Quirky video shows a population of ‘pollution survivors’ who have adapted by growing luxuriant nose hair

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

For almost every Beijing resident it will be a familiar sight which quite literally gets up their nose.

Airpocalypse now: China pollution reaching record levels Read more

The smog which pervades the skies of the capital – and many other large cities – is sometime so all pervading that it can almost turn day into night and force children to be kept indoors.



Now an environmental group, concerned that residents in China’s cities are becoming blandly accustomed to pollution, have produced a video raising the issue in a quirky way.

The video depicts a dystopia where people in China have adapted to the air by growing long moustaches - actually nose-taches - to filter out the smog.



“Look at them - survivors of the pollution age,” says a narrator. On the screen are street scenes of kids, couples, businessmen and even a dog with long nose-taches.



On a billboard a fashion model is shown advertising a hair care product. From her nostrils flow a mane of shiny, luxuriant hair.



The video ends with a young man saying he will not “blindly submit.” He is seen shaving off his nose-tache and vowing a return to the blue skies that he remembered.



“Change air pollution before it changes you,” says the video, which was produced by WildAid China as part of its GOBlue campaign.



About one-third of China’s 1.35 billion people regularly breath smog deemed unhealthy by the World Health Organisation.

Wealthy Chinese are increasing investing in air purifiers and “clean air vacations” abroad to protect themselves and their families.



While the Chinese Communist Party allows some discussion of air pollution, it cracks down on any criticism of government policy.

Last February, an air pollution documentary by Chinese journalist Chai Jing went viral in China. Four days later, China’s censors scrubbed the film, “Under the Dome,” from the internet, after it had been viewed more than 200 million times.

