTI is helping Tibetans to get these jobs. | 17:46 |
| Songtsam Hotel | Music | 18:00 |
| Yongzong in hotel grounds/ Making bed | MCDONELL: Yongzong is one of their graduates. She grew up in the poorest of families but is today working in the prestigious Songtsam Hotel. | 18:04 |
| Yongzong | YONGZONG: “We end up dealing with guests a lot of the time and it gives me courage. So it’s good”. | 18:16 |
| Yongzong and her brother eat dumplings | MCDONELL: In Yongzong you can see what the other students will become. She’s employed, confident and changing the fortunes of those around her. She’s the breadwinner for her family and is putting her little brother through high school. | 18:30 |
| Yongzong | YONGZONG: “My brother is a bit of a rascal but he’s good at studying”. | 18:52 |
| Yongzong and her brother | MCDONELL: When she was 8 and her brother 6, their father was felling timber for house repairs. He died when a tree came down on him. | 19:01 |
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| YONGZONG: “Since then, my mum hasn’t been able to fix that house. She seems too sad”. | 19:10 |
| Cloud, misty landscapes | Music | 19:24 |
| Yongzong’s village | MCDONELL: Back in her village, a day and a half’s drive from Shangrila Town, Yongzong’s house is one of the most run down. | 19:35 |
| Yongzong’s mother | Her mum lives here by herself, tending chickens and pigs. But today Yongzong’s coming home for the first time in eight months so she waits for a first glimpse of her daughter coming up the track. | 19:44 |
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| Music | 19:58 |
| Villagers wait for Yongzong | MCDONELL: Throughout the village word has spread that the girl who’s made good will be back for a visit. Yongzong left here as a subsistence farmer and returns with money in her pocket, money that means she can now afford to dream. | 20:05 |
| Yongzong greets mother | YONG’S MUM: “My daughter is here… come in. You’re back my daughter”. YONGZONG: “Good to see you, too”. MCDONELL: She returns and it’s smiles all round. | 20:25 |
| Yongzong’s aunty cooks/ Yongzong and her mother | Inside Yongzong’s aunty prepares a meal, while she has a chat with her mum. Despite everything she’s done, she’s on the receiving end of a stern Tibetan mother lecture about how she needs to work more diligently. | 20:32 |
| Yongzong | YONGZONG: “In the past, when people were poor they weren’t afraid not to have money. As long as they had food to eat they didn’t feel too bad. Now if a family doesn’t have money it’s poor. So I suppose my family is poor”. | 20:58 |
| Yongzong’s mother working | MCDONELL: “Even though your family is poor…” YONGZONG: “Yes”. MCDONELL: “You have found a job and you can help them?” YONGZONG: “Yes”. MCDONELL: “Is your mum proud of you?” | 21:14 |
| Yongzong | YONGZONG: “She must be – but I can’t talk about it”. | 21:22 |
| Droma and Lhamo having lunch with friends | MCDONELL: Down in Shangrila, even in the first few weeks of study, Droma and Lhamo have started to come out of their shells. | 21:28 |
| Droma | “Before, when we first met you were like ‘oh, I’m too embarrassed to speak to those foreigners’. Now look at you – you’re not the same”. DROMA: “Yes”. | 21:38 |
| McDonell with Lhamo | MCDONELL: And they’re not taking this opportunity lightly. | 21:52 |
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| LHAMO: “I only have this chance – I’m not going to get another”. | 21:56 |
| Dancing in square. Ben watches | MCDONELL: Ben Hillman hopes the role of the school will one day be taken over by government, but in the meantime he says it will remain necessary if locals are going to succeed in this time of huge transition. | 22:03 |
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| BEN HILLMAN: “Tibetans throughout the plateau will continue to live, in many ways, the same way that they’ve lived for hundreds of years. But at the same time it’s not going to be possible for all Tibetans to prosper, to thrive while pursing those same practices. So many young people will need to look for alternative sources of income, and they’ll need help”. | 22:23 |
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| Music | 22:50 |
| Prayer flags | Music | 22:57 |
| Yongzong walks up the mountain to pray | MCDONELL: Yongzong walks up the mountain behind her house, up and up towards the forest where her father died. As a Buddhist this is where she comes to pray. Here many people ask for something more, for wealth, success and even overall happiness. But she knows how her life could have turned out and she’s thankful that now things are starting to look up. | 23:08 |
| Credits: | Reporter: Stephen McDonell Camera: Robert Hill ACS Producer: Charles Li Editor: Garth Thomas | 23:50 |