A stunning work of narrative non-fiction telling one of the most important stories of our time: what is actually happening on the front lines of China’s explosive and unprecedented journey towards unbanization.

Gangzhou’s drive to become a “National Model City” ahead of 2010 Asia Games accelerated a voracious demand for land, turning the ground beneath the villagers’ feet into a commodity as valuable as diamonds, a treasure too rich for local officials to ignore.

Dragons in Diamond Village is about the Courage of individuals: Huang minpeng, a semi-literate farmer turned self-taught rights defender; He Jueling, a suburban housewife who just wanted to open a hair salon; Li Jiaming, who booby-trapped his home with explosives in order to save it from demolition. With others, they form a community bound by shared history and a belief in the necessity of change, a band of unlikely activists fighting for their place in China’s new cities.

David Bandurski is analyst and editor at the University of Hong King’s China Media Project. An award-winning journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, he received a Human Rights Press Award in 2008 for a n investigative piece on China’s use of professional associations to enforce Internet censorship guidelines. He produce Chinese independent films and documentaries through his production company, Lantern Films.