	In the 2007  Yung Chang documentary Up the Yangtze we are presented with short glimpses into the lives of two young Chinese workers, upon a cruise upon the Yangtze River. This is back-dropped by the construction of the Three Gorges Dam and the human cost and condition surrounding how people are adapting to modern China's fast flowing developments. Yung Chang is a Chinese-Canadian director whose documentaries focus on social consequences of modern China, working for EyeSteelFilm a production firm focused on making socially conscious films. In this film Chang is trying to show his viewers the effects of the swift modernization of some parts of rural China on the individual human level. The hopes dreams and aspirations of real people, without editorialization. Specifically the impact that the finishing of the Three Gorges Dam is having upon the farming and peasant populations located in areas that would flood due to the dam.

	The film follows the story of Yu Shui, later given the English name “Cindy” and Chen Bo Yu, who goes by the English name Jerry. Sixteen year old Cindy is from a family of poor farmers who are being displaced by the rising waters from the dam, she has just finished middle school and wants to pursue more education, but her family's lack of funds has made it impossible, so they send her to work, getting a job on a “Farewell Tour” cruise for foreigners to see the last vestiges of China along the Yangtze before the water rises. Nineteen year old Jerry is taking a job on the same cruise ship to earn money to help support the lifestyle he enjoys, first shown during a night on the town with friends, as Jerry comes from a slightly wealthier background. Cindy at first doesn't adapt to the ship and the stresses of working as a dishwasher combine with homesickness lead her to crying. Jerry on the other hand quickly takes to his job as a porter due to his existing skills with English and his good looks, two traits that lead to his hiring in the first place, he is joyous when he makes a 30$ tip, exclaiming that it's more than either of his parents make in a month. While these stories are being told we're given more information about the people who are to be displaced, and the surrounding communities. An interview with an antiques dealer in a town that must move, leads to him breaking down in tears explaining how he was beaten by officials when first asked to move and exclaiming “It’s hard being a human, but being a common person in China is even more difficult. China is too hard for common people.” Scenes of Cindy's family are interspersed both with and without her, showing her father doing backbreaking labor to make what money he can, and their interactions with their daughter in the times that the ship is docked near them, greatly contrasting the poverty they live in to the luxury of the ship. In one scene they're talking to her supervisor on the ship and he explains to them that “The dreams you cannot fulfill, can be fulfilled through your daughter, through her hard work and the progress of society.” The climax of the film is that of Jerry being let go from his position on the ship due to his “Overconfidence, self-conceit, and self-contentedness […] are the characteristics [he] needs to overcome.” Staged opposite Cindy's family moving, without her there, as you see them hauling what they can away from their shack, including her father carrying a massive dresser upon his back and shoulders, up the concrete embankment, ending in a time lapse of the waters rising and consuming their home.
