Youth (Hard Times)

In Spring, the first part of Wang Bing’s 2014-2019 Youth trilogy, the youthful workers toiling away in the clothing workshops of the Chinese city of Zhili were still full of life—despite the long days and work pressure. The almost four-hour sequel Hard Times, which won the Locarno film critics award, delves deeper into the precarious labor conditions in this exceptional economic region of China located some 150 kilometers from Shanghai.

Wang follows several of the 300,000 seasonal laborers, many of whom are thousands of kilometers from home, working long hours in small and largely unregulated and privately owned workshops. He observes them negotiating rates for their piecework at the end of the season, meaning that until then they are unsure how much they will earn. Workshop owners with debts, meanwhile, tend to disappear without trace, leaving their employees penniless.

One young worker talks about the brutal police violence during the 2011 riots in Zhili, when the authorities suddenly raised the ‘sewing machine tax.’ With rents rising and wages falling, these young people have growing doubts about their future.