China Esquire

PBS recently aired a series on its Frontline program called “ Young and Restless in China“.  It covers the stories of nine young people in China who come of age in a rapidly changing society.  Those 9 include a rapper, a consultant, a marketing executive, a hotel owner, etc.  Of course, it wouldn’t be on this website if it didn’t have a lawyer, and here is her bio from the website:

Zhang Jingjing
Public interest lawyer

Jingjing’s parents worked in a chemical fertilizer factory on the outskirts of Chengdu (near the epicenter of the May 12, 2008, earthquake). Her father was an engineer and her mother a doctor.

Jingjing’s fondest childhood memories are of playing in the yellow sage fields around the plant. While the scenery was lush and beautiful, it was also marred by the waste that ran out of the factory and into little rivulets through the fields. Her parents often discussed the high cancer rates among the plant’s workers and wondered if there was a connection. So Jingjing became aware of environmental health issues at an early age. As she says, she never intended to take on the system; she just wanted to protect people’s health.

Jingjing’s candor in the film was remarkable. She had no idea of how we would cut together her story, what images we would use to help tell it. Her life is lived on the cutting edge of reform in China, a place that is never easy and never safe.

Related Links: Visit the Web site of Jingjing’s organization, the Center for Legal Assistance to Pollution Victims; click on the word “English” in the upper right corner for the translated site. In August 2007, Jingjing answered questions about China’s environmental challenges as part of a New York Times expert roundtable.

Since it’s summer and hopefully more relaxed for lawyers, we all have more time to watch programs like this.  It’s all online streaming video.

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