《Under the Dome》: Smog & Haze Documentary Film Gone Viral in China

Documentary In Depth Investigation about the Smog & Haze in China, by Jing Chai-- it's Just the Beginning

Grasped the nation's attention

Febraruay 28, 2015, Chai Jing released her independent documentary video striking China's air pollution, titled: 《Under the Smoggy Sky/Dome 穹顶之下》(including this YouTube version), open freely to the public. It has reached over 100 million viewers in China in just 2 days.

A project she has used 1 year, from 2014 to 2015 to finish, and it's 2 hours long.

Chai Jing is a former famous anchor of CCTV (China Central Television). She has produced so many popular anti pollution programs while she worked in CCTV, that she won "Green Person of the Year of China in 2007", and was elected into the "Council Member of China Environment Culture Development Committee".

A mom's dream for her daughter's future

The reason for this video?--to answer her daughter will-be question: "What is blue sky", whereas in BeiJing, the Capital of China, 175 days of a year is bothered by air pollution, so to see blue sky in a day is a real treat.

Ms. Chai Jing's daughter was diagnosed with benign tumor right after birth, and she was kept at home after surgery, feared that the air pollution could give harm to her health.

Another question for Ms. Chai to be afraid to hear from her daughter would be "Why you keep me at home all the time?"   

Chai Jing was so bothered, that she paid 1,000,000 ￥(about 160,000US$) out of her own pocket, and traveled to many places in China, and to London and Los Angeles oversea places to carry out the investigation on particle matter (PM) 2.5, an air pollutant, which will cause health problem including lung cancer risk.

Because of her name, and also because of her independent investigation, her detailed, reliable and systemic report wins all expects of people's trust and respect.

Hopes are still there

When Ms. Chai Jing was asked by People' Net (People.com.cn):"Why you still have hope for air pollution management?" , she answered like this:

 "I interviewed lots of officials in different departments such as  Beijing Environment Protection Bureau, Oil & Chemicals industry during my investigation, none of them ever refused to answer my inquiry, and everyone offered answers without reservation. I have a sense that they all hope to openly discuss the problems..."

In her video she uses the examples of how London, Los Angeles and Japan solved pollution problems in the past. 

And she also suggests people to do small things to reduce pollution, like reducing car idling time.

Some people have doubts?

In less than one day, the video wins appraise and support across the nation. All the big 3 public websites Sina.com.cn, Sohu.com and 163.com have put the news about the documentary in their front pages.

Because the video was released just before the government two sessions: National People's Congress & Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, some people expressed doubt about Ms. Chai Jing's using her daughter as a "show" in social media like Weibo.

Under the dome, don't let Chai Jing just by herself

Another article from people.com.cn titled: "Under the sky, don't let Chai Jing just by herself" has been shared by many medical newspaper like: Chinese medical times (CMT.com.cn), doctorpda.cn and oncologynews etc.   

From oncology's perspective

In 2012, Beijing city's lung cancer statistic data incidence rate were male: 77.94／1000,000；female  49.59/1000,000, much higher than published national rate: male 49.27/1000,000 and female 21.66/1000,000. For a single city population reaching 21.15 millions, this data should be more accurate than other data sources from estimation. 

In the last 10 years, lung cancer incidence rate in Beijing has increased 43%.  Many Chinese oncologists believe although crusade against smoking and second smoking is much more urgent needed in China, deteriorating air pollution playing a certain role, among other factors. 

If China's air pollution problem is not tackled in the next decade, the lung cancer rate might keep increasing to an enormous burden to China for the next generations to come. Chai Jing film is widely welcomed as anticancer effort in Chinese medical journals, especially oncology journals.