A Fun Yet Sobering Look at ‘Two Tibets’

If television reporters Lisa Ling and Mitchell Koss seem to be foolhardy, even borderline self-destructive, as they try to pull off an undercover investigation of the Chinese dictatorship in Tibet, it’s because these two nervy video journalists don’t hide very much in their half-hour report, “Two Tibets.”

They want to see everything in the former home of the Dalai Lama, and yet everything in Tibet is designed for them to see as little as possible.

Their absurd situation stands alongside the tragedy of Tibet, perhaps today’s most stark example of an imperial culture (the People’s Republic of China) deliberately erasing a tiny, pacifist, inward-looking one. Probably because Ling and Koss had to pose as tourists to get into Tibet, there’s a disarming looseness about their reportage that stunningly contrasts with the Chinese repression around them.

Koss points the lens of his Hi-8 home video camera at Ling--sometimes caught between a quiet panic and cool professionalism--and you really can’t quite guess what is going to happen next. (Unless you read Koss’ recent vivid report for the L.A. Weekly.)

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To sustain the tension, Ling and Koss intercut between their Tibetan escapade and their visit to the Dalai Lama’s home-in-exile in Dharamsala, India. In one place, Koss spots “Big Brother” cameras on building roofs monitoring citizens; in the other, the Dalai Lama’s followers admit to Ling that they do get bored, and that, no, they don’t really think about sex that much.

Ling, a USC senior, gets away with asking monks such upfront questions because she has done her homework as one of the regular reporters for Channel One, the privately financed TV service for public schools and the producer of “Two Tibets.” Her casually intelligent presence allows her to keep her head on when Koss has lost his: She keeps telling him not to be so obvious with his camera shooting. (Hasn’t Koss heard of the old hidden-camera-in-the-bag trick of undercover reporting?)

Whether it was this indiscretion or the dumb mistake of bringing passports identifying the pair as journalists--and thus giving the game away to Chinese authorities--Ling and Koss have their stay cut short. But not before Ling samples yak tartare at the Hard Yak Cafe inside the Holiday Inn in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa.

With fun but serious reporting like this, Channel One’s news shouldn’t be restricted to the classroom.

* “Two Tibets” airs at 10:30 tonight on KCET-TV Channel 28.