Mayaw Biho's 1998 film, Children in Heaven, documents the umpteenth demolition of the Sanying Community. In it, he captures the cannonade-like sound of the backhoes pounding away at the village.
A boy comes into the frame. Gesturing at the buildings to his left and right, he says, "My home has been demolished. His home has been demolished. Their homes have been demolished...." His young voice doesn't convey anger or grief, but while he speaks the nail in his hand, an artifact of the destruction, batters a piece of wooden scrap, seemingly without his knowledge or control.
A few children with hammers imitate their fathers' earlier work in building their homes, cobbling together a little lean-to in which they place the few dolls they have managed to save. This little scrap of land may well be their "heaven."
Ten years later, Sanying has been demolished for the seventh time. This time, Mayaw Biho wants to know how the children are affected. Even more importantly, he wants to express his remorse to those being photographed.
"I lost touch with the kids in Children in Heaven after I completed the film," says Mayaw Biho. "In that respect, I was no different from any of the other outside filmmakers who came to the community for materials, completed their work, and washed their hands of the village." He was more upset with himself for never even screening Children in Heaven for Sanying.
When the community was demolished again in February 2008, Mayaw Biho rushed back. But in the 10 years since his last visit most of the kids he'd known had moved away and few of those that remained remembered him.
"For the last year," he says, "my job has been to spend time with them." When he got in touch with one of the kids from his earlier film, a boy named Ah-Xiong who's now in high school. When others began to come back, Mayaw Biho screened Children in Heaven for them to try and spark their memories.
He spends at least five days a week in the community filming. His footage includes heated protests, as well as the groups that gather around the table to eat and buck one another up every night.
More recently, he's been planning to gather the children together to chat and document their take on the repeated destruction of their community.
"I think they have something to say," he says. In Children in Heaven, Mayaw Biho used the language of the adult world to describe otherwise silent images. This time, he plans to let the children speak for themselves.
"The children have told me privately that they used to think backhoes were just one of the small toys they played with. They had no idea that real ones could destroy their homes."
Mayaw Biho hasn't decided how he'll unveil his film on the 2008 razing of the community. After ten years away, his first priority is to visit with Ah-Xiong, Ah-Ming, Meihua, Shuzhen, Ah-Wei, and Qiyi, and ask, "How are you doing?"
"You can fill a hole. You can rebuild a house. But you never know when the police and the backhoes will turn up again...." Mayaw Biho's 1998 documentary Children in Heaven focused on Sanying's children to highlight the injustice of the community's destruction. "Heaven to us is just a river and some undeveloped land."
"You can fill a hole. You can rebuild a house. But you never know when the police and the backhoes will turn up again...." Mayaw Biho's 1998 documentary Children in Heaven focused on Sanying's children to highlight the injustice of the community's destruction. "Heaven to us is just a river and some undeveloped land."
"You can fill a hole. You can rebuild a house. But you never know when the police and the backhoes will turn up again...." Mayaw Biho's 1998 documentary Children in Heaven focused on Sanying's children to highlight the injustice of the community's destruction. "Heaven to us is just a river and some undeveloped land."
"You can fill a hole. You can rebuild a house. But you never know when the police and the backhoes will turn up again...." Mayaw Biho's 1998 documentary Children in Heaven focused on Sanying's children to highlight the injustice of the community's destruction. "Heaven to us is just a river and some undeveloped land."
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