Adam Woeltz

Final Project Paper

Chi 321

Dr. Luo

       Both Li Yang's Blind Shaft and Wang Xiaoshuai's Beijing Bicycle deal with the issue of migrant labor in in modern, post-Deng Xiaoping China. Blind Shaft looks into much darker aspects of migrant life. Beijing Bicycle more optimistically places its migrant workers in an unforgiving Beijing where they have gone hoping to stay and build a better life. The issue of internal migration is becoming a familiar topic when examining China's present situation. Blind Shaft's style and content portray the problem as a dark and serious one, with a somewhat bleak outlook. Both films incorporate important themes from Chinese culture, and the somewhat more optimistic Beijing Bicycle also touches on the issue of gender inequality in China.

       Li Yang's experience outside of China would explain a desire to speak not just of China but of a greater system of which China is a participant. He was born in Xi'an in Northwestern China, after the Cultural Revolution, attended the Beijing Broadcasting Institute for film directing, and finally studied and later immigrated to Germany. (“Li Yang” The Future of Chinese Cinema? p. 209) While attending school in Germany “Li Yang also made time to to direct a trio of documentary films, all were shot in China … [and] all were featured on German television.” (“Li Yang” 209-210) Blind Shaft limelights the effects of China's reforms on traditional Chinese culture.

       Like Li Yang, Wang Xiaoshuai is no stranger to relocation and integration into new, particularly urban, environments. “Wang's family moved from Shanghai to Guiyang, and eventually Wuhan. Then in 1981 at the age of fifteen, Wang ventured to the capital Beijing.” Potentially owing to his lack of international experience or exposure, Wang's film more prominently features distinctly Chinese elements.

       Family comes up several times throughout Blind Shaft. In Blind Shaft at (0:24:00) the two scammers who are protagonists bring up their family. Tang and Song have just finished ordering food and have recently cashed out on a scam that dominates the first part of the movie. Tang mentions that his son, like him, is a bad student who has little promise for his future studies. Song, the character who later has reservations about harming their planned victim, Feng Yuanming, has a son whom he is quite proud and fond of. The film implicates that Feng reminds Song of his own son. In the only instance of their scam we see from start to finish, Tang is the one who locates and lures the victim (0:24), likewise he seems to always take initiative when it comes to violence. The scene related to Feng Yuanming writing a letter home (0:59) speaks volumes about the way Song and Tang deal with Feng Yuanming and each other. Feng intends to write a letter home to his sister telling of his whereabouts, potentially jeopardizing the scheme. As Song inquires about it, Tang bursts in. Song immediately chastises Feng about not shaving, in a way acting as a fatherly figure. He appears to have no interest in getting in the way of Feng's family relations despite their risk to the scheme. On the contary, Tang not only wrests the letter from Song's hand, he chastises Song for his behavior as he tears up the letter. At this point, the only semblance of an immediate family any of them have is one another. There are multiple scenes in the film that depict Feng and Song together in a dorm-type room either sleeping or doing various activities such as the letter writing.        Surely this tells us something of the plight of these rural migrant workers in Blind Shaft: they're forced to depend on one another in the most intimate of ways despite the lack of a real family connection. Having no connection makes it possible for these characters to play a double-standard. Tang specifically cares about education and is supposedly sending home money for his family. Feng is forced to depend on these two men out of desperation, but the reality is they want to cash in his life for money. Rey Chow brings up some interesting points about kinship and its relation with Chinese culture and the film. She points out that “Tang and Song can get away with their murderous schemes because everyone else has already been interpellated into the “reality” of kinship ties.” (Rey Chow, “Human” in the Age of Disposable People 174). The mine owners who otherwise seem so callous towards their workers and their condition are willing to pay out what is certainly no small sum of money to compensate for the loss of these miners' family members. We see this contrast even more strongly with the case of Song. He has a conflict of interests and values and it comes to a head with Feng. He wants money because he cares about his family, as a result he's willing to exploit the importance of kinship in his culture, thereby somewhat diluting its importance, and then feels guilty. The most likely cause of his guilt is that he envisions it happening to his own son, but why can't he just feel bad for Feng as a person? Perhaps he can, but by the first few minutes of the film we know that he's already been responsible for killing at least one person for personal gain. This type of ambiguity is a hallmark of the film. It seems the director himself isn't sure. “On close examination, the story Blind Shaft is, I contend, not so much about good versus evil … as it is about the politics of human group formation.” (Rey Chow 174) Li Yang maintains an ambiguous style in ways other than plot turns as well.

       Family is an incredibly important feature of Beijing Bicycle as well. Gui's very existence in the city, especially after he has lost and is unable to find his bike is predicated on the support of his relative who owns a shop. Without it, Gui is not just a migrant worker, he's a homeless person. As for Jian, a conflict with his father manifests itself in his buying what turns out to be Gui's work bike from the black market. Although his father is extremely suspicious of him (Beijing Bicycle 0:49:20), when Jian claims that he didn't steal the money the father is still willing to believe him.

       One interesting societal issue that Beijing Bicycle hints at is the gender imbalance in China. Granted the films two protagonists are male, the overwhelming majority of characters in the film are male. Presumably Jian is single, as we have no evidence otherwise. Jian's relative comments of the maid next door, saying that he would have chased her had he known she was also from the countryside. It appears she was one of the only 'suitable' females in his life and had appeared to be unavailable to him due to class differences. In Gui's life, the bicycle is paramount to his romantic endeavors. His breaking point occurs when a much more popular boy than he wins the affections of the girl he has been chasing throughout the film. Gui's desperation indicates both the scarcity of females in his own life, and the pressure he feels in pursuing them.

       Li Yang, perhaps drawing on experience from his trio of documentaries made for German audiences while a student in Germany (Speaking in Images 209-210), gives Blind Shaft an extremely documentary-esque feel. The opening scene is a great example of this. The camera doesn't show a lot of closeups of the people's faces, especially during first few moments. We are presented with lots of people in the frames and we see them from behind before we see them from in front. There is sound however, the sound of stepping feet, the sound of the wind, and the sound of the mine-shaft elevator. After a solid three minutes of no speaking the silence barrier is broken by whistling and then actual dialogue between the miners. Even near the end when the miner's plot reaches it climax, only the sound of Tang nervously fiddling with rocks builds tension. (1:19:42) The lack of music grabs the viewer's attention more than the presence of music perhaps would in this film.

       Just as the narrator of a nature documentary avoids casting judgments or making predictions about a penguin which has escaped a killer whale or a cheetah that has succeeded in mortally wounding a gazelle, the director leaves the conclusion of the film to be made by the viewer. The film ends showing a stoic Feng Yuanming. He has just collected the money from his job mining and has nobody to speak to. We don't really know what he's thinking about as he watches his former companions, whom he came to find were plotting to kill him, being cremated. For all we know, he could very well continue the scam that Tang and Song have inadvertently taught him, he may be heading back to go to school, or go off and seek work all over again. Just like the complexity of the situation of rural migrants in China, so is the life of Feng Yuanming. 

       While Wang Xiaoshuai employs very little music and less dialogue than many other directors, he manages to ensure there's a healthy amount of noise and dialogue to keep the audience from growing uncomfortable or bored. The film itself begins with a somewhat humorous sequence of close-up interviews of migrant workers hoping to work in the city as delivery-men. This is followed by a relaxing instrumental accompanying the opening credits. While Blind Shaft takes particular aim at the most meaningful and severe aspects of human relationships: people living in exploitative conditions, familial bonds, and death, Beijing Bicycle has far more focus on the mundane normal interactions that people have in their normal day to day lives. That isn't to say that Beijing Bicycle is devoid of uncomfortable, dark and sad elements.  includes far more normal interactions such as the two migrant workers ogling the maid at the home next door.

       As for shooting styles, Beijing Bicycle does share the feel of a nature documentary compared to other films, it can't hold a match to Blind Shaft. The close-ups, relative stillness of the camera, and occasional musical relief all help us more comfortably deal with what is often a very ugly problem for Chinese society. Nonetheless, Beijing Bicycle still comes off as a more positive take on the problem of internal migration in China. Through all the blood sweat and tears, Jian and Gui are both still standing by the end of the film. Furthermore the city is going about on its business and feels very alive. Unlike the sparse, nearly lifeless final scenes of Blind Shaft, Beijing Bicycle's closing scenes are flooding with cars and people and a broader view of the people and the city bid farewell as the film rolls into closing credits. (Beijing Bicycle 1:45:30) We can't necessarily say the film is optimistic but it certainly isn't pessimistic.

Works Cited

Wang Xiaoshuai Interview: Banned in China

Jian Xu, Representing rural migrants in the city: experimentalism in Wang Xiaoshuai’s So Close to Paradise and Beijing Bicycle

Li Yang Interview: “The Future of Chinese Cinema?” Speaking in Images

Rey Chow, “’Human’ in the Age of Disposable People: The Ambiguous Import of Kinship and Education in Blind Shaft,” Sentimental Fabulations,