The Individual Memory and Era Symptoms in Jia Zhangke’s Films

Jia Zhangke, one of the most internationally acclaimed Chinese filmmakers, has spent his career intricately documenting the intertwining of individual memory and the sweeping changes within Chinese society. Emerging in the 1990s, a time when China was undergoing rapid economic transformation, Jia’s films are deeply rooted in the social upheavals of the era. While the country was moving swiftly into the age of commercial blockbusters, Jia remained committed to his artistic vision, focusing on the stories of marginalized individuals and capturing the nuanced realities of their lives amid societal change (Cui, 101). His films not only reflect the struggles of these individuals but also offer a profound commentary on the larger forces at play in the shaping of modern China. Through his portrayal of the rural working class and their experiences with migration, urbanization, and cultural shifts, Jia creates a lens through which viewers can understand the personal and societal impacts of China’s transformation.

1. Social Transformation

The economic reforms and the opening-up policy brought profound divisions and transformations within Chinese society. With economic development and societal progress, significant changes occurred in various aspects, including lifestyles, values, and social structures. The market economy reform facilitated the migration of people from rural to urban areas, with a large number of surplus rural laborers flocking to cities in search of better employment opportunities and living conditions. This migration disrupted the original rural social structure, creating a new class of migrant workers (Cheng, 129). However, within the new economic system, these migrant workers faced a dilemma of identity in the cities due to the differences between traditional rural values and urban culture. Specifically, migrant workers occupied a marginalized position in the cities, and their original social roles and values were challenged. At the same time, consumerism in urban areas had a profound impact on their sense of identity. They neither belonged to mainstream society nor found it easy to integrate into urban life, and they could not return to the traditional rural society either. This confusion and conflict regarding identity made them feel helpless and lost when facing urban society.

In 1995, Jia Zhangke’s first narrative short film Xiaoshan Going Home vividly portrayed the marginalized position of migrant workers in the city and the subtle effects of consumer culture on their lives and psyche through the character of Wang Xiaoshan. In the film, Wang Xiaoshan longs to return to his hometown but finds it difficult to escape the city’s constraints. He is in the city but struggles to integrate into it. This marginality of identity is reflected not only in his occupation and living conditions but also in his sense of alienation from urban culture. Later, by the time The World and Still Life were released, terms like “globalization” and “migrant workers” had become keywords of the era. In The World, the migrant workers are both workers and spectators, with their lives condensed into this microcosm of the “world,” representing the intersection of urban and rural, tradition and modernity. Still Life more directly portrays the inner worlds of migrant workers. Set against the backdrop of the Three Gorges Dam project, the film tells the story of two migrant workers, Han Sanming and Shen Hong, as they search for their long-lost spouses. In the process, they not only face personal challenges but are also forced to confront the conflicts and contradictions brought about by social change.

The economic boom and deep societal transformation triggered by the reform and opening-up policy were accompanied by widening income gaps and intensifying social contradictions. Jia Zhangke’s films delve into these issues, presenting the challenges faced by Chinese society during its period of transformation.

2. Individual Pain

In The Weight of the World, sociologist Pierre Bourdieu argues that individual “pain” is a social experience shaped by factors like family, school, and community. He suggests that individual experiences often reflect broader social issues, as personal struggles are influenced by larger social structures and inequalities. What might appear as personalized experiences are, in fact, common manifestations of social problems. The oppressed often struggle to express their trauma due to personal psychological pressure and the suppression of social taboos. As a result, stories related to these traumatic places are often neglected or avoided. These places, even when silent, constantly remind people of the buried pain and shame. It is often only after a period of reflection that individuals return to these places of trauma, attempting to understand the associated issues. At this point, these places are no longer just physical spaces but have become new carriers of meaning, guiding people to explore forgotten histories. Over time, the authenticity of these places gradually fades, and they transform into symbols or concepts rather than real memories. Different visitors bring their unique perspectives and experiences, constructing different meanings for these places. Therefore, when discussing these sites of trauma, it is important to recognize that they are not only witnesses of history but also carriers of memory. 

In the film The World, Jia Zhangke presents the lives of marginalized individuals in the decaying industrial city of Datong, Shanxi. With the disintegration of the original industrial system, unemployed workers and their children became marginalized in this era. The children, Binbin and Xiaoji, whose parents are unemployed workers, seem trapped by the reality of their circumstances, unable to escape their predicament. Their daily lives, consisting of riding motorcycles and visiting entertainment centers, seem devoid of greater meaning. This sense of confusion and lack of direction encapsulates the difficulties individuals face in the midst of social transformation. Similarly, in A Touch of Sin, the character Dahai, feeling angered by the injustices of the village chief and coal boss, is unable to obtain justice through normal channels and ultimately resorts to violent revenge. San’er, unable to find his place in the midst of societal change, chooses an extreme path of murder and robbery. Both films use delicate cinematography to depict the disorientation of individuals amidst social change, presenting the pain and discomfort people experience when they cannot adapt to new social roles and positions.

China’s modernization process has unfolded against the backdrop of globalization, bringing not only rapid material and technological development but also profound social change (Cheng, 116). The intense drive for modernization and the pursuit of surpassing others became powerful forces driving society forward. Everyone, driven by a longing for a better life, continuously strives toward their goals. However, during this critical period, the development process presented characteristics of temporal and spatial compression, leaving people inevitably feeling confused and disoriented. Jia Zhangke, living through one of the most intense periods of social transformation in China, experienced firsthand this unstoppable change. The emotions of the era were deeply imprinted in his heart, prompting him to use film as a medium to record and express these feelings. Through individual experiences and memories, he presents the essence of an era, showing the real feelings of people amidst social change. His films are not just a personal history but a collective, universal one. Jia Zhangke courageously faces and restores the authenticity of traumatic memories, focusing on the “painful history” of individuals during periods of transformation. This spirit of the common people endows his films with profound humanistic concern and social responsibility.

3. Unique Expression Choices 

Film, as a narrative mechanism, has a clear storytelling purpose and structure. This storytelling is not merely a simple collage of images but a highly organized and meaningful form of expression. In a film, the audience may not always see an overt narrator, but the switching of scenes and the rhythm of editing constantly hint at the presence of the narrator. Films extract events from their original spatiotemporal context and, through technical means, re-present them in other scenes. These scenes may be geographically or temporally distant, but they appear simultaneously in the film, creating a space that is both realistic and full of imagination. Thus, even realist films necessarily contain elements that non-realistize specific events.

“Every era of transformation damages the interests of marginalized people, always sacrificing them at a cost. So why don’t we care about them, about those destined to be sacrificed by others?” Jia Zhangke’s words encapsulate his creative drive to focus on the marginalized individuals crushed by the passage of time. These individuals reside at society’s edges, facing life’s hardships and displacement. Lacking the skills to articulate their experiences, their voices are even more easily ignored. In Jia Zhangke’s films, these marginalized figures often speak in dialects rather than the widely accepted Mandarin. These dialects are confined to their personal, intimate worlds, where each person communicates within their own reality, seemingly trapped in their language. As the audience adopts the director’s perspective and gazes at these familiar yet distant faces, these individuals—once overlooked and treated as mere background—suddenly come to life, revealing their existence and personal stories. These characters are presented as the true protagonists of the film, with their joys, sorrows, struggles, and aspirations depicted with authenticity.

Shanxi’s Fenyang is Jia Zhangke’s “spiritual hometown,” and the recurring theme of “hometown” in his works represents his core creative philosophy. Departing from the regional context of Shanxi and the marginalized groups, Jia Zhangke might lose its cultural soil and deep social insight. However, in Jia Zhangke’s films, the concept of homeland transcends physical geography, becoming a symbol of a spiritual home. Amid rapid social transformation, people’s memories and perceptions of their homeland gradually turn into retrospective recollections, and urban transformation causes familiar sights and emotions to slowly disappear, making it difficult for individuals to find a sense of belonging in their homeland.

Jia Zhangke’s “Hometown Trilogy” uses delicate cinematography to profoundly reveal the transformation of his hometown, Datong and Fenyang, during modernization. In Xiao Wu, the opening scene of the village-run ironworks is meticulously depicted, with towering smokestacks and billowing smoke symbolizing the pre-modernization state of the city’s periphery. At the film’s conclusion, Xiao Wu is expelled from his home by his father, a scene that not only reflects the rupture of familial relationships but also reveals the deeper transformation of rural society and the spiritual loss of individuals during the process of modernization. Xiao Wu’s spiritual home disappears with this transformation, and he becomes a wanderer unable to find a place to belong. Platform and Unknown Pleasures also depict the profound effects of industrial civilization, showing the irreversible changes during social transformation. The streets, alleys, and other settings in the films were once integral parts of the hometown but gradually turned into historical remnants, symbolizing the failure of the journey to find a spiritual home. Mountains May Depart, with its structure of “one point three lines” and “time segments,” tells stories from three different periods, presenting a grand picture of China’s 30 years of social transformation. The film, through the depiction of people’s fates, reflects how social changes have influenced people’s lives, emotions, and values. These era-specific scenes, now irreproducible in the modernization process, serve as waste materials and reflect the profound reflection on the conflict between tradition and modernity, spirit and material.

In conclusion, Jia Zhangke’s films offer a poignant exploration of how personal memory intersects with societal transformation. By focusing on marginalized individuals, he reflects the emotional and psychological toll of China’s rapid modernization. His work combines intimate stories with broader historical shifts, creating a powerful commentary on the struggles of ordinary people during times of social change. Jia’s films are a timeless reflection on the costs of modernization and the complexity of individual and collective histories.

Bibliography

• CUI, Shuqing. 2006. “Negotiating In-Between: On New-generation Filmmaking and Jia Zhangke’s Films.” Modern Chinese Literature and Culture 18(2): 98-130.

• MCGRATH, Jason. 2007. “The Independent Cinema of Jia Zhangke: From Postsocialist Realism to a Transnational Aesthetic.” In Zhang Zhen (ed.), The Urban Generation: Chinese Cinema and Society at the Turn of the Twenty-first Century. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. 81-114.

• CHENG, Anna. “The ‘Mingong’ Assemblage: Contemporary Chinese Migrant Workers in Jia Zhangke’s ‘A Touch of Sin’ (2013).” American Journal of Chinese Studies, vol. 29, no. 2, 2022, pp. 111–29. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/45437141. Accessed 12 Dec. 2024.

• BERRY, Michael. 2009. Xiao Wu, Platform, Unknown Pleasures: Jia Zhangke’s ‘Hometown Trilogy’. London: Palgrave Macmillan.