The Asian Economist

Alright, since quite a few people were miffed by my last article, here is my review of the film Beijing Bicycle by Wang Xiao Shuai that should balance things out.

Wang Xiao Shuai’s 2001 film “Beijing Bicycle” centre’s around the main character, Guo Lian Gui, who gets a job in Bei Jing as a bicycle courier for a firm called Fei Da Express Delivery. After gaining his job at the delivery service, Gui is told that over time, the bicycle Fei Da has bought for him will be his and this would come through deductions in his pay. Gui pursues this objective, making as many deliveries as he can (marked down in his notepad as the character 正 (zhèng)) to attain full control of the bicycle. However, after a mishap during one delivery to a “Mr. Zhang”, his bicycle goes missing, having been stolen by a student named Jian, who wants the bicycle in order to be accepted at school and go out with a Xiao, a female friend of his. Gui is fired for losing the bike, but is told that he can be re-hired, provided he find the bike and bring it back, which he does, after finding Jian’s location and residency after Jian and Xiao stop by his friend’s small convenience store. After finding his bike and making two attempts to take it twice, he is beaten up by Jian’s clique, and due to his stubborn quality, forces negotiations, coming to a deal whereby him and Jian would exchange the bike every other day. However, Jian’s jealousy of Xiao’s switch from him to another biker, Da Huan, results in him assaulting Huan on one of the days of the exchange, resulting in him and Gui getting beaten up by Da Huan and his clique. Gui’s bike is broken by one of the clique members who then has his head bashed in by Gui in a moment of anger. The film ends with an injured Gui carrying his broken bike in front of a mass of bike riders during a Beijing sundown.

From watching Wang Xiao Shuai’s film, “Beijing Bicycle” , it can be seen that there are several themes running through the film that are all major issues in the new modern society of China. These issues range from theft, income inequality, peer pressure, and cultural disunity. Cultural disunity in “Beijing Bicycle” is the main theme underlying the plot of Beijing Bicycle.
Cultural disunity in Beijing Bicycle makes itself evident through the prejudice between the city residents living in Beijing and the country residents coming into Beijing attempting to forge a living for themselves. This prejudice makes itself known in the negative attitude of the Beijing residents towards the incoming rural workers.

This prejudiced attitude makes itself evident at the start of the film. At the start of Beijing Bicycle, the film opens with an unknown voice asking questions to various individuals, including Gui. This eventually turns out to be a job interview for the delivery company that Gui is employed in. the scene then shifts to a manager who tells the new employees what they are there to do and the importance of their duties as well as their bikes. These two scenes demonstrate the negative attitude of city residents towards incoming rural workers in one way. With the opening interview scene, the origin of the voice, although female, is not given a face- it is apathetic, robotic and alien. Of course, this is a job interview, and usually the interviewer only serves to ask questions. However, there is no acknowledgement or indication that the interview has ended. The anonymous interviewer continues to ask questions in an apathetic manner, and rarely shows emotion- the emotion being one of slight annoyance when a couple of the interviewees ask her to repeat the question again. This annoyance is the first part demonstrating the prejudiced attitude of Beijing residents towards incoming rural workers in Beijing bicycle.

The second part of this comes from the manager himself. His entry into the film sees him pacing up and down in front of the new employees, stating their purpose and the importance of that purpose to the company. However, he does this in a negative position that is demonstrated by his posture and actions. Firstly, his posture does not face towards the new employees, but faces away and to the side. He rarely looks at them, and does not even look at them face to face, as if they are not deserving of his personal attention. Instead, he looks at the ground. This negative position is reinforced by his manner of speech. He speaks slowly and plainly, all the while walking sideways and looking at the ground, expecting the new employees to pay attention to him, as if they are disposable things. This simple scene demonstrates the negative attitude held by Beijing residents towards incoming rural workers that come to Beijing for a job to help themselves and their families out. This scene also demonstrates, simply through the managers attitude, the change in attitude of city residents towards rural ones during the period of China’s economic growth in the 1980’s, 1990’s and 2000’s. Thus, what has been demonstrated here is cultural disunity, represented through the negative attitudes and prejudices and ignorance of the city residents towards the rural workers.

Cultural disunity as an underlying theme in Beijing Bicycle is demonstrated even further through the concept of ignorance in the film. This ignorance is demonstrated by the again prejudiced attitude of the Beijing schoolboy bicycle gangs in the film towards Gui. This is shown dominantly with Jian’s bicycle gang, which intimidates, and then physically assaults Gui on the basis that Gui stole Jian’s ‘new’ bike. Whether or not it was new - bought with Jian’s fathers money - or Gui’s original bike stolen by Jian, who would know the city, is a completely different issue. What matters here is the ignorance demonstrated by Jian and his bike gang towards Gui. They don’t ask him about his origin, or his motives and instead intimidate and forcefully take Gui’s bike. Furthermore, they beat Gui with his own bike at several points and, after Jian’s father scolds them in public, beat Gui even more. They then attempt to negotiate with Gui, and although succeeding, results in more long term pain for Gui, since he also gets beaten up by Da Huan’s biker gang because of Jian’s envy inspired actions. What has been demonstrated by Wang Xiao Shuai here, is simple ignorance. Gui in no way looks like a Beijing resident, given his attire and the only new part of it being the company standard issue delivery boy jacket, that ends up torn at the end of the film. Gui does not even attend school in the film because he needs to earn the money. Gui needs the bike for work, whilst Jian wants it for play. The interaction between both parties demonstrates ignorance on the side of Beijing residents and the determination of the incoming rural workers to show that they are not disposable resources. In this way, cultural disunity is demonstrated by ignorance.
In conclusion, what can be seen here is that the theme of cultural disunity is carried out through indirect actions and events in Beijing Bicycle, such as the posture of the manager and the ignorance of Jian’s biker gang.