Cast overview: | |||
Changhua Zhang | ... | Self | |
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Suqin Chen | ... | Self |
Qin Zhang | ... | Self | |
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Yang Zhang | ... | Self |
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Tingsui Tang | ... | Self |
Husband and wife Changhua Zhang and Suqin Chen are among 130 million migrant Chinese workers, most, like them, who have left children behind in the village for elders to care of, and who only see their family once a year when they head home for the biggest holiday of the year, Lunar New Year. In 2006, they will have been away from their village for sixteen years, they starting this life when their only child at the time, daughter Qin Zhang, was one year old, she raised by Suqin's parents, her father having since passed. Three years in their collective lives from 2006 to 2009 are told, largely centered on those annual trips home, and the parents' relationship with their two children, which also now includes adolescent son Yang Zhang, who they don't really know in only seeing them once a year. Changhua and Suqin's goal in choosing this life was to get the family out of poverty, they living to work - in a clothing sweat shop - sending money home so that Qin and Yang will stay in school ... Written by Huggo
A modern train glides smoothly over a ravine bridge against a framed backdrop of snow-covered peaks and deep valleys.
It is a breathtakingly scenic surprise that sharply contrasts with the passengers crammed into the train, exhausted, heading home for a day or two after a week's wait at the city train station.
Lixin Fan's film of three consecutive New Year's migrations provides startling insight into modern China and the devastation that recent industrialization has wrecked upon a country once steeped in family-centered culture.
A young girl offers prayers for her grandfather. He has raised her and she doesn't really know much at all about her parents.
They have spent her lifetime in Guangzhou's factories making jeans for the world and sending money back home in hopes their children (they also have a younger son) will receive a strong education and rise above the menial factory work.
It is an aching portrait of modern China that should be seen.