The awakening of democracy in rural China will be well documented, thanks to Kroc Institute alumnus Jian Yi (’98).

He is organizing a photo contest on village democracy in the People’s Republic of China, and is working on a major documentary on the history of the movement. Jian Yi is a public communications expert, filmmaker and photographer with the EU-China Training Programme on Village Governance in Beijing, China. In a message to Director of Alumni Affairs Anne Hayner, he writes:

“As the single largest international program on village governance in China, our program is dedicated to enhancing China’s village-level democracy. (We have some 900 million farmers living in 700,000 villages in this nation!) I am in charge of the public communication work of this joint program between the EU and the Chinese government.

“On the topic of village governance, I have produced and written songs; produced and directed training videos, documentaries, music videos, public service announcements; produced postcards, calendars, village posters; organized media reports and film screening, etc.”

The biggest project of all will be the documentary. Filming will begin in summer 2005 at the latest, Jian Yi says, with a hoped-for release in 2006. He is working with one of China’s leading documentary makers on the project.

Jian Yi is a native of Ji’an City of southeast China’s Jiangxi Province.

“My city is known as the cradle of Mao’s Red Army and the communist revolution,” he says. “The independent documentary I am making is related to that important part of our history.”

Jian Yi credits the Kroc Institute M.A. program for shaping his world view and the values that he brings to his work. He says he was exposed to new ideas — in what he calls a “de-brainwashing process” — and to many social issues, from capital punishment to the use of land mines. He read books he was not permitted to read in his homeland. He fondly remembers the faculty, including Professors Bob Johansen and Gil Loescher.

“I have been showing the movie ‘The Killing Fields,’ which Gil showed in our class, to almost every college class I taught here in China.’’

After graduating from the Kroc Institute, Jian Yi received an MA in international journalism from the Communication University of China (formerly the Beijing Broadcasting Institute). For five years, he was a lecturer in the university’s international communication department.

Jian Yi hopes he will have the chance for more international travel and study. “I’d like to study development and filmmaking/photography, the two areas I’m interested in and would like to combine.”

More of Jian Yi’s photos are available on the Kroc website, in a link from the Class of 97-78 web page. His e-mail address is yi_jian@yahoo.com.

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