Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks – Part 2: Remnants (2003)

Directed by: Bing Wang | 176 minutes | documentary

‘Remnants’ is the second part of the documentary ‘Tie Xi Qu’: West of the Tracks’. In this documentary, Bing Wang portrays the decline of a major industrial area in northeast China. In ‘Remnants’, director Bing Wang follows a number of residents of the ‘rainbow neighbourhood’. Rainbow Neighborhood is a working-class neighborhood located in the industrial zone of Tie Xi District, in Shenyang City. For years, the area was known as the ‘maid’s grave’ because, according to local folklore, there is an anonymous grave of a girl who was employed by a wealthy family. Later the name was changed to the ‘rainboogbuurt’, which of course sounds much more cheerful. Yet the old name perhaps does more justice to the working-class district, which with a single brightly colored lantern but a gray and dilapidated district is ripe for demolition. From 1930 the population exploded due to the massive influx of Chinese from other areas to look for work in the Japanese munitions factories or to flee during the Chinese civil war. In the 1970s and 1980s, a new influx of inhabitants took place. These are mainly students who were sent to the countryside during the Cultural Revolution and who are now returning to start a family. Now mostly workers live in the nearby factories.

Bing Wang initially follows a couple of young people who have little to do and who mainly deal with cards and conquer the hearts of their great loves. Based on the experiences of these young people, you get to know more and more people in this working-class district. You especially gain insight into the appalling conditions in which people have to live. Hope for a better future is virtually nowhere to be found, the generation that was sent to the countryside during the Cultural Revolution never had an education or learned a trade. Parts of the neighborhood will be demolished in favor of a widened road, so entire families will have to find new accommodation. The government/project developers do offer relocation and compensation, but this is always worse than the current situation. The workers are offered a new home based on their current situation and whether it is a functional home (social) or private home. A bizarre construction that is completely unclear. It is therefore remarkable that the residents often look very resigned to it. The idea that nothing can be done about it is predominant, but despite this, this documentary clearly criticizes the project developers and indirectly the government. For example, the word ‘bastards’ is used sparingly. Something you don’t expect from the Chinese elders because criticism about the Party is not much appreciated, but it is certainly understandable. It is horrible to see these workers being ripped off by the developers. Electricity and water are cut off in the middle of winter, they just have to save themselves.

The faded glory of the ‘rainbow neighbourhood’ gets an extra dimension at the end. When the entire neighborhood has already been demolished and the last families are about to move, another grandmother is buried in the former neighborhood. A hole in wasteland that is surrounded by the remains of the workers’ houses that are sharply silhouetted against the horizon. A lone lantern is placed at the grave and paper money is traditionally burned to accompany the woman to the afterlife. A grave that will probably go into anonymity later on, one of the remains through which a later neighborhood may again be called the ‘maidservant grave’.

‘Remnants’ is the excellent second part of the three-part documentary ‘Tie Xie Qu: West of the Tracks’ and shows the impact of the economic downturn on workers and their families in one of China’s largest industrial areas. They have to be content with marginal living conditions and make the best of it.