Country vs. City: Life of Immigrants
Introduction
Over
the past few months, we have seen many films with a variety of topics,
friendship, modernization, feminism, etc. One film that we thought was
particularly interesting is the movie Beijing
Bicycle directed by WANG
Xiaoshuai. This movie is about a young adult from the countryside going out of
his comfort zone and moving into the city for work. He is in a totally new
environment, and has very little knowledge of the city life. The main focal
point of the movie revolves around the main character and his bike. He uses it
to get around the city working for a package delivery type service where he is
put in many situations in which he is often misunderstood or taken advantage
of. In this essay, we will analyze the main character Guo’s predicament in this
strange new environment in this clash of city versus country in which he is, in
a sense, crippled by a sort of “culture shock” as seen throughout the movie. He
tries to deal with different types of situations but everything is so alien
from what he is used to that he ends up having no idea what to do in these
circumstances and either just blankly stares with a confuse look or runs away.
The film really captures the emotions of poor Guo as misfortune befalls upon
him. In an article by Jian Xu, Beijing
Bicycle “examines the difficulties of making a living in an environment in
which there is little support and trust, and the possibility of these workers
forming new social ties and eventually assimilating to the city (Jian 434).”
Country
vs. City in Beijing Bicycle
At the start of the movie there is already apparent that
one can tell if someone is from the city or the country just by looking at
them. When Guo gets the mail delivery job, the employer gives him his company uniform
and says that he now looks like he is from the city. He goes on to make his
first delivery and is in a stated of bewilderment. He starts waddling into a
set of revolving doors. He gets distracted by it and misses the exit as the
door behind traps him in and has to wait for another rotation for the doors to
open up again into the building. Everything seems foreign to him, he slowly
walks into the building, his head turning in every direction because he has no
idea where he is supposed to go everything is so foreign to him. Something as
simple as a rotating door is strange to him and has to figure out how to use
it.
As Guo goes on to make his second run to pick up a
package by Mr. Zhang. He goes up to the front desk and asks for Mr Zhang,
completely baffled by the way they do meetings, making him strip down and take
a shower before visiting the person only to find out that they sent him to the
wrong Mr. Zhang. The receptionist at the front desk then tells Guo he has to
pay for his shower. Guo refuses, arguing that he never wanted to go and take a
shower in the first place and that she just made him go. But if we pay closer
attention, the receptionist at the front desk yells out that he is a customer so
he clearly knows that there might be some sort of mistake but decided to go in
regardless. When he tries to run away and was stopped by the security guard,
Mr. Zhang, the manager of the massage parlor and the man that Guo was supposed
to see, comes and says “You certainly took your time” as Guo helplessly stares
at the ground trying to avoid eye contact. “So you went for a show? You’re a
wise guy.” Even though Mr. Zhang was scolding him, Guo just remains silent and does
nothing. His head farther lowers as Mr. Zhang continues. His facial expression
just screams “but it wasn’t my fault, they made me go in,” but he never says
it. He never explains himself even when it would clear up the whole
misunderstanding but instead just lets Zhang yell at him as he just stands
there dumbfounded.
As the movie progresses, we begin to see that the main
protagonist never really seems to know what to do and ends up either not saying
anything or running away. There was a scene where very limited dialogue was
present, when Guo runs into the “city girl”, who was on her way to buy
groceries, and knocks her out. When she wakes up, none of
them spoke; neither Guo or his friend asked how she was feeling, they just
stare at her as she just gets up and walks off. Why? Perhaps the characters
feel that there is some kind of barrier between city and country folks, because
they feel that they are from two different world. Xu explains why the woman did
not speak, for if she did, it would then be known to the two men that she is in
fact also from the country just like them. He goes on to say that “on the
symbolic level, the country girl’s silence is especially important because it
signifies the imaginary nature of the migrant men’s relationship to the
condition of existence in the metropolis. This is the significance of the
girl’s mistaken identity. (Jiang 446)”
Character
Anaylsis
The characters of the Beijing
Bicycle are essential to the development of the plot. Guo, being from the
country, is a hard working and responsible teenager, and treated his bike like it’s
his life, because it is the only thing he had. He is also uneducated, lacks
intelligence and social skills. His personality is skewed because of the fact
that he is from the country, which leads to all the difficulties he faced
throughout the movie. Jian, on the other hand, is educated and outspoken, but
is also very immature and disrespectful. Although his personality was very
different from Guo’s, one thing that they share in common is that they both
took care of their bikes (or bike, since he owned the same one), and will do
anything to get the bike back. The importance of the contrast of their
personalities is that it shows how difficult it is for Guo to live in the city.
Before his bike was stolen, he was having trouble adjusting to the city life.
After his bike was stolen, he was constantly living in fear of having his bike
stolen again. To Guo’s credit, although he lacks the social skills to resolve situations,
he never gave up on recovering his bike, and his relentlessness shows how
responsible of a person he is.
In an article written by Jian Xu, titled “Representing
rural migrants in the city experimentalism in Wang Xiaoshuai’s So Close to Paradise and Beijing Bicycle”, the author give a
clear analysis of challenges immigrants face moving to the city. A quote from
the article can illustrate this point: “The direct encounter between the two
youths sets up contrast of values and enables a more concrete representation of
the lived experience of rural migrants” (Xu 422). As Xu stated, during the
opening scene of the movie when a group of rural youths were being interviewed
in a documentary style, “their mannerism and accents immediately place them
outside Beijing” (Xu 422), which complete describes the situation of most immigrants.
Beside Guo being a prime representation of that quote, Qin, the “city girl” is
also a good example. She changes her style of clothing and tries to adjust her
mannerism in order the hide the fact that she is from the country, but she
knows that there is one thing that is close to impossible to get rid of: her
accent. That is why throughout the movie, you never hear her talk. It is not
because the character did not have the opportunity to talk throughout the
movie, but she chooses not to in order to not give away the fact the she is
from the country, as her accent will reveal that truth.
Beijing Bicycle vs.
Blind Shaft
The two movies share a similar
representation of the lives of immigrants, and they difficulty the face moving
into the city. While Beijing Bicycle involves
the struggle of Guo having trouble adjusting to the city life, Blind Shaft gives the audience a darker,
more realistic representation of immigrants’ struggle. The plot describe two
con artists convincing strangers who are looking for work on the street to
pretend to be their family member, and killing them in the mines in order to
receive the compensation. Things changed when one of the con artist, Song,
becomes attached to their next target, a young boy from the country named Fengming,
who is from the country. Song is touched by his naivety and his
kind-hearted personality, and becomes attached to him. The interesting thing is
that both the con artists are also from the country, and they are reminded of
that throughout the movie (Karaoke place and brothel). The similarly that this
two movie share is the fact the characters that are immigrants, all came to the
city for work, and their families livelihood is also dependent on them.
Although they are in different situations, and the movies’ settings are
different, they all need their jobs in order to survive. Guo needs his bike in
order to make a living, and Song (arguably) needs to continue to be a con
artist so that he can send money back to his family in the country, even though
he was reluctant to continue killing people because of Fengming.
Conclusion
People
who have never had to live in a new environment may never understand immigrants
experienced, and it is even more difficult for them to understand immigrants
who moved from different areas of a country, from country to city. Some people
may think that it cannot be to hard since they are moving from the same
country, but stereotypical judgment against people from rural areas may hurt
just as much as racism. I (Chris) being from Hong Kong, have seen many locals
discriminating against immigrants from mainland China because of their accents
and mannerism. But I believe that everyone deserves a chance to be successful,
and if they have worked so hard to move to the city, why not give them a chance
to succeed? Through Beijing Bicycle,
we learn that hard work and dedication may not be enough to move into the city,
as sometimes you have to disguise yourself, just like Qin, in order to be
visually accepted by the society. I say visually because as soon as city people
hear country people speak, they will recognize their accent and immediately
discriminate them. Guo is a perfect example of the struggles new immigrants face
when they first move into the city, as the mostly have to work as a labor and
have difficulty adjust to the lifestyle.
Our Movie
Raymond and I wanted to demonstrate
some of our ideas of what it is like for immigrants to move into the city, so
we made a movie that reenacts similar situations that Guo experience in Beijing Bicycle. We tried to put
ourselves in the shoes of a new immigrant, and trying to interpret and
understand the immigrant’s experience, and the adjustment that the immigrant
has to make.
Works Cited
Jian Xu, Representing
rural migrants in the city: eperimentalism in Wan Xiaoshuai’s So Close to
Paradise and Beijing Bicycle.
October 21, 2010 screen.oxfordjournals.org 12/8/13
