The Bird People in China

What does this film tell us as it contrasts the busy stressful lives of its two main characters in modern Japan and the idyllic life of the remote Chinese village they visit? How does it the film portray the diluting impact of modern technology and culture on unique indigenous cultures? How do the villagers instantiate conflicting interests that remote villages might have in trading with and interacting modern societies? How does the film construct the contrast between modern and primitive lifestyles during the trek to the remote Chinese village? The crash landing of a British airmen contributed to the beliefs of these villagers in regard to flying like birds. He lived out the balance of his life with the isolated group. His grand-daughter inherited the ‘flight school,’ that had formed and the semi-religious beliefs that grew up around this cross-cultural contact. How is this fictional story similar to so-called “cargo cults” of the mid-to-late 20th Century in Melanesia, (some of which survive to this day)? How does the film illustrate the conceptual challenges that primitive societies have when trying to make sense of their interactions with technologically advanced civilizations? How does the film illustrate the formation of deep empathy or value that anthropologists or missionaries often form with remote indigenous groups or cultures they study or visit?