Siok Siok Tan is another entrepreneur and panelist I have lined up for you to have the opportunity to meet in China, should you elect to participate in the hutong event we set up for Sunday, June 22 (see your info booklet for more information).

Siok Siok’s bio from her weblog reads:

Tan Siok Siok (also known as Siok Siok Tan) is a filmmaker and educator with a deep passion for China documentaries. Born and raised in Singapore, she has built a career as an executive producer of international documentaries, focusing on the greater China region.

Her executive producer credits include Discovery Channel’s China First Time Film Makers Initiative, Portraits Taiwan– a biography series of prominent Taiwanese as well as travel and lifestyle shows for Discovery Travel and Living. These shows have clinched more than a dozen awards and nominations at the Asian TV awards and the Golden Bell Awards, Taiwan’s equivalent of the Emmy Awards.

Siok has also been a visiting lecturer at the Beijing Film Academy, one of Asia’s preeminent film schools. As part of her lecturing stint, she directed a documentary about the Beijing Olympics with the assistance of her students.

Siok holds a Bachelor of Arts degree (Honors) in Comparative Literature from Brown University, USA. At Brown, she won a Rosalie Cole Prize for her thesis on modern Chinese fiction and was admitted to the Phi Beta Kappa Honors Society. She also received the Joslin Award from the Office of Students Life and a prize from the Swearer Centre for Public service for her contribution to the university and her leadership in community service.

Click HERE to check out her weblog.

Re: her latest documentary, Boomtown Beijing, click HERE to watch the trailer. And below are some reviews of her film that I pulled off Facebook.  If you join her film page you can receive an update re: an upcoming screening in San Francisco.

She is a sharp person. What business questions can you think of to ask her when we meet with her? This could also be one of your shots on the trip to separate fact from myth with regard to the issue of media and information censorship in China.

Reviews:

A balanced, insightful view of Beijing — by Dave at 2:03am yesterday

First time director Tan Siok Siok’s engrossing look at Beijing before the Olympics is a balanced, delightful and enjoyable look at a city and its inhabitants. The four featured are intriguing, particularly the cleaner determined to honor the Olympics in his own way, and the visually impaired athlete who wants one last chance to make his country and son proud.

Equally arresting are the miscellaneous shots of the city preparing for the Olympics, such as police officers struggling to learn English. It marks Siok Siok as a director to watch.

In a Nutshell — by Stefan at 5:35pm on April 19th, 2008

Thoroughly enjoyed the numerous candid moments caught on film, which makes this documentary highly watchable and memorable, with little room to think that it would have been manufactured for the camera, such as the very fun parallels drawn from Olympian activities, and the everyday activities that we do.

With Olympic fever slowly brewing in the run up to the opening of the Games this year on 8th August, Boomtown Beijing drills down to the individual, personal stories, and this are but just 3 in this documentary, nicely put together, linked up to provide a sample snapshot that the Games is not just solely for the athletes, but serving to inspire masses of everyday folks.

Beijing Olympics - An Alternative Perspective — by Arul at 6:03pm on April 13th, 2008

A much needed counterpoint to the anti-Chinese sentiment enveloping the Olympics today. This documentary which was filmed way before the current unrest in Tibet and the Western demands for a more humane China policy, delves into the lives of four ordinary Beijing residents. A taxi-driver, a janitor, a school kid and a visually impaired athlete share their lives and how the Olympics has given them and their country a renewed sense of hope and pride. The film shows the countdown to Olympics which began almost a year ago and how each character prepares for it. It provided me a much needed insider perspective stripped of official political rhetoric. Many scenes were deeply touching like the taxi driver explaining how he pushes his car while waiting for passengers on a taxi queue to limit the pollution in Beijing. An inspired tale of hope, universal brotherhood and the power of the human spirit. A true celebration of the Olympic values set against a dramatically evolving urban Beijing.