Beijing Bicycle

According to Andrew Watson from Wall Street Journal, the economy of China is the second largest in the world today. Recently I have also read some articles from Wall Street Journal that the economy in China is the fastest growing in the world. It seems that the economy of China especially in big cities like Beijing has getting more and more powerful and the vast majority of people there are getting more affluent. However, Wang Xiaoshuai’s Beijing Bicycle focuses on non-wealthy people’s lives in Beijing, China and lets us know about a tremendous gap between the rich and the poor and financial hardship of people from non-wealthy family in China. It also shows the younger generation’s lives in China, which are highly influenced by their families’ economic situation.


The film portrays that rich people in China can easily become richer but for currently non-wealthy people, it is in fact pretty challenging and often impossible to get out of the chain reactions of having financial hardship and become rich even when they work hard. When one of the main characters, Guei, got a job at a delivery company after he came to Beijing, he was explained that he could get twenty percent of commission, but eighty percent of commission will go to the company, presumably mainly to CEO. Despite all the hard work required, Guei seemed to be happy to be able to ride a new bicycle provided by the company. Guei is only seventeen years old, so it is obvious that he didn’t go to college before he started working. It seems that Guei is likely to continue having the unstable job that requires physically tough work that he won’t be able to continue working when he gets older. There are many rich people portrayed in the film who hire a maid at home or go to have expensive massage and have a sauna that Guei cannot afford. To me, it seems that the manager and the president of the company take advantage of their employees who are new to Beijing because they hire only young people from the countryside of China. The money that Guei earns must be a big money back in his hometown. However, the money Guei gets is not fair to him when we think carefully about his heavy workload.


The film also portrays the younger generation’s lives in Beijing, which are often influenced by their families’ economic situation. Jian, who is a high school student, likes to be out with his friends, having fun. He enjoys going out with his girlfriend, playing games like Dance Dance Revolution and being absorbed in mountain bike trials with his friends. Jian studied hard so that his father would buy him a new bicycle. He didn’t study to go to college probably because he knew that his parents wouldn’t be able to send him to college. I used to have stereotypical images of the high school students living in big cities in China to be extremely smart and hard working because I have heard that they have to study hard like they have no life in order to get into famous universities. Going to prestigious universities is one of the most important keys to get higher status and stable jobs in China. Here in the United States, all the Asian students are considered to be good at math and study very hard all the time. In fact, in many American films, Asian students regardless of their nationalities are portrayed in the same or similar way. However, the film, Beijing Bicycle, implies that there are in fact a variety of students in China and there are people who give up getting higher education due to their families’ economic situation. In China, educational opportunities are still limited to wealthy people whose parents can afford the expensive tuition fees.


The film, Beijing Bicycle, is meaningful for us because it tells us the real situation going on in Beijing that many of us might not be able to get to know even if we take a trip to Beijing. According to my Chinese friends, the places all the tourists go in Beijing are almost always limited, westernized, and highly modernized areas that have luxurious hotels, restaurants, and department stores. Watching the film, I got to know about the hardship of young people living in Beijing and a variety of their lives that are often determined by their families’ economic situation.