Beijing Bicycle 2001
Beijing Bicycle depicts the struggle that is faced by many young rural men, as they travel to the city to seek better employment. This story may have been a bit exaggerated, but it does get some points across nicely. The transportation, economic state, and the pace of the city are all shown in the movie. Guei, a young-man from the countryside has just got a job as a bicycle-currier and will earn the new delivery-bike after a few weeks of work. Unfortunately it is stolen just before he has earned enough credit for it and he proceeds to search Beijing, a city with 9 million bicycles, to recover it (The street signs even have bicycle outlines in the lights.). His boss is impressed at his persistence and offers him his job back if he can find the stolen bike.
Qin, a school-boy now in possession of the bike, used money that was to pay his younger sister’s school fees to purchase the stolen bike. Qin’s friends have it out for Guei and the group struggle to find a solution after Qin’s father gets involved. They decide to alternate ownership on a daily basis. After Qin got the bike back, everything suddenly seemed ok. The bike was a source of freedom that allowed him to forget about everything bad in his life. This was similar for the Geui as well, except for his delivery-situation. It was his livelihood and even a right of passage for his hard work.
There is definitely going to be culture shock of some type experienced by Geui, and it’s illustrated when he’s forced to take a shower at a SPA before entering to see a client that turns out to be the wrong one. He is a soft-spoken, humble, stubborn, and determined, all traits that can be assumed to be shared by the majority of countryside immigrants who look to the city for work. He shows steadfast dedication after receiving the job as a delivery boy. He talks with his friend at the convenience store and the friend encourages and admires the position Guei is in. He describes it as a, “Dream Job”, as he gazes at the shiny new bike. It seems that the battle is already over instead of just beginning.
The city depicted, is a blend of old and new with a level of coexistence quickly giving way to modern times. Qin wears a school uniform, goes to fancy arcades after school, and returns home to what could be called a shack. Above the store owned by Guei’s friend, a maid loafs around in her employers fancy clothes. The boys with the bicycles practice in construction sites to improve their skills that will make them more popular with their peers. Geui’s friend lives vicariously through him with the ideas of being able to go to all the fancy places in the city. There were a lot of situations where people were trying to ‘forget themselves’ or perhaps, be something better. The students street clothes appeared no different than what you would see in the U.S. This is probably a well portrayed aspect of the youth in the lower economic levels. The violence displayed is also more than likely a result of this.
Guei’s job could be compared to UPS of Fed-Ex on a smaller scale. Bicycle delivery companies exist elsewhere in large cities, but Beijing with its much larger percentage of bicycles than any other city, allows this comparison. The city has relied mainly on bikes for transportation up until the last ten years, with the current trend shifting to cars. President Wang is trying to combat this due to the high concentrations of emissions, as a result of the new influx of cars. The city has spent about 17 billion dollars in the three years leading up to the Olympic Games, in an effort to increase clean air and become more environmentally friendly as a city. Transportation was the main focus with public transportation, the main target. Commuters with motorized vehicles are required to use public transportation once a week and business hours are encouraged to be staggered to avoid dense traffic. Many more changes took place and will continue to take place, it seems as though the Olympics were used merely as a catalyst for the conversion of the city. Comparing Omaha, Nebraska, to Beijing, gives a good example of the density problem causing the heavy pollution. Both cities are laid out in an approximately 100 square mile areas, giving the two similar spatial characteristics. As of 2007, Omaha’s population was 424,482, and Beijing’s roughly 17 million. This makes it approximately 40 times larger than the Omaha. Imagine 10 times more vehicles on the roads in Omaha that is exactly what Wang is facing.
The only time you see a lot of bicycles in Omaha, is at a school and many other smaller cities in the U.S. are the same. With the incline of oil prices, more and more people are risking life and limb, with their two-wheeled transportation. It seems ironic that the people of Beijing who are now able to buy cars are being told no to drive them. It is not going to be an easy task to revert everyone to bicycles, but Wang has done well this far. Of course a plan like this would have to allow for long-distance commuters to use cars, but they would be highly outnumbered by local commuters saving emissions. The main problem is emissions, but even if that was solved, there are just too many people in Beijing to have a good solution.
Beijing Bicycle depicts the struggle that is faced by many young rural men, as they travel to the city to seek better employment. This story may have been a bit exaggerated, but it does get some points across nicely. The transportation, economic state, and the pace of the city are all shown in the movie. Guei, a young-man from the countryside has just got a job as a bicycle-currier and will earn the new delivery-bike after a few weeks of work. Unfortunately it is stolen just before he has earned enough credit for it and he proceeds to search Beijing, a city with 9 million bicycles, to recover it (The street signs even have bicycle outlines in the lights.). His boss is impressed at his persistence and offers him his job back if he can find the stolen bike.
Qin, a school-boy now in possession of the bike, used money that was to pay his younger sister’s school fees to purchase the stolen bike. Qin’s friends have it out for Guei and the group struggle to find a solution after Qin’s father gets involved. They decide to alternate ownership on a daily basis. After Qin got the bike back, everything suddenly seemed ok. The bike was a source of freedom that allowed him to forget about everything bad in his life. This was similar for the Geui as well, except for his delivery-situation. It was his livelihood and even a right of passage for his hard work.
There is definitely going to be culture shock of some type experienced by Geui, and it’s illustrated when he’s forced to take a shower at a SPA before entering to see a client that turns out to be the wrong one. He is a soft-spoken, humble, stubborn, and determined, all traits that can be assumed to be shared by the majority of countryside immigrants who look to the city for work. He shows steadfast dedication after receiving the job as a delivery boy. He talks with his friend at the convenience store and the friend encourages and admires the position Guei is in. He describes it as a, “Dream Job”, as he gazes at the shiny new bike. It seems that the battle is already over instead of just beginning.
The city depicted, is a blend of old and new with a level of coexistence quickly giving way to modern times. Qin wears a school uniform, goes to fancy arcades after school, and returns home to what could be called a shack. Above the store owned by Guei’s friend, a maid loafs around in her employers fancy clothes. The boys with the bicycles practice in construction sites to improve their skills that will make them more popular with their peers. Geui’s friend lives vicariously through him with the ideas of being able to go to all the fancy places in the city. There were a lot of situations where people were trying to ‘forget themselves’ or perhaps, be something better. The students street clothes appeared no different than what you would see in the U.S. This is probably a well portrayed aspect of the youth in the lower economic levels. The violence displayed is also more than likely a result of this.
Guei’s job could be compared to UPS of Fed-Ex on a smaller scale. Bicycle delivery companies exist elsewhere in large cities, but Beijing with its much larger percentage of bicycles than any other city, allows this comparison. The city has relied mainly on bikes for transportation up until the last ten years, with the current trend shifting to cars. President Wang is trying to combat this due to the high concentrations of emissions, as a result of the new influx of cars. The city has spent about 17 billion dollars in the three years leading up to the Olympic Games, in an effort to increase clean air and become more environmentally friendly as a city. Transportation was the main focus with public transportation, the main target. Commuters with motorized vehicles are required to use public transportation once a week and business hours are encouraged to be staggered to avoid dense traffic. Many more changes took place and will continue to take place, it seems as though the Olympics were used merely as a catalyst for the conversion of the city. Comparing Omaha, Nebraska, to Beijing, gives a good example of the density problem causing the heavy pollution. Both cities are laid out in an approximately 100 square mile areas, giving the two similar spatial characteristics. As of 2007, Omaha’s population was 424,482, and Beijing’s roughly 17 million. This makes it approximately 40 times larger than the Omaha. Imagine 10 times more vehicles on the roads in Omaha that is exactly what Wang is facing.
The only time you see a lot of bicycles in Omaha, is at a school and many other smaller cities in the U.S. are the same. With the incline of oil prices, more and more people are risking life and limb, with their two-wheeled transportation. It seems ironic that the people of Beijing who are now able to buy cars are being told no to drive them. It is not going to be an easy task to revert everyone to bicycles, but Wang has done well this far. Of course a plan like this would have to allow for long-distance commuters to use cars, but they would be highly outnumbered by local commuters saving emissions. The main problem is emissions, but even if that was solved, there are just too many people in Beijing to have a good solution.
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1 comment:
hey! glad to hear something about this movie! i got it from my local library. its good for me cuz its not toooo emotional, but its got a lot of scenes where the character is really introverted.
its good for a little bit of Chinese culture and lots of bicycle-luv.
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