Wang Bing’s latest documentary on textile factories in China, double-edged

A great Chinese documentarian, Wang Bing has created a long film about workers in Chinese textile factories who are shaking up the sector internationally. “Youth (Spring)” is in theaters Wednesday.

Multi-awarded in France for his documentaries, and winner of the Golden Leopard at the Locarno Festival in 2017 for Mr Fang on Alzheimer’s disease, Wang Bing deals in his latest film with cheap Chinese labor which allows the Middle Kingdom to dominate the clothing sector in the world. Youth (spring) releases in French cinemas on January 3.

General jubilation

The town of Zhili, 150 km from Shanghai, is dedicated to textile manufacturing, and attracts young people from all rural regions to make their fortune there. Young women and men in their twenties share workshops and dormitories, they eat in corridors cluttered with rubbish, and let off steam in festive evenings. They all share the same dreams: to get married, have a child, become an owner or create their own workshop. Friendships and loves are created and dissolved, under the pressure of productivity and family tensions.

Handheld camera and without any commentary, Wang Bing follows the workers as closely as possible, riveted to their machine. They often work in male-female pairs, which makes meetings easier. Despite the pressures and the low salaries, an incredible lightness inhabits these workshops: music, jokes, laughter, bickering, flirting never stops from morning to evening. Everything seems to be going well in the best of all possible worlds, since the infernal pace and minimum wages do not prevent us from living happily in the service of the most profitable productivity. But in his demonstration, does Wang Bing not denounce in depth the Chinese government manipulation of its citizens?

Double-edged

We should therefore not fall into the trap of this apparent jubilation on the screen. If it really seems to be experienced by the protagonists, it is all the more worrying on a political level, where a pernicious system would manage to impose and internalize an economic and social system – an ideology – on the population. The ideals of these workers are similar to those of a segment of Western populations, such as that of owning the latest smartphone, for example. Or do they match the lyrics of a popular song: “I love you, I want to marry you, have a child and a house with you, that would be the Moon for both of us”. Idealized goals that would justify the efforts and sacrifices required to achieve them.

The demonstration in the film is no less dangerous, since it can be taken at face value and serve a system that is well anchored in Chinese mentalities. The insistence on salary negotiations always being possible also praises the open-mindedness of the bosses, but these remain very paternalistic and at a minimum. The episode where a worker is pushed by authority and her family not to have an abortion, shows the intrusion of the system into personal life, even if over the 3h30 of the feature film, the subject is a little introductory. From this point of view, the duration and temporality of the film (shot over five years) lead to a certain repetitiveness. If it goes in the direction of denouncing alienation from the task (as in Modern times by Chaplin from 1936), we can find the time long.

The sheet

Gender : Documentary
Director: Wang Bing
Country : China
Duration : 3h32
Exit : January 3, 2024
Distributer : Acacias