20 for 20: Environmental Lawyer & Filmmaker Laurence J. Brahm
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In 20 for 20, we profile 20 movers and shakers who, like The Beijinger, have called the capital home for 20 years or more.
Environmental lawyer, social entrepreneur, film director, producer, Himalayan explorer, and founder of Shambhala Studio, a media group specializing in Himalayan extreme expeditions and kung fu films – these are but a few of the faces of Laurence J. Brahm. Having arrived in Beijing in the ‘80s, Brahm has doubtlessly left his mark on not only Beijing but the whole of China over the years. He’s directed a number of award-winning films, including Searching for Kung Fu which earned a top ten slot at the ’21 Beijing International Film Fest, and 2015's Searching for Shangri-la, recipient of the National Geographic Air and Water Conservation Award for raising environmental awareness in China. Then, in 2016, his environmental work in China earned him the Social Responsibility Award and, later, the China Government Friendship Award in 2019.
He’s also served as an advisor to Bhutan’s National Environmental Commission, and in 2015 was tapped by the president of Iceland to serve on the Himalaya-Third Pole Circle, a panel forming policy responses to glacial melt caused by climate change. In 2012, he served as NGO spokesperson to the UN Earth Summit, and in 2010 was awarded the UNDP Award for Bio-Diversity and Cultural Protection in China, presented by Jane Goodall.Today, his work continues. Since 2017 he’s been directing and producing a series on the life of the Lotus-Born Mater, the founder of Tibetan Buddhism, which documents expeditions crossing some of the most remote regions of the Himalayas to inquire about the relationship between Asian philosophy and quantum physics. Brahm has also authored more than 30 books, most of them on China, and in 2021 received China’s Special Book Award for his work.
What brought you to Beijing, and when?
I first came as a student in 1981 to study Mandarin. It was an exciting time. We were the first wave of American students following the formalization of diplomatic relations between China and the USA in 1979. I later worked in Beijing as a lawyer, investment advisor, and now as a filmmaker.
I’ll never forget how in 1981 China was a nation of material scarcity. After arriving at the airport, the university teachers meeting our student group brought us to the Friendship Store. I paid USD 1 for an imported Coke because I was thirsty. The Chinese professors accompanying us saw this as extravagant. Suddenly my whole perspective on material value changed.
Traveling on a train while an overseas student, 1981
Since childhood, I have always felt a deep connection with China. As a kid in NYC, I used to always hang out in Chinatown. I think there must be some previous life experience here. It is nice to come home.
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Tell us about one of your quintessential first experiences in the city.
It was actually in the mid-1980s when I was working as a young lawyer on the construction contracts for China World Trade Center. It was in the suburbs, at least that is what we thought. All the foreign companies were either in the Beijing Hotel or Minzhu Hotel. People thought Robert Kwok was crazy building such a big complex so far from the city center at Wangfujing. Look how times have changed.
Everything. There is no place in the world that has gone through such a momentous transition in just such a short time. When I first moved into the hutong that I live in, there were still old ladies with tiny feet that had been bound in another era. Now the hutong neighborhood is the center of the hip art and alternative culture movement. Need a piercing or tattoo?
Filming along the Great Wall
How you do think Beijing has changed you as a person?
One learns to be more patient, to flow, and to see things as just a balance of Yin and Yang. Don’t get upset or frustrated about anything, just find what is missing, Yin or Yang and re-balance it.
As Han Suyin once wrote, “Peking is home as no place else will ever be…there was an essential piece there, a deep substratum of unshakable beauty…Our feet trod dust so rich in history, so weary with centuries of battle, so old with glory, that we were made wise and self-contained beyond our years.”
On the Great Wall in 1987 during a work trip from Tianjin
Name your three favorite places in the city.
Yonghegong, Beihai Park, and White Pagoda Temple. These are powerful energy centers. I like to be in them and just feel that deep sub-stratum that Han Suyin wrote about.
Learn a Kung Fu style or Tai Chi. Everything can be explained through this.
Are you still doing what you came here to do, 20 years ago?
Twenty years ago I made the transition from commercial investment lawyer to film director and producer specializing in movies about Himalayan culture and Kung Fu. It was one of the best decisions of my life. I am looking forward to the next 20 years. A lot of movies can be made.
READ: 20 for 20: Writer & Filmmaker Steven Schwankert
Images courtesy of Laurence J. Brahm
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