Nine Stories

For our assignment this month, we watched the Frontline video: “Young and Restless in China”. This video was interesting to watch. It followed 9 people living in China for 4 years. It showed their advancements and how the country was affecting them. All of the topics the movie addressed were very interesting to me, and all of the injustice was shocking to me. I had heard and understood about the poverty, poor living and working conditions, and the pollution affecting China today, but I guess I never really thought about how much this would affect the citizens of China as well. The industrial work being done in China has both helped and hurt the nation. On the up-side, China has technology and is more modernized, however on the down-side; the citizens have had to endure a great deal of pain. This pain ranges from extreme poverty, brutal endless labor, lack of education opportunities, or even the loss of a family member to a human trafficker. Here, in the US, we don’t have to worry as much about these things. As a result when we hear about things like this we’re taken aback. We don’t know how to respond to occurrences like this.

The video changed some of my views on China. Growing up, in school, we never really learned too much about China. I don’t know why. I wish we did, but we didn’t for some reason. So, in my head I’ve always had varying pictures of China. One picture was that of poor rice farmers, working for long hours under the baking sun. The other picture that of a bustling city… not a huge one, but one big enough to be a city. There were many bicyclists but few cars. And the last picture I had was that of ancient China; Emperors in palaces, the Great Wall, dragons, buildings of stone, beautiful misty and mysterious mountains, and creative inventions (weapons, paper, lanterns, etc.). It seems kind of silly to say, but I didn’t know how all of these pictures came together to create the masterpiece. I didn’t even know if that was an accurate depiction of China today. This trip and the movie have helped me realize what China actually looks like. There are these things, but China has also become industrialized. The cities have grown and developed. Skyscrapers, billions of people, and hundreds upon hundreds of cars touch every corner of the major cities. I now know China is greater than just the place you plan to dig to while in the sandbox.

The differences between the social classes are great in China. "There's actually a lot of discrimination in China, if you don't have money, people will look down on you."—Wang Xiaolei. There are people living in the country who have to become either farmers or migrant workers. And then there are people living in the city who are starting their own businesses. It’s pretty incredible how different the people’s lives are just based on where they live.

My favorite character in the movie was Wei Zhanyan. She seemed very sweet, and looked like a hard worker. She grew up in a small village. She had to quit school very early in her life. Her parents didn’t have very much money so she became a migrant worker. She helped pay for her brother’s schooling. I thought this was very selfless of her. I’m sure it was hard for her to help her brother get the learning he wanted when she wanted the same thing. The difficulties she had connecting with her mother made Wei’s struggles greater. “Children without mothers have to grow up fast” – Yang Haiyan. In the movie we find out Wei’s parents have set her up with an arranged marriage. This surprised me because I didn’t realize an arranged marriage was still a tradition in China. Wei didn’t like the man she was engaged to, and decided not to follow the tradition. She did not marry him. This must have taken a lot of courage to break away from the tradition and her family’s decision; and I respect her for it. Recently, Zhanyan and another migrant worker, her friend Jiang Ping, got married and moved to Mongolia to be with his family. Not too long ago, she gave birth to a son. I like Wei because she was so strong and kindhearted even when it was hard for her, and even when the times were bad.

“Because I don't like to fight. I don't think fighting can solve problems. It's 2006 now. You use your brain to solve problems."—Wang Xiaolei – Rapper

Unfortunately the problems in China are growing at the same rate as the growing industries. Hopefully we can stand together and ‘use our brains to solve the problems’.