Shot over four years from 2004, Young and Restless in China follows the lives of nine young Chinese men and women as they strive to cope with the dizzying pace of change in modern China. While it is sometimes a little difficult to keep track of the characters, their stories are never less than absorbing.
The Universal and Unique in Young and Restless in China
Each character in the film is performing a balancing act, much like young people anywhere. Torn between family expectations and a desire for independence, work and home, the practicalities of life and the search for something deeper, their stories have a universal ring.
Yet the film also highlights what is unique about China at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The entrepreneurs – starting up tailoring, hotel and internet café businesses – are full of optimism, supremely confident that their hard work is going to make them rich. As one of them says, China today is “the land of opportunity.” By contrast, the lawyer and doctor are idealists, working to further the people’s rights to health care and property. Such rights are an unprecedented notion.
Lower down the social scale are the migrant workers, young women who had to give up their education to support their older brothers. The film follows them back to their home villages, a world away from the high-rises and traffic of the city. Rural China is a place of back-breaking work, unpaved roads and often polluted water. The search for a better life often means families are apart for months, even years, at a time.
And then there’s the rapper, probably the star of the film. Dressed in the regulation baseball cap and baggy pants, and affecting a tough-guy swagger, he actually comes across as rather sweet. “Girls are just interested in money, not love,” he says at one point. “It makes me depressed.”
Young and Restless in China First Part of Series of Films
Produced by Ambrica Productions for the US Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), Young and Restless in China is a snapshot of a country entering uncharted waters. The film doesn’t offer much historical context for the changes underway, but it does provide a candid glimpse of life in China.
This film was a labour of love for writer, producer and director Sue Williams. She told the audience at a screening in Hong Kong that it was probably the most difficult film she’s worked on. Getting the stories of nine such disparate people to form a coherent narrative meant spending months in the editing room.
“I would have liked it to be shorter,” she said, “but PBS didn’t agree.”
Williams plans to make a series of five films over twenty years, until 2024, following the lives of these same characters. Young and Restless in China is available on DVD from the production company.
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