SXSW Film Preview: Beijing Taxi

In 2008, the largest television audience in Olympic history tuned in as the centuries-old city of Beijing, China hosted the 29th Summer Games. But the excitement and spectacle of the games were shot through with tension and unease as human rights organizations and environmental watchdog groups protested that China was not fit to host the event. There were practical concerns (many athletes were concerned about the country’s notoriously poor air quality), as well as moral ones (Amnesty International expressed concern over the country’s record of human rights violations).

Most people don’t consider, though, that the Chinese people themselves may have had mixed feelings about the multi-billion dollar event, which in many ways became an emblem of the country’s rapid modernization and subsequent cultural schizophrenia. Long under Communist rule, China found promise in the practices of capitalism, and as the old world was consumed by the new, many were (and still are) expected to quickly reconcile their feelings about these two seemingly incompatible philosophies.

Miao Wang’s quiet, beautiful, contemplative documentary Beijing Taxi follows three taxi drivers as they wrestle with these issues of identity, culture and progress on the streets of China. A Beijing native (but current New yorker), Wang has a unique perspective on a country famously protective of its reputation, both inside and outside its borders. Through candid, close-up interviews and stories, Beijing Taxi offers a rare, highly personal glimpse into the realities and struggles of everyday life in a state of constant cultural flux.