Video: Big Tree Country and coal mining in 1992

With all the recent talk about pollution and children being poisoned, we thought it'd be good to take a quick look at a documentary from 1992 about Da Zhu Xian, a remote county in Sichuan Province.

From China Green:

Da Shu Xian, or Big Tree Country, in remote Sichuan Province is the site of a large sulfur mine, which produces up to 12,000 tons of sulfur a month. In the 14 years since the mine became operational up until this film was produced in 1992, pollution from the sulfur mine wiped out the area’s trees that had given the county its name.

Fallout from the mine has affected the villagers’ health, their fields, homes, families, and the lives of their children.

Da Shu Xian, like so many small counties in rural China, faced a choice between capitalizing on their natural resources and protecting a way of life that had endured for generations. This film explores the potentially devastating consequences of putting development ahead of environment, community and family.

“Da Shu Xian” is a feature-length film (60 min.) originally produced by Hao Zhiqiang in 1992. The trailer, available here, was edited and retitled by Asia Society’s Andrew Smeall.