Kelsey Kaufmann
5/7/14
Eng 395ESM
Prof. Wexler
You and Me Made New by Strangers
There are many diverse methods of learning about the world and the different values and beliefs people hold. Each medium highlights specific points and frames of reference. One medium sheds light on life itself and really allows for diving into location and space. This medium is that of visual texts. Visual texts, although does not require much imagination, does allow for one to understand cultures in regards to its location and space and frame of reference. For example, the movie Beijing Bicycle is a visual medium that highlights the effects of American capitalism. It dives into outsourcing jobs to China and the economic and societal effects it had on the Chinese way of life and values.
While under Deng’s rule, China became a powerhouse of producing goods to sell to Americans and Englishmen. “The massive infrastructural investments under way in China have entrained much of the global economy.” (Harvey 140) China erupted very quickly in a capitalist environment and the citizens of important cities like Hong Kong were greatly affected. First, there were many economic changes that happened in these cities. There was a huge amount of migration happening from the farmland to the city to work at factories. Due to the influx of business and low-class workers the disparity between the upper and lower grew larger. There was a very large gap between these two classes however; they were in extremely close proximity to each other. This is revealed in the movie by all the scenes of high-rise buildings of business placed immediately next to the shacks that the workers lived in. The Upper class was literally on top of the lower class and as reliant on them for success. Marx says: “The City is both progress, productivity, poverty, indifference, and squalor. (“Cultural Space” 4) Because the owners of the factories lived in the city and so did the workers, technological advances were being made and so profit increased but profit and working standards have an inverse relationship. While profit increases, the standards of the factories lower so that the owners can reap an even higher profit. They get greedy and further the gap between them and their employees. In doing this, it allows for them to have uncontrollable power and create dependence on them from the employees. In the movie it showed the American companies taking advantage of the Chinese pride that many are raised to value. They gave their employees a bicycle and said it was their responsibility to retain it. Doing this not only took the blame off of their hands, but also allowed for even more of a profit if it got lost because the employee would have to pay it off.
As a result of the economic implications that the capitalist power brought China, there were social ramifications that affected most every Chinese citizen. Due to American capitalist thinking getting introduced to China, cultural practices started to change. “Space is a construction and material manifestation of social relations which reveals cultural assumptions and practices.” (“Cultural Space” 2) The first aspect that was affected was that American family values started to take over the younger Chinese generation. The Chinese culture always valued high respect for one’s elders according to the movie. In the movie Beijing Bicycle, it shows a young man talking back very rudely to his father and definitely not respecting him. The individualist ideals of American culture came over with their economic ideals. Another familial aspect is that the idea of a blended family started to occur more. Although Chinese people may have been getting divorced all along, the factory work and values heightened the amount. There was much more stress and individual drive that played a role in society that people started having to think for themselves in order to stay successful and employed.
The working class started to realize that a change in economic values had to change their societal values if they were to work successfully in the new economy. They had to have an individual drive and be less self-sacrificing when it came to their family.
These adjustments were hard to accept and manage and often time, it led to much rage. What stemmed from the rage created from society changing, translated often into fits of anger toward friends or family. In the movie, anytime there was a disagreement, the characters would end up physically fighting. They were trying to deal with the new economy and way of life but by keeping it silent like their Chinese culture taught them. However, because it was mixed with American culture this silence did not remain. It only led to outbursts of fighting for themselves. “For what the Chinese had to learn (and to some degree are still learning), among many other things, was that the market can do little to transform an economy without a parallel shift in class relations, private property, and all the other institutional arrangements that typically ground a thriving capitalist economy. The evolution along this path was both fitful and frequently marked by tensions and crises, in which impulses and even threats from out- side certainly played their part.” (Harvey121-122)
The last aspect that was greatly affected and obviously shown in Beijing Bicycle is the idea that the migrant worker lost his voice and, often times, simply had to comply with what was being dealt him. This led to even greater social inequality and anger. “But the reforms also led to environmental degradation, social inequality, and eventually something that looks uncomfortably like the reconstitution of capitalist class power.” (Harvey 122) Overall, the capitalist class power was productive only for the Upper class and the lower class still had to work like they always had. The only difference was that in order to be employed they had to move to the over-crowded city with terrible working standards and no company responsibility to protect them. This movie did an excellent job at showing the comparison between who reaped the benefits of the American capitalist ideals coming in and who did not. By having time to look at the scenery and reveal the defeated mood of the migrant worker sitting in the lowest parts of the city reveals the harsh reality they lived in. Putting this comment of Chinese workers in a visual medium was an excellent way to communicate the severity of their situation.
Works Cited
“Cultural Space and Urban Space: The New World Disorder.” Cal State University of Northridge. moodle.csun.edu. PowerPoint. 7 May, 2014.
Harvey, David. A Brief History of Neo-liberalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. PDF file.
