Er shi si cheng ji (24 City) (2008) Movie Script
Chengfa Group
The five-star red flag flutters in the wind
How glorious our song of victory
Singing for our beloved motherland
As she prospers and grows strong
CEREMONY FOR TRANSFER OF LAND
FROM CHENGFA GROUP TO CR LAND LTD
Dear Directors,
distinguished guests, good morning.
Today, 29 December 2007,
will mark a new and glorious chapter
in the development of the Chengfa Group.
For nearly 50 years
we have faced difficulties
and challenging breakthroughs
of economic reform.
Now a revitalized Chengfa Group
is about to move
from the site of the old factory...
The cherished hibiscus of 24 City,
in full bloom
Chengdu shone and prospered
Ancient poem
CHENGDU ClTY
He Xikun
Back then, we thought of 420
as a large factory.
But I knew that it did work for the military.
It made aircraft and aero engines.
We were fitters, our job was to repair
all the machinery and equipment in 420.
We were solely responsible for repairs.
We did regular maintenance
and repairs when necessary.
We took care of all that.
Back then, he was in charge
of Fitter Group 4.
There's one thing I remember...
I had just arrived.
I had no idea that the fitters
made their own tools.
One thing we used was called a scraper.
It was a kind of blade, shaped like this.
We had to make them ourselves.
When we received the metal,
we cut it and then honed the edge.
It was about this long.
As it got worn down and became this short,
we couldn't use it anymore.
But he kept on using them regardless.
When the thing was really worn out,
he hung it from his belt.
As you had to hone the edge,
the tool got all worn away.
Useless! But he kept on using it.
One time, a scraper was worn
right down so I threw it away.
Then Master Wang said: "Xiao He,
"you know that this small thing
"has come into our hands
through those of many others.
"lt can still be used."
So he picked it up,
re-honed it and used it again.
I was so impressed.
People like me were too immature.
We had to learn not to be wasteful.
Old masters like Master Wang knew well:
"Waste not want not".
He was right and I learned that from him.
He knew how many hands our tools
had passed through.
I feel guilty
when I speak about Master Wang.
For years, I've been so busy
that I haven't visited him.
He Xikun, born 1948 in Chengdu
Apprenticed in 1964 in Workshop 61
Later joined the army
He Xikun, male, aged 30
Work card 07718968
issued by State mechanic factory Xindu
During the clashes
of the Cultural Revolution,
factories and mines stopped work.
But he carried on working.
Hardly anyone went to the factory.
Talking about this
makes me feel a bit sad.
I would have died if you hadn't come.
She's hidden everything.
Hidden what? What was there to hide?
She mentioned a knife.
I can neither live nor die.
I have nothing left.
They took three X-rays.
After a long wait.
This hospital is hopeless.
They suggested we move
to the provincial hospital.
Were the X-rays computer-enhanced?
-So the images are clear?
-Think so.
What have you got to say?
What have you got to say?
You! What have you got to say?
Seeing you makes me a bit nervous.
Nervous?
Are you happy?
Happy to see me?
Of course I'm happy.
It's been so long.
Too bad!
I wouldn't have known you
if we'd passed on the street.
I wouldn't have known you.
Have I changed?
Look, I'm thinner.
Just like for those
who were in my workshop.
We greet each other when we meet.
But I forget.
My brain's rusty.
Too slow.
It was okay before.
I used to remember things well.
But not now.
You did a lot for the factory.
Back then,
when I started working here,
I used to worry.
I came here in 1959.
If I ever took a day off, I'd work nights
to make up.
I even worked through New Year
and on Sundays.
Every single day.
We were under pressure back then.
It was during the Korean war.
Right.
ALWAYS FOLLOW THE PATH
OF DEVELOPMENT CORRECTLY
WORK LOYALLY FOR OUR ARMY
Secretary Guan
Guan Fengjiu,
born 1935 in Haicheng, Liaoning
Head of security in Factory 420
Deputy secretary of Party Committee
when he retired
We were implementing
Chairman Mao's strategy.
Moving military factories to inland areas
sheltered by the mountains here.
Armament factories and the aeronautics
were in the north-east.
During the Korean War,
that was the front line against the Yanks.
In line with the new strategy,
we built factories in the south-west.
We picked this place.
We were under contract to Factory 111.
We repaired aircraft engines there,
MlG-15s during the Korean War.
They were used by the Chinese
and North Korean air forces
to fight American imperialism.
Factory 111 built Factory 420.
It was Factory 111...
On 3 November,
there was a general assembly.
Our factory was going
to build 420 in Chengdu.
We needed 60% of the staff,
That is, 60% of the Factory 111 staff.
We all had to move down here.
A certain amount of the equipment
from 111 was moved here
with the people to run it.
Various specialists,
technical staff, cadres mobilized.
The meeting was on 3 November,
I transferred in December.
I was in charge of the security section.
I was one of the first to arrive.
There were more
than four thousand workers.
HOU LlJUN
After Mom came here,
every year I thought of visiting home
to see my parents.
She wanted that too,
thought about it year on year.
But then... Job, family, kids!
Not to mention, the cost of it.
She couldn't afford to visit home.
Bottom line...
After coming here in 1958,
when did we first go back to Shenyang?
It was in 1972.
She had left in 1958.
Between 1958 and 1972, 14 years.
I was 18 or 19 by then.
I'd finished middle school.
Only then did I first go back
to Shenyang with Mom.
The first time back.
-Do you remember that trip?
-Sure I do.
I remember it vividly.
What was it like?
Well, it was...
Coming home like that...
It was 14 years since Mom had left.
As soon as we got there,
my Grandma and her husband
broke down in tears.
I was still too young to really understand.
I didn't appreciate why they felt so strongly.
I didn't understand what they felt.
Hou Lijun, born 1953 in Shenyang
Repairman in workshop 63 of Factory 420
And when we were about to leave,
they all said:
"We must take you to the station.
If you stay away this long again,
"we'll be more than 70 years old next time.
"Will there be another chance to meet?"
Then I understood
why Grandpa had cried like that.
When the train started moving,
Grandpa broke down in tears again.
As the train pulled out,
Mom kept her composure.
But me...
I began to cry myself.
On the train, I began sobbing out loud.
I felt so sorry for my grandparents.
Mom lived so far away
she couldn't visit them.
It was so hard for us to go back.
The great thing was
that Grandma was lucky.
Near the end of her life, she said:
"My greatest wish is to go to Chengdu
"to see my eldest daughter."
That is, my mother.
She finally came here in 1985.
At the age of 86, she finally made it.
The second year after she'd gone back...
The second year
she passed away.
How many in your own family?
We're a three-person family.
Standard size.
-Your husband works in the factory?
-Yes, he does.
-What's his job?
-A kind of
surface treatment in the coating workshop.
Surface treatment.
-You have a son or a daughter?
-A son.
When he was in the sixth grade
of primary school,
I was laid off.
-How old were you then?
-I was 41.
Was it a political decision
or some other reason?
Political, to reduce staff numbers.
They cut back and increased efficiency.
The factory needed fewer people,
so we were laid off.
I was one of the first to go.
I recall ten or so lay-offs in our workshop.
We had a last dinner together
at Hekouwei Restaurant.
He had booked many tables.
But that night we could hardly eat.
Manu couldn't eat, they just cried openly.
Everyone cried.
Everyone pulled at the hands
of Director Cao and Director Yang.
They said:
"I've never come late for work.
Director Cao agreed they hadn't.
"Was there ever a time
when I didn't do my best?"
Director Cao said: "Never."
In fact, nobody was in the wrong.
Nobody had come to work late
or not given their best.
Director Cao said I'd never failed at my job.
And I'd never come in late,
never made a mistake.
But they simply didn't need
so many people.
There was less work.
They were earning less money.
They couldn't support everyone.
They gave us all a small pay-off.
So we went home. As for the dinner...
We cried. Some of us didn't eat at all.
I ate just to encourage the others.
I was just pretending,
urging the other to tuck in.
That's what I did.
We call that "smiling through your tears".
That's what I did.
I kept telling them: "Why cry?
"Let's eat!"
In 1994, I was 41 years old.
I'd left school at middle school.
A 41-year-old woman.
My kid was in the sixth grade.
I had to pay his tuition fees
and feed three people.
I had just about...
When I went out job-hunting,
I put up a motto on the wall.
It read like this:
"Come rain, come shine,
I must go forward."
I went out looking for a job every day.
Always had my motto in mind.
Anyhow, I went out looking for work.
I tried all over Chengdu.
Again and again.
I tried at the Job Center.
In Chengdu City, there's a Job Center
in the Workers' Cultural Palace.
You sign up there.
You look everywhere, you ask friends...
Maybe an old friend has work for you.
It's so hard, really not easy to find a job.
I couldn't find one
so I tried selling on the street.
What did I sell?
I sold yellow michelia flowers.
You can wear them in your buttonhole.
I sold that.
Early every morning,
I bought them at Qingshi Bridge.
I set up on Dongfeng Road
by a little tree. I had to be discreet.
If the cops or the city inspectors saw me,
they would confiscate the flowers.
Later, thanks to some friends...
Yes, thanks to some friends...
I was introduced to other jobs.
Slowly, step by step.
Are you working now?
Nowadays?
I do some sewing at home. I'm retired.
I have a pension, but I still do some sewing.
-You do what?
-I sew.
I sew at home.
Didn't you notice that at my home?
I put up the sign "Sewing" at my window.
I still do a bit of that at home.
Just a little. I like it.
I earn some money
and have something to do.
If you have something to do,
you age more slowly.
If you have something to do,
you age more slowly
I have a date tonight
I will not sleep tonight
When the bell sounds
across space and time
It wakes the new millennium
Come, dear friends
Come, fellow workmates
Regulations for retired persons'
cultural room
WANTED
Dormitory area in Factory 420
Dali, going out?
Feel better?
Much better.
Dali
Aunty, I'll hang it for you.
Please.
You called me "aunty"?
You should call me "granny".
Granny.
This Director Song, has he come yet?
He has.
He's probably in a meeting with the bosses.
Are you new here?
Yes. I just graduated.
You can wear make-up to work?
Foreign enterprises expect you to,
or they won't hire you.
Isn't this state-owned?
Factory 420 was a state secret.
The original name was Xindu Machinery.
Later it became the Chengfa Group.
Its code name has been 420 all along.
Like a military designation.
That never changed.
I remember when we got our wage packets,
there was a 5 yuan bonus for secrecy.
Pretty good!
Around 1960,
at the time of the natural disasters,
people didn't have enough to eat.
But our factory gave us each
Our work was vital, aeronautical stuff.
No negligence.
Hao Dali, worker in Factory 420
Held the national title of March 8th
Red Banner Holder
Factory Xindu staff canteen
Vegetable Ration Coupon
I still remember that on pay days,
the bank set up a desk at the factory gate.
It was just a table really
for us to deposit our wages.
Back in 1975, I earned 58 yuans.
I deposited 30 yuan every month.
I fed my family
and sent some money back to Shenyang.
My sister lived in a village,
she had many children.
So I sent her all my old clothes.
She altered them for her kids.
The factory provided us
with uniforms, work-gloves,
that kind of thing.
I never threw them away.
I collected the used gloves
and I sent them to my sister.
She washed them, unraveled the thread,
made balls of it,
and wove clothes, trousers
for my nephews.
This year, my sister...
Her youngest son, actually,
sent me 500 yuans.
So I rang my sister
and asked her:
"Why are you sending me money?
"What for?"
She answered:
"l know things are tough in your factory."
My sister's son lives in the village.
He runs a small grocery store.
It gives him some extra income.
It never crossed my mind
that I'd need help from my sister in old age.
When did you join the factory?
Factory 420, in 1958.
From Shenyang, we moved here in groups.
I was in the last group.
My boy was three years old.
I was 18 when he was born.
So I'd be 21! Yes, 21 that year.
Not quite an adult, in fact.
I'd never left home before,
I'd never been on a boat.
That year,
the Chengdu-Baoji railway collapsed.
No route overland, so we came by river.
First a train to Dalian,
then a boat to Shanghai.
Then we took a river-boat
along the Yangtze to Chongqing.
And then a bus from Chongqing
to Chengdu.
It took 15 days to get to Chengdu.
As we approached Goddess Peak,
there was thick fog that day.
We went on deck,
but we couldn't see anything. Nothing at all.
I'd never been on a boat before.
I felt seasick and threw up.
All around me, it was chaotic on the boat.
My husband suggested
that I rest for a while.
But I couldn't sleep.
There were kids running around.
I still felt seasick. Still kept throwing up.
And the boat was juddering.
Not easy. We finally reached Fengjie.
In Fengjie, we docked on the wharf.
We went on land.
They gave us two hours there.
It was nice to take a breather.
But the boat was carrying
important equipment.
So we couldn't stay long.
During the short stop, it was really...
Everyone went ashore.
We were a small community,
everyone knew each other.
So I was off-guard.
They sounded the first siren.
It meant that there was
half an hour to departure.
My husband and l
were buying some local specialties
and some oranges.
I suddenly thought about my boy.
He wasn't with me anymore.
I panicked and started calling him.
I called and called.
But I couldn't find him.
I panicked.
My husband tried to reassure me:
"Maybe he went back to the boat
with the other kids."
So we went to the boat
to see if he was there.
All the other kids were back.
All the other families were together.
Except us.
My husband panicked too.
He called his workmates.
They looked for him everywhere.
I was at my wits' end.
My husband and I rushed back ashore
to look for him.
But we couldn't find him.
And then,
the second siren sounded.
Some women comrades
dragged me back to the boat.
When we were transferred
from Shenyang to Chengdu,
we were working for the military.
Part of the war effort.
Everything we did had implications
for national security.
That made me all the more nervous.
They said Chiang Kai-Shek
was going to invade China.
So when that siren sounded,
it was like an army bugle.
We had to go.
Then
a big crowd of people
dragged me back to the boat.
I leaned on the railings.
The boat went farther offshore,
the houses turned smaller.
I felt that my child
got farther and farther away.
I hated myself so much.
My heart was flurried.
It was empty.
Jaguar! The Commies are taking the bait!
The Commies are taking the bait!
Captain Morgan...
Act in good faith!
Second!
A flotilla of small planes on the right!
Enemy planes in the south-west!
Enemy planes in the west!
It's clear, enemy tactics have changed.
They're using small planes as decoys
and surrounding us with big ones.
Very crafty!
Captain!
The bombers have crossed sector 2.
Captain!
Bombing as originally planned.
OBSERVE SAFETY, TREASURE LlFE
If the aeronautics factory
is like a huge eyeball
The laboring is its pupil
Poem by Ouyang Jianghe
Song Weidong
The money we get selling this land
will be used to build a new industrial park.
Our workshops will move there, one by one.
Our offices here will become
a five-star hotel.
Song Weidong, born 1966 in Chengdu
Assistant to General Manager
of Chengfa Group
Factory 420, the whole of it,
was quite large.
The whole place was a kind of world apart.
Take me, for example.
From kindergarten,
primary school, middle school, high school,
I always attended the schools
for the workers' children.
It was the same for all the other kids.
Within the factory precincts,
there was a cinema, a swimming pool.
In the summer,
the factory made its own soft drinks.
Each family took bottles
to bring them home.
We were proud of the factory.
with Chengdu City.
We thought
we didn't need the local people.
No need. We had a great life.
The only way we connected with local kids
was through fights.
The eastern suburbs
had a history of fighting
even before Liberation.
There were a lot of pitched battles here.
We took on the local kids,
there were non-stop conflicts and clashes.
Often near the double bridge.
We almost always won.
We outnumbered them
and were all from one place.
Whereas they were much less unified.
But they hit on a strategy.
Quite a strategy.
Ambushes. They'd hide somewhere
and if we were alone or in a small group,
they'd ambush us and beat us.
And then we'd counter-attack.
If you beat me today,
tomorrow I'll beat you back.
I remember one time in particular.
I was in grade three.
In 1976.
I'd just learned how to ride a bike.
One afternoon
I took my father's bike, a Phoenix 28.
I took it and rode it away.
I rode the bike a long way
and found myself in another sector.
I had left the zone of influence
of Factory 420.
I turned around at once.
Too late! A gang of boys trapped me.
They caught me
and escorted me to their base.
They had a leader, another kid.
His name is Zhou Chao.
I was taken before him fearing the worst.
The kids were jeering me.
As in some movie, they said:
"On behalf of the masses,
I sentence you to death."
I was sure they were going to beat me up.
I just wanted my bike, I had to get it back.
To my surprise, Zhou Chao said to me:
"I've thought it over,
"Premier Zhou Enlai passed away today.
"So I'll let you off."
Then he and his boys left.
I was amazed.
I rode home in a hurry. When I got there,
I found my parents making
little white paper flowers.
Premier Zhou had really passed away.
I went through puppy love too. I was 16.
In grade two of High School.
High School used to be two years.
When I graduated, I had a girlfriend.
Her family was also from the north-east.
She was offered a place
in South-West Medical College.
I wanted to go to university too
but my family didn't agree
because our factory offered
really good benefits to its staff.
And I might be assigned
to somewhere else after graduating.
So they insisted that I take
my father's place eventually.
I had to learn his skills.
So I stayed in the factory.
Back then,
our factory was really pretty good.
In 1978, after the Cultural Revolution,
there was a war against Vietnam.
They needed a lot of munitions.
But after that, there was a decline.
The factory profits went down.
So her family wanted her to break with me.
One day,
I remember very clearly,
she broke up with me.
I was roller skating.
She came to find me.
There was a wire netting
around the skating rink,
a wire-netting barrier. I was inside it.
She was outside. She had an ice popsicle.
She passed it to me over the railing.
I'd taken two bites from it
when she came out with it. She said:
"We're so young,
"our love is so immature."
I understood it right away.
I interrupted her and said:
"So it's over between us."
And she said: "You said it first."
She implied it was my decision.
I said: "Yes, I said it first."
Then she left.
She didn't look back.
I remember one thing very strongly.
There was a Japanese TV show
called Red Suspicion
with Yamaguchi Momoe
in the role of Sachiko.
I remember her hairstyle.
My girlfriend had Sachiko hair.
She left without looking back.
When she gave me the ice popsicle,
tied around her wrist, she had
a red handkerchief.
I remember it clearly.
A few days ago on Hunan TV,
they showed Red Suspicion again.
My wife...
She was the file manager in the factory.
She watches TV series every evening.
She loves them.
I watch them with her.
-Which year were you born?
-1970.
I was born in 1966.
Though leaves are many,
the root is only one
Through all the lying days of my youth
I swayed my leaves and flowers in the sun
Now I may wither into the truth
W. B. Yeats
Site for stage one of 24 City
(Former factory basketball court)
Buildings in basketball court
These machines will be moved
in three days.
Every day
I am wandering
Every morning and night my heart is adrift
How I long for someone to be with me
To make my heart stop drifting
The day you come
Will you tell me tenderly
That you accept to be the one
I want to be sure that the person before me
Will be faithful to her promises
Sister Lin comes down from heaven
Like a wispy cloud
from behind the mountain
He who loves her seems
outwardly dissolute
But he is actually pure in heart
This young lady is graceful like
a flower gazing at itself in the wave
She moves delicately
like the wind in the willows
Her eyes give off a mysterious charm
Her voice and her smile
reflect her tender soul
This person seems to be from far away
Yet my heart thinks
it recognizes an old friend
Little Flower,
you brought nothing to eat this morning?
We went up Qingcheng Hill yesterday.
I'm tired, I don't feel like cooking.
So you'll go out to eat?
Does your brother like spicy food?
Yes, he does.
He's been everywhere
and tasted everything.
Before Liberation,
Shanghai had Sichuan restaurants.
My Grandpa used to say
the Jinjiang Hotel
served good Sichuan food.
He also said Sichuan food
was fashionable in Shanghai.
-You know why?
-No.
During the war against Japan,
Sichuan was at the back.
Many Shanghainese fled into Sichuan.
When they went home after the war,
they saw themselves as war heroes.
They ate spicy food in public
to show they'd been in Sichuan.
Shanghai has changed a lot.
I went back once in 1993.
There's a street where they serve lamb stew.
I never ate lamb when I was young.
It was always cooked with garlic.
Where are you two going to eat?
My brother went to Shanghai this morning.
His unit called him.
I'll be off, Little Flower.
I need to get changed.
Little Flower
Little Flower, do you get nervous?
Not usually, only when I'm in costume.
Sister Wang,
can you bring my bag upstairs?
I left my phoenix in it.
Beside the green lake
Under flowing willows
Along the flower-strewn path
The burial of flowers
(Dream of the Red Chamber)
Yue Opera
Out of nowhere
A flute's lament
Is heard in the breeze
For me it was in 1978.
I was assigned to 420
from the Shanghai Aviation Academy.
Around graduation time we heard
some of us would be sent to Chengdu.
Those who didn't want to go
used their connections to stay in Shanghai.
But I didn't.
That was when those who'd been sent
to the country began getting back.
My brother came back from Jiangxi,
my elder sister, from Heilongjiang
and my second sister, from Anhui.
So the family was reunited.
And the house was full of people.
With them three
and my kid brother in high school,
there were seven of us in all.
The house was only 20 meters,
how could seven of us live there?
We had to divide each room in half.
And we built a temporary attic.
We say "an elephant
in the stomach of a sparrow".
I slept in the attic with my sisters.
So I thought I should leave.
At that time,
there were far more men than women
in Factory 420.
Girls from Shanghai like me were very few.
On my first day at work,
I went to Canteen 2 for lunch.
It was terribly crowded.
I later found out the men
who ate in Canteens 1 and 3
had come to see the girls from Shanghai.
Especially the younger men,
they made comments about us.
Things like that went on
for quite some time.
Later some guy, I never knew who,
gave me the nickname
"Standard Component".
What did that mean?
At first, I had no idea what it meant.
Later I came to know
it meant "flower of the factory".
After that, people began calling me
"Little Flower".
There was a movie called "Little Flower",
with Joan Chen, Tang Guoqiang
and Liu Xiaoqing.
Our factory showed that movie
for a whole week.
Many people saw it several times.
They came out saying
I looked like Little Flower,
the heroine, played by Joan Chen.
At first, they used the name
behind my back. Then, to my face.
After a while, my real name
was known to very few people.
What is your real name?
Gu Minhua.
"Hua" as in Zhonghua, China.
I guess you had many admirers.
Back then,
people weren't as open as they are now.
And everyone was so busy,
overtime every day.
One time,
on the workshop notice board,
someone put up a photo.
There was no caption.
It showed a young guy,
good-looking, sporty type.
During break times,
we all gathered round to look at it.
Some of the girls began guessing
who he might be.
Some thought he was from the Youth
League and due to visit the factory.
Others thought he was our representative
to comfort the army in Vietnam.
Staring and speculating
went on day after day.
Then it went even further.
"Little Flower,
"This guy is
as handsome as Tang Guoqiang.
"You two would make a beautiful a couple."
My colleagues in the factory
were all matchmakers.
Two people who had nothing in common,
if they had matching names,
would make a good couple to us.
Some of them really did get married.
I was pretty annoyed at first.
I thought: "How dare they
"try to match a living person with a photo?"
But later, very gradually,
my thinking began to change.
I imagined he really was coming
to our factory.
In fact I imagined him
turning up the very next day.
I was 20 years old.
I'd never been in love.
Some days later, there was
a big meeting in the factory.
The leaders asked us
if we'd seen the photo.
Did we know who the man was?
Everybody stayed silent.
The Party Secretary said
the man was a pilot our country
had trained for eight years,
which had cost more than 200,000 yuans.
Something went wrong with his plane.
Trying to save the plane,
he didn't parachute to safety.
He was just 24.
The Secretary went on:
"The accident happened
"because some components we'd produced
"had gone wrong."
He added: "Amongst you
"there's someone who was responsible
for this tragedy."
We should reflect on our mistakes.
After that,
many people introduced boys to me.
I started going out with a boy.
He taught on the factory's
educational TV channel.
The son of high-ranking officials
who worked in the ministries.
Good family background.
But then something bad happened.
In neighboring workshop 34,
there was a guy
who was apparently in love with me.
He wrote love letters to himself in my name.
Hard to understand, isn't it?
He wrote love letters to himself
and signed my name at the end: Gu Minhua.
Then he showed off the letters
to his workmates.
Soon enough, everyone was talking
about our supposed love affair.
And everyone thought I'd taken the lead.
My boyfriend heard about this
and got quite angry.
I tried to explain to him,
but he wouldn't listen.
So I had no choice
but to break up with him.
After that, I decided to go back to Shanghai.
If I got married in Chengdu
that would be an obstacle.
The easiest way to move
was to make an exchange.
I had to find someone in Shanghai
who wanted to move to Chengdu.
But by 1984 or 1985, the war was over.
Armaments manufacture fell on hard times.
I found no one.
Those were hard years for the factory.
Later on, the plant moved over
to civilian products.
Double Swallow brand fridges
and washing machines.
Suddenly we needed sales people.
As I was from Shanghai,
they made me a saleswoman there.
I drank with clients every day.
It ruined my stomach.
And I wasn't making money for myself.
So I took unpaid leave
and started my own company.
I did some business,
but I didn't get very far.
I was a wholesaler of Tianfu peanuts.
I found it quite tough
so I moved back to Chengdu.
By 1989, when I got back here,
my sisters already had kids in school.
So I thought I might as well marry
a Chengdu man.
Well...
I was in my thirties by then.
I was only introduced to divorced men.
The thought of being a step-mother
made me uncomfortable.
So I passed on all of them.
I was introduced to another one recently.
Good in all respects. He's a boss.
But after we'd met a couple of times,
he told me something.
He'd been a mason when he was young.
He'd passed our factory gate,
pulling trolley-loads of stones.
He'd seen me often and knew
I was the flower of the factory.
He liked me a lot.
But he was poor then.
And the factory had a high reputation.
So he felt that I was beyond his reach.
But he promised himself
he'd come to me when he got rich.
Hearing all this made very uncomfortable.
Maybe I'm no longer
a "standard component",
but I'm not a "reject" either.
I have my own standards.
I thought it over and ended it.
Now I'm single,
I live a happy life.
Some of my workmates who married
are now divorced.
They live alone, just as I do.
We go out to sing karaoke,
we play mahjong. It's fun.
Gu Minhua, born 1958 in Shanghai
Worked as quality inspector at Factory 420
Film "Little Flower", 1978
A girl is looking for her beloved
She is sad, tears in her eyes
She cannot see him
Sadness grips her heart
Sadness grips her heart
Why do you blame me
for being thus afflicted?
Half of me cherishes the spring
The other half despises it
Dream of the Red Chamber
Poem - The burial of flowers
Young lady!
-What's your name?
-Yang Mengyue.
-ln school?
-Third grade.
Anyone in your family in Factory 420?
That one? Yes. My Pa and Ma work there.
-Ever been there yourself?
-No.
China Resources Land Ltd: 24 City
The land area of Chengdu City
is still expanding.
The center of the city was
no longer suitable for a factory.
CR Land Ltd is spending
Soon a modern, living community,
named 24 City
will arise on this site.
Factory 420 will use the money
to modernize its technology.
Its aeronautics technology
will not become obsolete...
Zhao Gang
These white bits
are for housing developments.
The gray bits are for commercial use.
And in the south-west corner,
these red bits
are the buildings
from the old factory that we'll retain,
Iike the old mill buildings
and the watchtower.
Why is it called 24 City?
It comes from an old poem:
"The cherished hibiscus
"of 24 city in full bloom
Chengdu shone and prospered"
We have other models.
-Will you follow me?
-Thank you.
Over here.
Zhao Gang, born 1974
News round-up presenter on Chengdu TV
I was a student
in the College of Technology.
Our teacher introduced us and gave us
the rail tickets from Chengdu to Jilin.
We'd never been on a train.
We were told to give the tickets
to our parents.
They were scared we'd lose them.
It was the kind of ticket
they had in the 1980s,
a through ticket,
all the way from Chengdu to Jilin.
I looked at it and was amazed to see
one station en route was Beijing.
I'd never been to Beijing,
I was really surprised.
It meant I was going a lot further
than 20 miles.
I was really leaving Chengdu.
We were in a state of excitement
all the way to Jilin.
The semester began on 1 September.
I looked forward to it.
It snows in Jilin, right?
First time in the north-east.
Everything was exciting.
I spent that semester
Iearning new things non-stop like
one who'd never left the family.
Everything was great.
I compared my life in Chengdu
with life in Jilin.
Compared with Factory 420,
the environment I grew up in,
this was very different.
Chi Chin's song The Outside World
expresses my feelings.
-Had it come out then?
-ln 1990, I think.
It was so great. Just great.
After the first semester,
my thinking changed a lot.
The first half-semester
was all theory, heat treatment
of metals, engine building...
In the second half-semester, three months,
I did an apprenticeship
and had to put on work clothes.
My whole attitude changed.
As a kid, I'd watched my father
put on his uniform.
At the time,
only policemen and soldiers wore uniforms.
I was always impressed
when I saw people in uniforms.
It meant high social status.
So I liked factory uniforms.
But when I put on the work clothes
the teacher gave me,
I didn't feel any different.
Took my lunch-box,
with a spoon rattling inside
and went to the factory.
Once there, things changed.
Your status was different.
You'd been a student.
You'd seen workers, right?
Now you were wearing work clothes.
It was not the same.
I remember one episode
that really affected me.
Another boy from Chengdu and l
were apprentices to a north-easterner.
He taught us metal polishing
with a big stone wheel.
He gave us a basketful of parts
straight off the production line.
Our job, he told us,
was to smooth away the rough edges
of these component parts.
I'm quite a sensitive guy.
I did 10 or 20.
I guess I thought it was quite interesting.
I focused on the technical skills.
But when you've done 50 or 100 of them,
something snaps in your mind.
You get exhausted, really exhausted.
I was covered in sweat.
In his north-eastern dialect,
the old worker said something
I can't forget to this day: "No need to worry.
"lf you can't finish this morning,
you can go on in the afternoon.
"This basketful is for the two of you.
"lf you don't finish today,
there's always tomorrow."
That really got to me.
I was so bored.
The component parts bored me rigid.
I got through 100 of them
and there were many more.
But he said that would be my job
from then on.
It was no fun anymore.
So I told him I was quitting.
I wanted to be a student again.
I said: "I'm a 16-year-old student.
"l don't want a uniform anymore."
My parents were against it,
jobs were scarce.
But I did quit. I left without my luggage.
Zhao Gang and his father
Long, long ago
I belonged to you
You belonged to me
Long, long ago
You left me
Flying high in the sky
The world outside is wonderful
Li Xuemei, 2003
Exam Registration Paper 10100010532
Arise!
Ye prisoners of starvation
Arise!
Ye toilers of the earth
For reason thunders new creation
'Tis a better world in birth...
Things we have thought and done
Must ramble and thin out
Like milk spilt upon a stone
W. B. Yeats
Su Na
It's such a hassle.
The stuff you want is so expensive.
Who can afford it?
Who can afford to show off like you?
Su Na, born 1982 in Chengdu
The school in Factory 420
In grade 1, I was 1.66 meters tall.
A good figure.
So I thought I could be a model
or something like that.
But I didn't get any taller.
It was such a shame.
Most of us in school were not
good students.
And the teaching was pretty bad.
He was manager of one
of the workshops in 420.
So he had good connections.
He used his influence to get me transferred
to High School 4.
He thought I'd go
to some famous university,
Iike Tsinghua or Peking University,
to make him proud of me
and honor our ancestors.
But I'm not the studying type.
Not at all.
I failed the college entrance exam.
I had the strong feeling
that I'd let my parents down.
For a while I hung around on the streets.
I had nothing to do.
I wasn't willing to work in 420.
But things are going fine now.
I work as a shopper.
I go to Hong Kong every two weeks
to buy things for my clients.
There are many rich people here.
So I can easily make money.
Rich women with time on their hands
Iike fashion but have no energy to buy.
So they hire me to buy for them.
All the famous brands.
Shoes, scarves, belts,
watches, that kind of thing.
I get 1000 yuan per item.
Enough to live on.
Pretty good, in fact.
See that tower?
Yes.
We call it the Panda TV Tower.
I have a friend from Malaysia.
I met him on a plane.
He wants to take over
the revolving restaurant
and hire me to manage it.
I've never worked in catering,
but there's no harm in trying.
Maybe I'll become a powerful woman!
What do you think?
I bought a car for my credibility.
I have to see those rich ladies every day.
If I didn't have a car,
I'd feel quite embarrassed.
I'll repay the loan myself.
My classmates' parents
have put money aside for them
since they were little.
I forget the name of the fund.
Anyhow, it's ring-fenced.
And when they're old enough
they'll own apartments and cars.
My mother was laid off in 1995.
While my father was working,
he kept his hands clean.
He never found my mother a well-paid job.
She found a part-time job
in a telegraph-pole factory.
She's still doing that now.
Since he retired
my dad's been permanently grumpy.
He can't adjust to not being in charge.
When he worked,
the house was packed with visitors.
It was very lively.
Now nobody at all comes to visit.
In the first few months,
he hardly stepped outside at all.
And he became very taciturn.
When he got up in the morning,
he'd just sit on the sofa,
chain-smoking.
I didn't go home much.
I didn't want to.
Whenever I was there,
I felt the mood of failure and depression.
I lived with my first boyfriend
in Royal Mansion, Yulin Gardens.
It was a pretty nice place.
But we eventually broke up.
Then I found another guy.
And we lived in a place called
"Beautiful Age".
I also lived in a one-room flat.
I think that was with my third boyfriend.
The bottom line is,
I didn't want to go home.
Not if I could avoid it.
One day, to apply for a trip, I needed
my permanent residence document.
So I went home to get it
and found the door locked.
I realized I didn't know where my key was.
I don't know what was wrong with me.
So I went to see my mother at her factory.
I'd never been there before.
As soon as I went inside,
I was deafened by the noise.
You had to shout to be heard.
I looked around the place.
But I couldn't see my mother.
The workers were all wearing blue uniforms.
I had to go up to every person.
I was looking for my mother.
Finally,
I found her over in a corner.
She was carrying ingots of steel.
She took them and threw them,
one after the other into some boxes.
Every time she threw one, it went bang!
I had never felt that sad in my whole life.
It was like a sharp pain
striking my heart. It made all my limbs ache.
I didn't even know if it was a man
or a woman when I approached.
The head was bent down.
I started crying
when I saw it was her and I ran off.
I had dinner at home that night.
My parents were so surprised:
"Why have you come home for dinner?"
I didn't answer.
After eating, I told my mother
that I would stay the night.
She was very happy.
She made my bed and brought a quilt.
I hadn't touched that bed in ages.
As I lay on it, I suddenly felt grown-up.
I began to care about my parents.
The thing I most want now
is to make a lot of money.
Lots and lots of money.
I want to buy an apartment
in 24 City for my parents.
I know it will cost a lot.
But I can do it.
I'm the daughter of a worker.
Chengdu
Home of the lotus-eating life
That's what makes my life worth living
Poem by Wan Xia
The five-star red flag flutters in the wind
How glorious our song of victory
Singing for our beloved motherland
As she prospers and grows strong
CEREMONY FOR TRANSFER OF LAND
FROM CHENGFA GROUP TO CR LAND LTD
Dear Directors,
distinguished guests, good morning.
Today, 29 December 2007,
will mark a new and glorious chapter
in the development of the Chengfa Group.
For nearly 50 years
we have faced difficulties
and challenging breakthroughs
of economic reform.
Now a revitalized Chengfa Group
is about to move
from the site of the old factory...
The cherished hibiscus of 24 City,
in full bloom
Chengdu shone and prospered
Ancient poem
CHENGDU ClTY
He Xikun
Back then, we thought of 420
as a large factory.
But I knew that it did work for the military.
It made aircraft and aero engines.
We were fitters, our job was to repair
all the machinery and equipment in 420.
We were solely responsible for repairs.
We did regular maintenance
and repairs when necessary.
We took care of all that.
Back then, he was in charge
of Fitter Group 4.
There's one thing I remember...
I had just arrived.
I had no idea that the fitters
made their own tools.
One thing we used was called a scraper.
It was a kind of blade, shaped like this.
We had to make them ourselves.
When we received the metal,
we cut it and then honed the edge.
It was about this long.
As it got worn down and became this short,
we couldn't use it anymore.
But he kept on using them regardless.
When the thing was really worn out,
he hung it from his belt.
As you had to hone the edge,
the tool got all worn away.
Useless! But he kept on using it.
One time, a scraper was worn
right down so I threw it away.
Then Master Wang said: "Xiao He,
"you know that this small thing
"has come into our hands
through those of many others.
"lt can still be used."
So he picked it up,
re-honed it and used it again.
I was so impressed.
People like me were too immature.
We had to learn not to be wasteful.
Old masters like Master Wang knew well:
"Waste not want not".
He was right and I learned that from him.
He knew how many hands our tools
had passed through.
I feel guilty
when I speak about Master Wang.
For years, I've been so busy
that I haven't visited him.
He Xikun, born 1948 in Chengdu
Apprenticed in 1964 in Workshop 61
Later joined the army
He Xikun, male, aged 30
Work card 07718968
issued by State mechanic factory Xindu
During the clashes
of the Cultural Revolution,
factories and mines stopped work.
But he carried on working.
Hardly anyone went to the factory.
Talking about this
makes me feel a bit sad.
I would have died if you hadn't come.
She's hidden everything.
Hidden what? What was there to hide?
She mentioned a knife.
I can neither live nor die.
I have nothing left.
They took three X-rays.
After a long wait.
This hospital is hopeless.
They suggested we move
to the provincial hospital.
Were the X-rays computer-enhanced?
-So the images are clear?
-Think so.
What have you got to say?
What have you got to say?
You! What have you got to say?
Seeing you makes me a bit nervous.
Nervous?
Are you happy?
Happy to see me?
Of course I'm happy.
It's been so long.
Too bad!
I wouldn't have known you
if we'd passed on the street.
I wouldn't have known you.
Have I changed?
Look, I'm thinner.
Just like for those
who were in my workshop.
We greet each other when we meet.
But I forget.
My brain's rusty.
Too slow.
It was okay before.
I used to remember things well.
But not now.
You did a lot for the factory.
Back then,
when I started working here,
I used to worry.
I came here in 1959.
If I ever took a day off, I'd work nights
to make up.
I even worked through New Year
and on Sundays.
Every single day.
We were under pressure back then.
It was during the Korean war.
Right.
ALWAYS FOLLOW THE PATH
OF DEVELOPMENT CORRECTLY
WORK LOYALLY FOR OUR ARMY
Secretary Guan
Guan Fengjiu,
born 1935 in Haicheng, Liaoning
Head of security in Factory 420
Deputy secretary of Party Committee
when he retired
We were implementing
Chairman Mao's strategy.
Moving military factories to inland areas
sheltered by the mountains here.
Armament factories and the aeronautics
were in the north-east.
During the Korean War,
that was the front line against the Yanks.
In line with the new strategy,
we built factories in the south-west.
We picked this place.
We were under contract to Factory 111.
We repaired aircraft engines there,
MlG-15s during the Korean War.
They were used by the Chinese
and North Korean air forces
to fight American imperialism.
Factory 111 built Factory 420.
It was Factory 111...
On 3 November,
there was a general assembly.
Our factory was going
to build 420 in Chengdu.
We needed 60% of the staff,
That is, 60% of the Factory 111 staff.
We all had to move down here.
A certain amount of the equipment
from 111 was moved here
with the people to run it.
Various specialists,
technical staff, cadres mobilized.
The meeting was on 3 November,
I transferred in December.
I was in charge of the security section.
I was one of the first to arrive.
There were more
than four thousand workers.
HOU LlJUN
After Mom came here,
every year I thought of visiting home
to see my parents.
She wanted that too,
thought about it year on year.
But then... Job, family, kids!
Not to mention, the cost of it.
She couldn't afford to visit home.
Bottom line...
After coming here in 1958,
when did we first go back to Shenyang?
It was in 1972.
She had left in 1958.
Between 1958 and 1972, 14 years.
I was 18 or 19 by then.
I'd finished middle school.
Only then did I first go back
to Shenyang with Mom.
The first time back.
-Do you remember that trip?
-Sure I do.
I remember it vividly.
What was it like?
Well, it was...
Coming home like that...
It was 14 years since Mom had left.
As soon as we got there,
my Grandma and her husband
broke down in tears.
I was still too young to really understand.
I didn't appreciate why they felt so strongly.
I didn't understand what they felt.
Hou Lijun, born 1953 in Shenyang
Repairman in workshop 63 of Factory 420
And when we were about to leave,
they all said:
"We must take you to the station.
If you stay away this long again,
"we'll be more than 70 years old next time.
"Will there be another chance to meet?"
Then I understood
why Grandpa had cried like that.
When the train started moving,
Grandpa broke down in tears again.
As the train pulled out,
Mom kept her composure.
But me...
I began to cry myself.
On the train, I began sobbing out loud.
I felt so sorry for my grandparents.
Mom lived so far away
she couldn't visit them.
It was so hard for us to go back.
The great thing was
that Grandma was lucky.
Near the end of her life, she said:
"My greatest wish is to go to Chengdu
"to see my eldest daughter."
That is, my mother.
She finally came here in 1985.
At the age of 86, she finally made it.
The second year after she'd gone back...
The second year
she passed away.
How many in your own family?
We're a three-person family.
Standard size.
-Your husband works in the factory?
-Yes, he does.
-What's his job?
-A kind of
surface treatment in the coating workshop.
Surface treatment.
-You have a son or a daughter?
-A son.
When he was in the sixth grade
of primary school,
I was laid off.
-How old were you then?
-I was 41.
Was it a political decision
or some other reason?
Political, to reduce staff numbers.
They cut back and increased efficiency.
The factory needed fewer people,
so we were laid off.
I was one of the first to go.
I recall ten or so lay-offs in our workshop.
We had a last dinner together
at Hekouwei Restaurant.
He had booked many tables.
But that night we could hardly eat.
Manu couldn't eat, they just cried openly.
Everyone cried.
Everyone pulled at the hands
of Director Cao and Director Yang.
They said:
"I've never come late for work.
Director Cao agreed they hadn't.
"Was there ever a time
when I didn't do my best?"
Director Cao said: "Never."
In fact, nobody was in the wrong.
Nobody had come to work late
or not given their best.
Director Cao said I'd never failed at my job.
And I'd never come in late,
never made a mistake.
But they simply didn't need
so many people.
There was less work.
They were earning less money.
They couldn't support everyone.
They gave us all a small pay-off.
So we went home. As for the dinner...
We cried. Some of us didn't eat at all.
I ate just to encourage the others.
I was just pretending,
urging the other to tuck in.
That's what I did.
We call that "smiling through your tears".
That's what I did.
I kept telling them: "Why cry?
"Let's eat!"
In 1994, I was 41 years old.
I'd left school at middle school.
A 41-year-old woman.
My kid was in the sixth grade.
I had to pay his tuition fees
and feed three people.
I had just about...
When I went out job-hunting,
I put up a motto on the wall.
It read like this:
"Come rain, come shine,
I must go forward."
I went out looking for a job every day.
Always had my motto in mind.
Anyhow, I went out looking for work.
I tried all over Chengdu.
Again and again.
I tried at the Job Center.
In Chengdu City, there's a Job Center
in the Workers' Cultural Palace.
You sign up there.
You look everywhere, you ask friends...
Maybe an old friend has work for you.
It's so hard, really not easy to find a job.
I couldn't find one
so I tried selling on the street.
What did I sell?
I sold yellow michelia flowers.
You can wear them in your buttonhole.
I sold that.
Early every morning,
I bought them at Qingshi Bridge.
I set up on Dongfeng Road
by a little tree. I had to be discreet.
If the cops or the city inspectors saw me,
they would confiscate the flowers.
Later, thanks to some friends...
Yes, thanks to some friends...
I was introduced to other jobs.
Slowly, step by step.
Are you working now?
Nowadays?
I do some sewing at home. I'm retired.
I have a pension, but I still do some sewing.
-You do what?
-I sew.
I sew at home.
Didn't you notice that at my home?
I put up the sign "Sewing" at my window.
I still do a bit of that at home.
Just a little. I like it.
I earn some money
and have something to do.
If you have something to do,
you age more slowly.
If you have something to do,
you age more slowly
I have a date tonight
I will not sleep tonight
When the bell sounds
across space and time
It wakes the new millennium
Come, dear friends
Come, fellow workmates
Regulations for retired persons'
cultural room
WANTED
Dormitory area in Factory 420
Dali, going out?
Feel better?
Much better.
Dali
Aunty, I'll hang it for you.
Please.
You called me "aunty"?
You should call me "granny".
Granny.
This Director Song, has he come yet?
He has.
He's probably in a meeting with the bosses.
Are you new here?
Yes. I just graduated.
You can wear make-up to work?
Foreign enterprises expect you to,
or they won't hire you.
Isn't this state-owned?
Factory 420 was a state secret.
The original name was Xindu Machinery.
Later it became the Chengfa Group.
Its code name has been 420 all along.
Like a military designation.
That never changed.
I remember when we got our wage packets,
there was a 5 yuan bonus for secrecy.
Pretty good!
Around 1960,
at the time of the natural disasters,
people didn't have enough to eat.
But our factory gave us each
Our work was vital, aeronautical stuff.
No negligence.
Hao Dali, worker in Factory 420
Held the national title of March 8th
Red Banner Holder
Factory Xindu staff canteen
Vegetable Ration Coupon
I still remember that on pay days,
the bank set up a desk at the factory gate.
It was just a table really
for us to deposit our wages.
Back in 1975, I earned 58 yuans.
I deposited 30 yuan every month.
I fed my family
and sent some money back to Shenyang.
My sister lived in a village,
she had many children.
So I sent her all my old clothes.
She altered them for her kids.
The factory provided us
with uniforms, work-gloves,
that kind of thing.
I never threw them away.
I collected the used gloves
and I sent them to my sister.
She washed them, unraveled the thread,
made balls of it,
and wove clothes, trousers
for my nephews.
This year, my sister...
Her youngest son, actually,
sent me 500 yuans.
So I rang my sister
and asked her:
"Why are you sending me money?
"What for?"
She answered:
"l know things are tough in your factory."
My sister's son lives in the village.
He runs a small grocery store.
It gives him some extra income.
It never crossed my mind
that I'd need help from my sister in old age.
When did you join the factory?
Factory 420, in 1958.
From Shenyang, we moved here in groups.
I was in the last group.
My boy was three years old.
I was 18 when he was born.
So I'd be 21! Yes, 21 that year.
Not quite an adult, in fact.
I'd never left home before,
I'd never been on a boat.
That year,
the Chengdu-Baoji railway collapsed.
No route overland, so we came by river.
First a train to Dalian,
then a boat to Shanghai.
Then we took a river-boat
along the Yangtze to Chongqing.
And then a bus from Chongqing
to Chengdu.
It took 15 days to get to Chengdu.
As we approached Goddess Peak,
there was thick fog that day.
We went on deck,
but we couldn't see anything. Nothing at all.
I'd never been on a boat before.
I felt seasick and threw up.
All around me, it was chaotic on the boat.
My husband suggested
that I rest for a while.
But I couldn't sleep.
There were kids running around.
I still felt seasick. Still kept throwing up.
And the boat was juddering.
Not easy. We finally reached Fengjie.
In Fengjie, we docked on the wharf.
We went on land.
They gave us two hours there.
It was nice to take a breather.
But the boat was carrying
important equipment.
So we couldn't stay long.
During the short stop, it was really...
Everyone went ashore.
We were a small community,
everyone knew each other.
So I was off-guard.
They sounded the first siren.
It meant that there was
half an hour to departure.
My husband and l
were buying some local specialties
and some oranges.
I suddenly thought about my boy.
He wasn't with me anymore.
I panicked and started calling him.
I called and called.
But I couldn't find him.
I panicked.
My husband tried to reassure me:
"Maybe he went back to the boat
with the other kids."
So we went to the boat
to see if he was there.
All the other kids were back.
All the other families were together.
Except us.
My husband panicked too.
He called his workmates.
They looked for him everywhere.
I was at my wits' end.
My husband and I rushed back ashore
to look for him.
But we couldn't find him.
And then,
the second siren sounded.
Some women comrades
dragged me back to the boat.
When we were transferred
from Shenyang to Chengdu,
we were working for the military.
Part of the war effort.
Everything we did had implications
for national security.
That made me all the more nervous.
They said Chiang Kai-Shek
was going to invade China.
So when that siren sounded,
it was like an army bugle.
We had to go.
Then
a big crowd of people
dragged me back to the boat.
I leaned on the railings.
The boat went farther offshore,
the houses turned smaller.
I felt that my child
got farther and farther away.
I hated myself so much.
My heart was flurried.
It was empty.
Jaguar! The Commies are taking the bait!
The Commies are taking the bait!
Captain Morgan...
Act in good faith!
Second!
A flotilla of small planes on the right!
Enemy planes in the south-west!
Enemy planes in the west!
It's clear, enemy tactics have changed.
They're using small planes as decoys
and surrounding us with big ones.
Very crafty!
Captain!
The bombers have crossed sector 2.
Captain!
Bombing as originally planned.
OBSERVE SAFETY, TREASURE LlFE
If the aeronautics factory
is like a huge eyeball
The laboring is its pupil
Poem by Ouyang Jianghe
Song Weidong
The money we get selling this land
will be used to build a new industrial park.
Our workshops will move there, one by one.
Our offices here will become
a five-star hotel.
Song Weidong, born 1966 in Chengdu
Assistant to General Manager
of Chengfa Group
Factory 420, the whole of it,
was quite large.
The whole place was a kind of world apart.
Take me, for example.
From kindergarten,
primary school, middle school, high school,
I always attended the schools
for the workers' children.
It was the same for all the other kids.
Within the factory precincts,
there was a cinema, a swimming pool.
In the summer,
the factory made its own soft drinks.
Each family took bottles
to bring them home.
We were proud of the factory.
with Chengdu City.
We thought
we didn't need the local people.
No need. We had a great life.
The only way we connected with local kids
was through fights.
The eastern suburbs
had a history of fighting
even before Liberation.
There were a lot of pitched battles here.
We took on the local kids,
there were non-stop conflicts and clashes.
Often near the double bridge.
We almost always won.
We outnumbered them
and were all from one place.
Whereas they were much less unified.
But they hit on a strategy.
Quite a strategy.
Ambushes. They'd hide somewhere
and if we were alone or in a small group,
they'd ambush us and beat us.
And then we'd counter-attack.
If you beat me today,
tomorrow I'll beat you back.
I remember one time in particular.
I was in grade three.
In 1976.
I'd just learned how to ride a bike.
One afternoon
I took my father's bike, a Phoenix 28.
I took it and rode it away.
I rode the bike a long way
and found myself in another sector.
I had left the zone of influence
of Factory 420.
I turned around at once.
Too late! A gang of boys trapped me.
They caught me
and escorted me to their base.
They had a leader, another kid.
His name is Zhou Chao.
I was taken before him fearing the worst.
The kids were jeering me.
As in some movie, they said:
"On behalf of the masses,
I sentence you to death."
I was sure they were going to beat me up.
I just wanted my bike, I had to get it back.
To my surprise, Zhou Chao said to me:
"I've thought it over,
"Premier Zhou Enlai passed away today.
"So I'll let you off."
Then he and his boys left.
I was amazed.
I rode home in a hurry. When I got there,
I found my parents making
little white paper flowers.
Premier Zhou had really passed away.
I went through puppy love too. I was 16.
In grade two of High School.
High School used to be two years.
When I graduated, I had a girlfriend.
Her family was also from the north-east.
She was offered a place
in South-West Medical College.
I wanted to go to university too
but my family didn't agree
because our factory offered
really good benefits to its staff.
And I might be assigned
to somewhere else after graduating.
So they insisted that I take
my father's place eventually.
I had to learn his skills.
So I stayed in the factory.
Back then,
our factory was really pretty good.
In 1978, after the Cultural Revolution,
there was a war against Vietnam.
They needed a lot of munitions.
But after that, there was a decline.
The factory profits went down.
So her family wanted her to break with me.
One day,
I remember very clearly,
she broke up with me.
I was roller skating.
She came to find me.
There was a wire netting
around the skating rink,
a wire-netting barrier. I was inside it.
She was outside. She had an ice popsicle.
She passed it to me over the railing.
I'd taken two bites from it
when she came out with it. She said:
"We're so young,
"our love is so immature."
I understood it right away.
I interrupted her and said:
"So it's over between us."
And she said: "You said it first."
She implied it was my decision.
I said: "Yes, I said it first."
Then she left.
She didn't look back.
I remember one thing very strongly.
There was a Japanese TV show
called Red Suspicion
with Yamaguchi Momoe
in the role of Sachiko.
I remember her hairstyle.
My girlfriend had Sachiko hair.
She left without looking back.
When she gave me the ice popsicle,
tied around her wrist, she had
a red handkerchief.
I remember it clearly.
A few days ago on Hunan TV,
they showed Red Suspicion again.
My wife...
She was the file manager in the factory.
She watches TV series every evening.
She loves them.
I watch them with her.
-Which year were you born?
-1970.
I was born in 1966.
Though leaves are many,
the root is only one
Through all the lying days of my youth
I swayed my leaves and flowers in the sun
Now I may wither into the truth
W. B. Yeats
Site for stage one of 24 City
(Former factory basketball court)
Buildings in basketball court
These machines will be moved
in three days.
Every day
I am wandering
Every morning and night my heart is adrift
How I long for someone to be with me
To make my heart stop drifting
The day you come
Will you tell me tenderly
That you accept to be the one
I want to be sure that the person before me
Will be faithful to her promises
Sister Lin comes down from heaven
Like a wispy cloud
from behind the mountain
He who loves her seems
outwardly dissolute
But he is actually pure in heart
This young lady is graceful like
a flower gazing at itself in the wave
She moves delicately
like the wind in the willows
Her eyes give off a mysterious charm
Her voice and her smile
reflect her tender soul
This person seems to be from far away
Yet my heart thinks
it recognizes an old friend
Little Flower,
you brought nothing to eat this morning?
We went up Qingcheng Hill yesterday.
I'm tired, I don't feel like cooking.
So you'll go out to eat?
Does your brother like spicy food?
Yes, he does.
He's been everywhere
and tasted everything.
Before Liberation,
Shanghai had Sichuan restaurants.
My Grandpa used to say
the Jinjiang Hotel
served good Sichuan food.
He also said Sichuan food
was fashionable in Shanghai.
-You know why?
-No.
During the war against Japan,
Sichuan was at the back.
Many Shanghainese fled into Sichuan.
When they went home after the war,
they saw themselves as war heroes.
They ate spicy food in public
to show they'd been in Sichuan.
Shanghai has changed a lot.
I went back once in 1993.
There's a street where they serve lamb stew.
I never ate lamb when I was young.
It was always cooked with garlic.
Where are you two going to eat?
My brother went to Shanghai this morning.
His unit called him.
I'll be off, Little Flower.
I need to get changed.
Little Flower
Little Flower, do you get nervous?
Not usually, only when I'm in costume.
Sister Wang,
can you bring my bag upstairs?
I left my phoenix in it.
Beside the green lake
Under flowing willows
Along the flower-strewn path
The burial of flowers
(Dream of the Red Chamber)
Yue Opera
Out of nowhere
A flute's lament
Is heard in the breeze
For me it was in 1978.
I was assigned to 420
from the Shanghai Aviation Academy.
Around graduation time we heard
some of us would be sent to Chengdu.
Those who didn't want to go
used their connections to stay in Shanghai.
But I didn't.
That was when those who'd been sent
to the country began getting back.
My brother came back from Jiangxi,
my elder sister, from Heilongjiang
and my second sister, from Anhui.
So the family was reunited.
And the house was full of people.
With them three
and my kid brother in high school,
there were seven of us in all.
The house was only 20 meters,
how could seven of us live there?
We had to divide each room in half.
And we built a temporary attic.
We say "an elephant
in the stomach of a sparrow".
I slept in the attic with my sisters.
So I thought I should leave.
At that time,
there were far more men than women
in Factory 420.
Girls from Shanghai like me were very few.
On my first day at work,
I went to Canteen 2 for lunch.
It was terribly crowded.
I later found out the men
who ate in Canteens 1 and 3
had come to see the girls from Shanghai.
Especially the younger men,
they made comments about us.
Things like that went on
for quite some time.
Later some guy, I never knew who,
gave me the nickname
"Standard Component".
What did that mean?
At first, I had no idea what it meant.
Later I came to know
it meant "flower of the factory".
After that, people began calling me
"Little Flower".
There was a movie called "Little Flower",
with Joan Chen, Tang Guoqiang
and Liu Xiaoqing.
Our factory showed that movie
for a whole week.
Many people saw it several times.
They came out saying
I looked like Little Flower,
the heroine, played by Joan Chen.
At first, they used the name
behind my back. Then, to my face.
After a while, my real name
was known to very few people.
What is your real name?
Gu Minhua.
"Hua" as in Zhonghua, China.
I guess you had many admirers.
Back then,
people weren't as open as they are now.
And everyone was so busy,
overtime every day.
One time,
on the workshop notice board,
someone put up a photo.
There was no caption.
It showed a young guy,
good-looking, sporty type.
During break times,
we all gathered round to look at it.
Some of the girls began guessing
who he might be.
Some thought he was from the Youth
League and due to visit the factory.
Others thought he was our representative
to comfort the army in Vietnam.
Staring and speculating
went on day after day.
Then it went even further.
"Little Flower,
"This guy is
as handsome as Tang Guoqiang.
"You two would make a beautiful a couple."
My colleagues in the factory
were all matchmakers.
Two people who had nothing in common,
if they had matching names,
would make a good couple to us.
Some of them really did get married.
I was pretty annoyed at first.
I thought: "How dare they
"try to match a living person with a photo?"
But later, very gradually,
my thinking began to change.
I imagined he really was coming
to our factory.
In fact I imagined him
turning up the very next day.
I was 20 years old.
I'd never been in love.
Some days later, there was
a big meeting in the factory.
The leaders asked us
if we'd seen the photo.
Did we know who the man was?
Everybody stayed silent.
The Party Secretary said
the man was a pilot our country
had trained for eight years,
which had cost more than 200,000 yuans.
Something went wrong with his plane.
Trying to save the plane,
he didn't parachute to safety.
He was just 24.
The Secretary went on:
"The accident happened
"because some components we'd produced
"had gone wrong."
He added: "Amongst you
"there's someone who was responsible
for this tragedy."
We should reflect on our mistakes.
After that,
many people introduced boys to me.
I started going out with a boy.
He taught on the factory's
educational TV channel.
The son of high-ranking officials
who worked in the ministries.
Good family background.
But then something bad happened.
In neighboring workshop 34,
there was a guy
who was apparently in love with me.
He wrote love letters to himself in my name.
Hard to understand, isn't it?
He wrote love letters to himself
and signed my name at the end: Gu Minhua.
Then he showed off the letters
to his workmates.
Soon enough, everyone was talking
about our supposed love affair.
And everyone thought I'd taken the lead.
My boyfriend heard about this
and got quite angry.
I tried to explain to him,
but he wouldn't listen.
So I had no choice
but to break up with him.
After that, I decided to go back to Shanghai.
If I got married in Chengdu
that would be an obstacle.
The easiest way to move
was to make an exchange.
I had to find someone in Shanghai
who wanted to move to Chengdu.
But by 1984 or 1985, the war was over.
Armaments manufacture fell on hard times.
I found no one.
Those were hard years for the factory.
Later on, the plant moved over
to civilian products.
Double Swallow brand fridges
and washing machines.
Suddenly we needed sales people.
As I was from Shanghai,
they made me a saleswoman there.
I drank with clients every day.
It ruined my stomach.
And I wasn't making money for myself.
So I took unpaid leave
and started my own company.
I did some business,
but I didn't get very far.
I was a wholesaler of Tianfu peanuts.
I found it quite tough
so I moved back to Chengdu.
By 1989, when I got back here,
my sisters already had kids in school.
So I thought I might as well marry
a Chengdu man.
Well...
I was in my thirties by then.
I was only introduced to divorced men.
The thought of being a step-mother
made me uncomfortable.
So I passed on all of them.
I was introduced to another one recently.
Good in all respects. He's a boss.
But after we'd met a couple of times,
he told me something.
He'd been a mason when he was young.
He'd passed our factory gate,
pulling trolley-loads of stones.
He'd seen me often and knew
I was the flower of the factory.
He liked me a lot.
But he was poor then.
And the factory had a high reputation.
So he felt that I was beyond his reach.
But he promised himself
he'd come to me when he got rich.
Hearing all this made very uncomfortable.
Maybe I'm no longer
a "standard component",
but I'm not a "reject" either.
I have my own standards.
I thought it over and ended it.
Now I'm single,
I live a happy life.
Some of my workmates who married
are now divorced.
They live alone, just as I do.
We go out to sing karaoke,
we play mahjong. It's fun.
Gu Minhua, born 1958 in Shanghai
Worked as quality inspector at Factory 420
Film "Little Flower", 1978
A girl is looking for her beloved
She is sad, tears in her eyes
She cannot see him
Sadness grips her heart
Sadness grips her heart
Why do you blame me
for being thus afflicted?
Half of me cherishes the spring
The other half despises it
Dream of the Red Chamber
Poem - The burial of flowers
Young lady!
-What's your name?
-Yang Mengyue.
-ln school?
-Third grade.
Anyone in your family in Factory 420?
That one? Yes. My Pa and Ma work there.
-Ever been there yourself?
-No.
China Resources Land Ltd: 24 City
The land area of Chengdu City
is still expanding.
The center of the city was
no longer suitable for a factory.
CR Land Ltd is spending
Soon a modern, living community,
named 24 City
will arise on this site.
Factory 420 will use the money
to modernize its technology.
Its aeronautics technology
will not become obsolete...
Zhao Gang
These white bits
are for housing developments.
The gray bits are for commercial use.
And in the south-west corner,
these red bits
are the buildings
from the old factory that we'll retain,
Iike the old mill buildings
and the watchtower.
Why is it called 24 City?
It comes from an old poem:
"The cherished hibiscus
"of 24 city in full bloom
Chengdu shone and prospered"
We have other models.
-Will you follow me?
-Thank you.
Over here.
Zhao Gang, born 1974
News round-up presenter on Chengdu TV
I was a student
in the College of Technology.
Our teacher introduced us and gave us
the rail tickets from Chengdu to Jilin.
We'd never been on a train.
We were told to give the tickets
to our parents.
They were scared we'd lose them.
It was the kind of ticket
they had in the 1980s,
a through ticket,
all the way from Chengdu to Jilin.
I looked at it and was amazed to see
one station en route was Beijing.
I'd never been to Beijing,
I was really surprised.
It meant I was going a lot further
than 20 miles.
I was really leaving Chengdu.
We were in a state of excitement
all the way to Jilin.
The semester began on 1 September.
I looked forward to it.
It snows in Jilin, right?
First time in the north-east.
Everything was exciting.
I spent that semester
Iearning new things non-stop like
one who'd never left the family.
Everything was great.
I compared my life in Chengdu
with life in Jilin.
Compared with Factory 420,
the environment I grew up in,
this was very different.
Chi Chin's song The Outside World
expresses my feelings.
-Had it come out then?
-ln 1990, I think.
It was so great. Just great.
After the first semester,
my thinking changed a lot.
The first half-semester
was all theory, heat treatment
of metals, engine building...
In the second half-semester, three months,
I did an apprenticeship
and had to put on work clothes.
My whole attitude changed.
As a kid, I'd watched my father
put on his uniform.
At the time,
only policemen and soldiers wore uniforms.
I was always impressed
when I saw people in uniforms.
It meant high social status.
So I liked factory uniforms.
But when I put on the work clothes
the teacher gave me,
I didn't feel any different.
Took my lunch-box,
with a spoon rattling inside
and went to the factory.
Once there, things changed.
Your status was different.
You'd been a student.
You'd seen workers, right?
Now you were wearing work clothes.
It was not the same.
I remember one episode
that really affected me.
Another boy from Chengdu and l
were apprentices to a north-easterner.
He taught us metal polishing
with a big stone wheel.
He gave us a basketful of parts
straight off the production line.
Our job, he told us,
was to smooth away the rough edges
of these component parts.
I'm quite a sensitive guy.
I did 10 or 20.
I guess I thought it was quite interesting.
I focused on the technical skills.
But when you've done 50 or 100 of them,
something snaps in your mind.
You get exhausted, really exhausted.
I was covered in sweat.
In his north-eastern dialect,
the old worker said something
I can't forget to this day: "No need to worry.
"lf you can't finish this morning,
you can go on in the afternoon.
"This basketful is for the two of you.
"lf you don't finish today,
there's always tomorrow."
That really got to me.
I was so bored.
The component parts bored me rigid.
I got through 100 of them
and there were many more.
But he said that would be my job
from then on.
It was no fun anymore.
So I told him I was quitting.
I wanted to be a student again.
I said: "I'm a 16-year-old student.
"l don't want a uniform anymore."
My parents were against it,
jobs were scarce.
But I did quit. I left without my luggage.
Zhao Gang and his father
Long, long ago
I belonged to you
You belonged to me
Long, long ago
You left me
Flying high in the sky
The world outside is wonderful
Li Xuemei, 2003
Exam Registration Paper 10100010532
Arise!
Ye prisoners of starvation
Arise!
Ye toilers of the earth
For reason thunders new creation
'Tis a better world in birth...
Things we have thought and done
Must ramble and thin out
Like milk spilt upon a stone
W. B. Yeats
Su Na
It's such a hassle.
The stuff you want is so expensive.
Who can afford it?
Who can afford to show off like you?
Su Na, born 1982 in Chengdu
The school in Factory 420
In grade 1, I was 1.66 meters tall.
A good figure.
So I thought I could be a model
or something like that.
But I didn't get any taller.
It was such a shame.
Most of us in school were not
good students.
And the teaching was pretty bad.
He was manager of one
of the workshops in 420.
So he had good connections.
He used his influence to get me transferred
to High School 4.
He thought I'd go
to some famous university,
Iike Tsinghua or Peking University,
to make him proud of me
and honor our ancestors.
But I'm not the studying type.
Not at all.
I failed the college entrance exam.
I had the strong feeling
that I'd let my parents down.
For a while I hung around on the streets.
I had nothing to do.
I wasn't willing to work in 420.
But things are going fine now.
I work as a shopper.
I go to Hong Kong every two weeks
to buy things for my clients.
There are many rich people here.
So I can easily make money.
Rich women with time on their hands
Iike fashion but have no energy to buy.
So they hire me to buy for them.
All the famous brands.
Shoes, scarves, belts,
watches, that kind of thing.
I get 1000 yuan per item.
Enough to live on.
Pretty good, in fact.
See that tower?
Yes.
We call it the Panda TV Tower.
I have a friend from Malaysia.
I met him on a plane.
He wants to take over
the revolving restaurant
and hire me to manage it.
I've never worked in catering,
but there's no harm in trying.
Maybe I'll become a powerful woman!
What do you think?
I bought a car for my credibility.
I have to see those rich ladies every day.
If I didn't have a car,
I'd feel quite embarrassed.
I'll repay the loan myself.
My classmates' parents
have put money aside for them
since they were little.
I forget the name of the fund.
Anyhow, it's ring-fenced.
And when they're old enough
they'll own apartments and cars.
My mother was laid off in 1995.
While my father was working,
he kept his hands clean.
He never found my mother a well-paid job.
She found a part-time job
in a telegraph-pole factory.
She's still doing that now.
Since he retired
my dad's been permanently grumpy.
He can't adjust to not being in charge.
When he worked,
the house was packed with visitors.
It was very lively.
Now nobody at all comes to visit.
In the first few months,
he hardly stepped outside at all.
And he became very taciturn.
When he got up in the morning,
he'd just sit on the sofa,
chain-smoking.
I didn't go home much.
I didn't want to.
Whenever I was there,
I felt the mood of failure and depression.
I lived with my first boyfriend
in Royal Mansion, Yulin Gardens.
It was a pretty nice place.
But we eventually broke up.
Then I found another guy.
And we lived in a place called
"Beautiful Age".
I also lived in a one-room flat.
I think that was with my third boyfriend.
The bottom line is,
I didn't want to go home.
Not if I could avoid it.
One day, to apply for a trip, I needed
my permanent residence document.
So I went home to get it
and found the door locked.
I realized I didn't know where my key was.
I don't know what was wrong with me.
So I went to see my mother at her factory.
I'd never been there before.
As soon as I went inside,
I was deafened by the noise.
You had to shout to be heard.
I looked around the place.
But I couldn't see my mother.
The workers were all wearing blue uniforms.
I had to go up to every person.
I was looking for my mother.
Finally,
I found her over in a corner.
She was carrying ingots of steel.
She took them and threw them,
one after the other into some boxes.
Every time she threw one, it went bang!
I had never felt that sad in my whole life.
It was like a sharp pain
striking my heart. It made all my limbs ache.
I didn't even know if it was a man
or a woman when I approached.
The head was bent down.
I started crying
when I saw it was her and I ran off.
I had dinner at home that night.
My parents were so surprised:
"Why have you come home for dinner?"
I didn't answer.
After eating, I told my mother
that I would stay the night.
She was very happy.
She made my bed and brought a quilt.
I hadn't touched that bed in ages.
As I lay on it, I suddenly felt grown-up.
I began to care about my parents.
The thing I most want now
is to make a lot of money.
Lots and lots of money.
I want to buy an apartment
in 24 City for my parents.
I know it will cost a lot.
But I can do it.
I'm the daughter of a worker.
Chengdu
Home of the lotus-eating life
That's what makes my life worth living
Poem by Wan Xia