Yale Center Beijing invites you to a screening of the documentary Himalaya: Ladder to Paradise and a conversation with Jianjun Lei, professor at Tsinghua University’s School of Journalism and Communication, Dr. Alark Saxena, program director of the Yale Himalaya Initiative, and Dan Smyer Yu, professor and founding director of the Center for Trans-Himalayan Studies at Yunnan Minzu University.

Time and Location

Sunday, July 3, 2016
Registration: 6:30 – 7:00pm
Screening and Conversation: 7:00 – 9:00pm

Yale Center Beijing
8 Jianguomenwai Avenue, 36th Floor, Tower B, IFC Building (Yong’anli Station, Exit C)

Registration and Fees

Ticket: RMB 15 for students; RMB 60 for others.

Click HERE to register via EventBank.

Please email yalecenterbeijing@yale.edu if you have any questions, or call Yale Center Beijing at (10) 5909 0200.

The Event

Through a yearlong filming process, Himalaya: Ladder to Paradise documents the lives of trainees at the Tibetan Mountaineering School from their enrollment to their finally setting foot on the summit of Mount Everest. After the screening, Prof. Jianjun Lei will give a presentation on "Modernization and Livelihood Reconstruction among Young Tibetans", followed by a conversation on "The Moving Himalayas: Transregionality, Resilience and Planetary Ethics" with Dr. Alark Saxena, program director of the Yale Himalayan Initiative, and Dan Smyer Yu, professor and founding director of the Center for Trans-Himalayan Studies at Yunnan Minzu University. Dr. Alark and Professor Smyer Yu will also share remarks on some of the unanswered questions and future research directions of Trans-Himalayan studies.

LANGUAGE

The language of the event will be English.

The Speaker(s)

Jianjun Lei
Professor, School of Journalism and Communication, Tsinghua University; Founder, Tsingying Film Studio

Professor Lei Jianjun is primarily involved in the shooting and research of documentaries, making use of "visual anthropology" to protect intangible cultural heritage. His main research fields are documentary study and intangible cultural heritage protection and research. His major works include the documentary film Himalaya: Ladder to Paradise which was awarded Best Documentary at the Beijing Student Film Festival and Best Cinematography by the China Academy Awards of Documentary Film (CAADF). His documentary series Masters in the Forbidden City has enjoyed a level of popularity not seen since the famous Chinese documentary television series A Bite of China.

Dan Smyer Yu
Professor and Founding Director at the Center for Trans-Himalayan Studies, Yunnan Minzu University

Dan Smyer Yu is Professor and Founding Director of the Center for Trans-Himalayan Studies at Yunnan Minzu University. His current research interests include transboundary governance of natural and human heritages, religious and territorial water diversity, religion and peacebuilding, and comparative studies of secularism in the greater Himalayan region. He is also a documentary filmmaker. His widely screened films include Embrace (2011) and Rainbow Rider (2013).

Alark Saxena
Program Director and Steering Committee Member, Yale Himalayan Initiative; Lecturer, Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies

Alark Saxena is Program Director of the Yale Himalaya Initiative and a Lecturer at the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. As a social ecologist, Alark engages in systematic research of issues pertaining to environmental sustainability, resilience and livelihood in the Himalayas.

Jing Wang
Co-Founder and Director of Toread Holdings Group Co., Ltd, well-known Mountaineer, founder of Everest Future Foundation

Jing Wang is the Co-Founder and Director of Toread Holdings Group Co., Ltd, a well-known mountaineer, and the founder of Everest Future Foundation. Ms. Jing Wang has successfully conquered snow mountain peaks of over 8,000 meters above sea level nine times, including three summits of Mount Everest. In 2014, Jing set a record for fastest completion of the “Earth Nine Poles Project” (also known as the “7 + 2 climb”) – summiting the highest peaks on the seven continents and hiking to both the South Pole and the North Pole in 143 days.