Plastic China
塑料王国

This film documents a plastic recycling facility in a small town dedicated to the business of processing plastic waste. The facility is operated by two families: the family of the owner and a family of employees. Eleven-year-old Yi-Jie works alongside her parents while dreaming of attending school. Kun, the facility’s ambitious foreman, hopes for a better life. Plastic Chinaexamines global consumption and culture through the eyes and hands of those who handle its refuse.

Beyond its basic meaning as a noun, my film emphasizes the word plastic as a verb, meaning “to shape,” just as the universal worship of material wealth in contemporary society shapes the factory, and just as the difficult circumstances facing worker parents shape their children. As these travesties and weaknesses are revealed, the superficial splendor of China emerges as cheap and fake. –Wang Jiuliang, director

Plastic China reflects the harsh reality of the nation’s economic development through the conditions of two families at a waste recycling facility; the great material, physical, and psychological price they pay; their aspirations toward wealth; and their complete disregard for individual quality of life. –Ai Weiwei

As contemporary China has become the world’s factory, it has also become its waste dump. Products made with cheap labor are sent around the world, but the waste remains in China. Though the workers are able to subsist on razor-thin profits, they also must endure severe environmental pollution. All workers’ family members devote their lives to this crude link in the economic chain. The children pull enticing advertisements, toys, and everyday items from the trash to build their secondhand lives. Whether presenting four years of unrealized schooling plans, or a birth in a cornfield, the camera captures tragedy at every turn. –Wang Fen

Film Details

Language: Mandarin with English subtitles
Year: 2016
Running time: 82 min
Director: Wang Jiuliang 王久良

Films and schedules may be subject to change.