In China’s Guangdong province, a mining tycoon has built an exact 1:1 replica of the idyllic Austrian village of Hallstatt. Beyond the gimmicky appeal of “copycat” development, this phenomenon offers a provocative perspective on the ramifications of the country’s rapid urbanization. Ella Raidel’s elegant essay film Double Happiness takes on the complexities of cultural appropriation, in which the deep histories of places are routinely erased and rewritten, and where upheavals of tradition and environment go hand in hand. 

Directed and produced by Ella Raidel.