""Welcoming the sun of the new century..."" ""...we workers at Chengfa raise our voices"" "CHENGFA GROUP" ""The five-star red flag flutters in the wind"" ""How glorious our song of victory!"" ""Singing for our beloved motherland..."" ""...as she prospers and grows strong!"" "CEREMONY FOR TRANSFER OF LAND FROM" "CHENGFA GROUP TO china RESOURCES LAND LTD" "Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests..." "Good morning, everyone" "Today, 29 December 2007 will mark a new and glorious chapter  in the development of the Chengfa Group" "For nearly 50 years we have grappled with difficulties and setbacks and the challenging breakthroughs of economic reform" "Now a revitalized Chengfa Group  is about to move from the site that it has occupied for 50 years" ""The cherished hibiscus of 24 City, in full bloom"" " Tang Dynasty poem" "Chengdu City" "HE XlKUN" "Back then, we just thought of '420' as a large factory" "But I knew that it did work for the military" "It made aircraft, and aero engines" "We came in as fitters, our job was to repair all the machinery and equipment in '420'" "We were solely responsible for repairs" "We did regular maintenance and repairs when necessary" "Back then, he was in charge of Fitter Group 4" "Back then..." "There's one thing I remember" "I'd just arrived" "I had no idea that the fitters basically had to make their own tools" "By ourselves" "One thing we used was called a 'scraper'" "It was a kind of blade, shaped like this" "And we had to make them ourselves" "We cut the metal and then honed the edge" "Finished  it was about this long" "Then, as it got worn down, we re-honed it" "When it became this short, it couldn't be used any more" "But he kept on using them regardless" "When the thing was really worn out, he hung it from his belt" "You had to hone the edge very, very slowly" "Even when it was all worn away  useless  he kept on using it" "There was one time..." "One scraper was worn right down, I couldn't use it, so I threw it away" "Then Master Wang said..." ""Xiao He..."" ""You know..."" ""...that this small thing..."" ""... has come into our hands..."" ""...through the hands of many others"" ""lt can still be used"" "So he picked up the one I'd thrown away" "He re-honed it and used it again" "I was so impressed" "I felt it keenly" "We were too immature" "We had to learn not to be wasteful" "Master Wang knew well..." ""Waste not, want not"" "That's correct, and I learned it from him." "He knew how many hands our tools had passed through" "How hard-won they were" "I feel guilty when I speak about Master Wang" "I've been so busy for years now that I haven't visited him" "He Xikun, born 1 949 in Chengdu." "Apprenticed in 1 964 in the Fourth Fitter Group of Workshop 61... in Factory "420"." "Later joined the army." ""He Xikun, male, aged 30, work card # 0771 8968"" "During the Cultural Revolution years there were some very violent clashes" "Most of the factories and mines stopped work" "But he carried on working" "Hardly anyone else went in to the factory" "Talking about this makes me feel a bit sad" "It's hard to talk about this" "I would have died if you hadn't come" "She's hidden everything!" "Hid what?" "Nothing!" "What was there to hide?" "Mother said the knife was hidden" "She hid it all" "Even my belt" "They took three X-rays" "After a long wait" "This hospital is hopeless" "They suggested we move to the provincial hospital" "Give it to him." " Were the X-rays computer-enhanced?" " Yes." "So the images are clear?" "Should be" "It cannot be this afternoon, in the afternoon it..." "What have you got to say?" "What have you got to say?" "You?" "What have you got to say?" "Seeing you makes me a bit nervous" "Nervous?" "Are you happy?" "Happy to see me?" "Of course I'm happy" "It's been so long" "Too bad..." "I wouldn't have known you if we passed on the street" "I wouldn't have" "Have I changed?" "You look thinner than before" "I looked like this back then" "Seeing you..." "Greeting you..." "But I forget" "My brain's rusty" "Too slow!" "It was okay before" "I used to remember things well" "But not now" "You did a lot for the factory." "Back then..." "When I started working there..." "I used to worry" "I came here in 1 959" "If I ever took a day off, I'd work nights to make up the time" "Overtime" "I even worked through New Year and at weekends" "Every single day" "We were under pressure back then" "Always the threat of war" "Right" "ALWAYS FOLLOW THE PATH OF DEVELOPMENT CORRECTLY" "SECRETARY GUAN" "Guan Fengjiu, born 1935 in Haicheng, Liaoning Province." "Appointed head of security in Factory "420"." "At the time he retired, he was deputy secretary of the Communist Party Committee." "We were implementing Chairman Mao's strategy" "Moving military factories to inland areas" "Sheltered by the mountains here" "Originally, the armaments factories, the aeronautics places were all in the north-east" "During the Korean War, that was the front line in the action against the Yanks" "In line with the new strategy we built factories in the south-west" "We picked this place" "We were under contract to Factory '1 1 1 ' in Shenyang, in the north-east" "We repaired aircraft engines there" "MlG-1 5s, during the Korean War" "They were used in the attacks on the Yanks, by the Chinese and North Korean air forces" "We were fighting American lmperialism" "So Factory '1 1 1 ' built Factory '420'" "It was Factory '1 1 1 '" "On 3 November, the General Assembly was mobilized" "That was when our factory was charged with building '420' in Chengdu" "We needed 60% of the staff" "That is, 60% of Factory '1 1 1 ' staff..." "We all had to move down here Over a period" "A certain amount of the equipment from '1 1 1 ' was moved here" "And the people to run it" "Various specialists, technical staff, cadres" "Mobilized after 3 November" "I transferred here in December" "I was in charge of the Security Section" "I was one of the first to arrive" "At that time, there were more than four thousand workers" "Hou Lijun" "After Mum came here every year I thought of visiting home" "I wanted to see my grandparents" "My Mum's father and mother" "She wanted to visit them too Always thought about it" "Year on year..." "But then...job, family, kids..." "Not to mention..." "The cost of it" "We always wanted to visit home, but couldn't afford to" "The bottom line" "After coming here in 1 958  I have been back" "When did we first go back to Shenyang?" "It was in 1 972" "Nothing had changed since 1 958" "In 14 years!" "I was 18 or 19 by then" "I'd finished middle school" "Yes, I'd left middle school  by the time I first went back to Shenyang with Mum" "The first time back in Shenyang" "Do you remember Shenyang at that time?" "Sure I do" "I remember it vividly" "Vividly" "What was it like?" "Well, it was..." "Coming home like that..." "It was 14 years since Mum had left" "Her first trip home" "As soon as we got there, my Grandma and her husband broke down in tears" "They really cried" "One time in 14 years" "I was still too young to really understand" "I didn't appreciate why they felt so strongly" "I don't understand... what they felt" "Hou Lijun, born 1 953 in Shenyang." "Worked as repairman in Workshop 63 in Factory "420"" "And when we were about to leave, they all said..." ""You've come back only once in 14 years" "We must see you off at the railway station"" ""lf you stay away this long again, we'll be more than 70 years old next time"" ""Will there be another chance to meet?" "This might be the last time"" "Then I understood why my Grandpa cried like that" "When the train started moving," "Grandpa broke down... in tears again" "As the train pulled out of the station, Mum kept her composure" "But I  began to cry myself" "In the train, I began sobbing out loud" "I felt so sorry for my grandparents" "They seemed so pitiful" "Mum lived so far away from them" "She couldn't visit them" "It was so hard for us to go back even once" "The great thing is that Grandma was lucky" "Near the end of her life, she said  her greatest wish was to go to Chengdu to see her eldest daughter" "That is, my mother" "She finally came here in 1 985" "By then she was 86 years old" "She finally made it" "The next year, she went back" "And that was the year she passed away" "How many in your own family?" "My own?" "We're a normal three-person family" " Your husband works in the factory?" " Yes, he does" " he does" " What's his job?" "He does..." "It's kind of..." "Surface treatment In the Coating Workshop" "Surface treatment" "You have a son or a daughter?" "A son." "When my boy was in the sixth grade of primary school  I was laid off." " How old were you then?" " I was 41." "41 years old" "Was it a policy decision or for some other reason?" "Policy, they wanted to reduce staff numbers" "They didn't need so many people as before, so they cut back and increased efficiency" "The factory needed fewer people, so we were laid off I was one of the first to go" "Back then," "I recall ten or more of us... in our workshop were laid off" "More then ten others..." "left with me, more than ten" "We had a last dinner together... at Hekouwei Restaurant" "We'd been there for many banquets" "But that night, many of us couldn't eat" "They couldn't eat, they just cried" "They cried openly" "Everyone pulled at Director Cao Pumped Director Yang's hands" "They were saying..." ""ln all these years, I've never come late for work"" "Director Cao agreed that they hadn't" "And "ln all these years, was there ever a time when I didn't do my best?"" "Director Cao said "Never"" "In fact, nobody was in the wrong" "Nobody 'd come to work late Nobody 'd not given their best" "He said I never failed at my job" "Director Cao said I'd never failed" "Not even once" "And I'd never come late" "Not one mistake" "But they simply didn't need so many people" "There was less work They were earning less money" "They couldn't support such a large workforce" "The company had to pay its own way" "All it could do was lay off staff Give us all small pay-offs" "When we got home that evening dinner was really..." "We cried Some of us didn't eat at all" "I did eat, just to encourage the others" "I was just pretending..." "Urging the others to tuck in" "That's what I did" "That's called "Smiling through your tears"" "That's what I did" "I really did hide my tears and pretend to be happy" "Why cry?" "Let's eat!" "In 1994, I was 41 years old" "A middle-school graduate" "A 41-year-old woman" "My kid is just in the sixth grade of primary school" "I have to pay his tuition fees" "A three-person family has to eat" "I have just about 200 yuan to live on" "When I went out job-hunting  I put up a motto on the wall" "It read like this..." ""Come rain, come shine," "I must go forward"" "I went out looking for a job every day" "Always had my motto in mind" "Anyhow..." "I went out looking for work" "I tried all over Chengdu" "Again and again" "I tried at the Job Center" "In Chengdu City, there's a Job Center... in the Workers' Cultural Palace" "You sign up there..." "You look everywhere" "You ask old friends for help" "Maybe an old friend has work for you" "It's so hard, really not easy." "It's really not easy to find a job" "Finally I gave up" "I couldn't find a job, so I tried selling on the street" "What did I sell?" "I sold yellow michelia flowers" "You can pin them on your chest" "I sold yellow michelias at Qingshi Bridge" "Early every morning I bought yellow michelias" "I set up near the Dongfeng Road bridge" "On the roadside, by a little tree" "I had to be discreet" "If the traffic cops saw me, or the city superintendents they would confiscate the flowers" "After that, some friends introduced me to other jobs" "Slowly, step by step..." "Are you working now?" "Nowadays..." "Nowadays I do some tailoring at home" "I'm retired, retired" "I qualify for a pension" "I have a pension, but I still do some tailoring work" " You do what?" " Tailoring" "Still tailoring" "At home" "Didn't you notice at my home?" "I put up the sign "Tailor"... in the window" "I still do a bit at home" "Just a little" "Do a little" "It's better" "I earn a bit" "And I have something to do" "If people have something to do ...they age more slowly" "IF PEOPLE HAVE something TO DO, THEY AGE MORE SLOWLY" ""l have a date tonight"" ""l will not sleep tonight"" ""When the bell sounds across space and time..."" ""... it wakes the new millennium!"" ""Regulations for Retired Persons' Cultural Room"" "WANTED" "Dormitory Area in Factory '420'" "Going out, Dali?" "Yes" "Feel better?" "Much better" "DALl" "Aunty..." "Shall I hang the drip for you?" "Please" "You called me "Aunty"?" "You should call me "Granny"." "Granny..." "This Director Song..." "Has he come in yet?" "He has" "He's probably in a meeting with the bosses" "I see" "Are you new here?" "Yes" "I just graduated" "These days you can wear make-up to work?" "Of course" "Foreign enterprises expect it" "Otherwise they won't hire you" "Foreign enterprises?" "Isn't this state-owned?" "Factory '420' was a state secret" "The original name was "Xindu Machinery"" "Later it became the "Chengfa Group"" "Its code name has been '420' all along" "Like a military designation" "That never changed" "I remember..." "When we got our wage packets there was a five yuan bonus for maintaining secrecy" "Pretty good!" "Back then..." "At the time of the 'Natural Disasters' (around 1 960), many people outside didn't have enough to eat" "But our factory gave us  1.5 kilos of meat every month" "Our work was vital" "Aeronautical stuff" "No negligence" "Hao Dali, one of the original workers in the Finished Product Installation Workshop in Factory "420", once held the national title of "March 8th Red Banner Holder"" "VEGETABLE ration COUPON" "I still remember that on pay days the bank set up a desk at the factory gate" "It was just a table, really" "For us to deposit our wages" "Back in 1 975  I was paid 58 yuan per month" "I deposited 30 yuan every month" "Aside from meeting our own needs  I also sent things back to Shenyang" "I sent back money" "My sister  living in a village there  had many children" "So I sent her all my old clothes" "She altered them for her kids" "The factory provided us with gloves" "For our work" "Special work-gloves" "I never threw them away" "I collected the used gloves" "When I had a bundle, I sent them to my sister" "She washed them" "Unpicked them" "Unravelled the thread" "Made balls of it" "And wove garments for my nephews" "Clothes, trousers" "This year, my sister..." "Her youngest son sent me 500 yuan" "So I rang her to ask why he was sending money" ""What's it for?"" "My sister answered..." ""l know things are tough in your factory"" "My sister's youngest boy  back in the village  runs a small grocery store" "It gives him some extra income" "It never crossed my mind that I'd need help from my sister in old age" "When did you join the factory?" "Factory '420'..." "In 1 958, from Shenyang..." "We moved here in groups" "I was in the last group" "Yes, in the last group" "My boy was three years old" "I was 1 8 when he was born" "So I'd be 21" "Yes, 21 that year" "Not yet an adult, in fact" "I'd never left home before" "I'd never been on a boat" "That year the Chengdu-Baoji railway collapsed" "No route overland, so we came by river" "First a bus from Shenyang to Dalian" "Then a boat from Dalian to Shanghai" "Then changed to a river-boat along the Yangtze to Chongqing" "And then a bus from Chongqing to Chengdu" "It took 1 5 days in all to get to Chengdu" "I remember as we approached Goddess Peak" "There was thick fog that day" "We went on deck to see Goddess Peak, but we couldn't see anything" "Nothing at all." "As I said, I'd never been on boats before" "I felt seasick and threw up" "Kept throwing up" "It was chaotic on the boat" "My husband suggested that that I take a rest for a while" "But I couldn't sleep" "Kids were running around" "I still felt seasick" "Still kept throwing up" "And the boat was juddering" "We finally reached Fengjie" "In Fengjie we docked on the wharf" "We went on land" "They gave us two hours there." "It was nice to take a breather" "But aside from the passengers, the boat was carrying important equipment" "So we couldn't stay long" "During the short stop everyone went ashore" "It was like a small community" "Everyone knew each other" "Because of that  I was off-guard" "Anyhow, they sounded the first siren" "It meant that there was half an hour to departure" "My husband and I were buying some local specialties" "And some oranges" "I suddenly realized that my boy wasn't there" "I panicked and started calling him" "I called and called" "But I couldn't find him" "I was getting desperate" "My husband tried to reassure me" "He said, maybe the kids who'd been playing together had gone back to the boat together" "So we went to the boat to see if he was there" "All the other kids were back, except him" "All the other families were together" "Except us" "My husband panicked too" "He and his workmates  looked for our boy everywhere" "I was at my wits' end" "My husband and I  rushed back ashore to look for him" "But we couldn't find him" "And then the second siren sounded" "Some women comrades dragged me back to the boat" "They forced me to get aboard" "As you know, back then, when we were transferred from Shenyang to Chengdu we were working for the military" "Part of the war effort" "We all knew that everything we did had implications for national security" "That made me all the more nervous" "People said Chiang Kai-Shek planned to try to retake Mainland China" "So when that siren sounded  it was like an army bugle" "We had to go" "Then" "They" "A big crowd of people, dragged me back to the boat" "I leaned on the railings" "Seeing the boat going farther and farther offshore" "The houses turning smaller and smaller" "I felt that my child became farther and farther away from me" "I felt that I hate myself" "My heart was flurried empty" "Jaguar!" "The Commies are taking the bait!" "The Commies are taking the bait!" "Captain Morgan..." "Act in good faith!" "No. 2!" "A flotilla of small planes on the right!" "Enemy planes in the South-west!" "Enemy planes in the West!" "It's clear..." "Enemy tactics have changed" "They're using small planes as decoys" "Prior to a bombing raid!" ""OBSERVE SAFETY, TREASURE life"" ""lf the aeronautics factory is like a huge eyeball..."" ""...then the labouring is its blackest part"" "(from a poem by Ouyang Jianghe)" "SONG WElDONG" "The money we get from selling this land will be used to build a new industrial park" "Our workshops will move there, one by one" "In the future, our place here... will become a five-star hotel" "Song Weidong, born 1 966 in Chengdu." "Assistant Director of the General Management Office of Chengfa Group." "Factory '420', the whole of it  is rather large" "The whole place  is kind of a world apart" "Take me, for example" "From kindergarten..." "Primary school, middle school, high school" "I went to all of them within the factory precincts" "The schools were run for children of the workers" "All of us who grew up here had the same experience" "Within the factory precincts, there's a cinema, a swimming pool" "In the summer the factory made its own soft drinks" "Each family took bottles to bring them home" "Soft drinks" "You can see why we're proud of the factory" "And we never thought... that Factory '420' had any connection with Chengdu City" "That's how we saw it" "Actually, we didn't need any connection with the place" "No need" "We had a great life" "The only way we connected with local kids was when we had fights" "...especially the eastern suburbs  has a long history of fighting" "Even before Liberation in 1 949, there were a lot of pitched battles here" "Anyhow, back then we took on the local kids" "There were non-stop conflicts and clashes" "All around the Double Bridge area" "We almost always won" "Because there were more of us" "And we all came from the one place" "Whereas they were much less unified" "But they hit on a strategy what strategy?" "What strategy?" "It was like this" "Ambushes" "They'd hide somewhere" "And if there were not many of us, or if one of us was alone" "They'd ambush us and beat us" "And then we'd counter-attack" "If you beat me today, tomorrow I'll beat you back" "I remember one time in particular" "I was in primary school, grade three" "1 976" "I'd just learnt how to ride a bike" "Very exciting" "One afternoon I took my father's bike, a Phoenix 28" "I took it and rode it away" "But then I made a big mistake" "I rode the bike a long way" "Quite far from Factory '420'" "Somewhere else entirely" "I realized my mistake and turned around" "Too late!" "A gang of boys trapped me" "They caught me..." "Then they escorted me... to their base" "They have a leader" "His name is Zhou Chao" "I'm brought in front of him" "I'm fearing the worst" "Everyone is jeering at me" "Copying something in a movie" ""l represent the masses and I sentence you to death!"" "I'm sure they're going to beat me up" "I just want my bike I have to get it back" "Or my father will never forgive me" "To my surprise Zhou Chao said to me..." ""I've thought it over"" ""Premier Zhou Enlai passed away today"" ""So I'll let you off"" "Then he and his boys left" "I was amazed" "I rode home in a hurry" "And when I got home  I found my parents making..." "little white paper flowers" "Premier Zhou really had passed away" "I went through puppy love too" "Puppy love" "I was 16" "In grade two of Junior High" "At that time we did two years in Junior High" "Around the time I graduated, I had a girlfriend" "Her family were... also North-easterners came here from the North-east" "When she graduated, she was offered a place in South-west Medical College" "Actually, I wanted to go to university too" "But my family didn't agree" "Because back then our factory... offered really good benefits to its staff" "If you went off to university you might be assigned to somewhere else after graduating" "So they insisted that I stay in the factory" "To take my father's place eventually" "To learn his skills and reap those benefits" "So I stayed in the factory" "Back then, our factory was really pretty good" "In 1 978, you know..." "After the Cultural Revolution, there were battles" "The "Counter-attack in Self Defense" against Vietnam" "They needed a lot of munitions" "But after that, there was a decline" "I remember how the factory's profits went down" "So her family wanted her to break with me" "One day..." "I remember this very clearly..." "One day she came to break up with me" "I was roller skating" "She came to find me" "There was a kind of wire netting around the skating rink" "A wire-netting barrier" "I was inside it, she was outside" "She had an ice popsicle" "And she passed it to me over the railing" "I ate it there and then I'd taken two bites from it when she came out with it" "She said..." ""We're so young"" ""Our love is not mature"" "I knew what she meant right away" "I interrupted her" "I said" ""So, it's over between us"" "And she said..." ""You said it first"" "She implied it was my decision" "I said she was right I said it first" "Then she left" "She turned and left, didn't look back" "I remember those times One impression is very strong" "There was a TV drama on at that time" "A Japanese TV drama called 'Bloody Suspect'" "That was it It starred Yamaguchi Momoe" "Back then, she set the fashion everyone wanted a "Sachiko hairstyle"" "My girlfriend had "Sachiko hair"" "She left" "She left without looking back" "I still remember when she gave me the ice popsicle" "She had a red handkerchief tied around her wrist" "I remember it clearly" "A few days ago on Hunan TV they showed 'Bloody Suspect' again" "My wife she's the file manager in the factory  really likes it" "She watches it every night" "I do too" " Which year were you born?" " 1 970" "I was born in 1 966" ""Though leaves are many, the root is only one"" ""Through all the lying days of my youth"" ""l swayed my leaves and flowers in the sun"" ""Now I may wither into the truth" " " W. B. Yeats" "Site for Stage One of '24 City' (Former Factory Basketball Court)" ""Basketball court now site of high-rise building, these machines will be moved in three days."" ""Every day..."" ""l am wandering..."" ""Every morning and night my heart is adrift"" ""How I long for someone to be with me"" ""To make my heart stop drifting..."" ""Sister Lin comes down from heaven"" ""Like a wispy cloud from behind the mountain"" ""He who loves her seems outwardly dissolute"" ""But he is actually pure in heart"" "Little Flower..." "You brought nothing to eat this morning?" "I climbed up Qingcheng Hill with my brother yesterday" "I got home exhausted didn't feel like cooking" "So you'll go out to eat?" "Does your brother like spicy food?" "Yes, he does" "He's been everywhere and tasted everything" "Long before Liberation in 1 949 there were Sichuan restaurants in Shanghai" "My Grandpa used to say..." "The Jinjiang Hotel in Shanghai served good Sichuan food" "He also said there was a time when Sichuan food was fashionable in Shangha" "You know why?" "I don't know" "At that time Sichuan was the home front in the war of resistance against Japan" "When the Japanese invaded Shanghai, many Shanghainese fled into Sichuan" "And when they went home after the war they saw themselves as battle-scarred" "They liked eating spicy food in public to show that they'd been in Sichuan!" "Shanghai has changed a lot" "I went back once in 1 993" "There's a street where they serve lamb stew in brown sauce" "Do you know it?" "I never ate lamb when I was young" "Because it was always cooked with garlic" "Where are you two going to eat?" "My brother left for Shanghai this morning." "His work-unit boss wants him back at work" "Okay, then, Little Flower" "I'll be off" "I need to get changed" "little FLOWER" "A while later, don't be nervou." "I'm alright as usual, but always nervous after getting changed." "Sister Wang, can you bring my bag upstairs?" "I left my phoenix in it" ""Beside the green lake"" ""Under flowing willows"" ""Along the flower-strewn path"" "Yue Opera:" "Dream of the Red Chamber" ""All at once"" ""A flute's lament"" ""ls heard on the breeze"" "I was..." "In 1 978..." "I was assigned to Factory '420' from Shanghai Aviation Academy" "Around graduation time we heard that some of us would be sent to Chengdu" "All those who didn't want to go  used all their connections to find a way to stay in Shanghai" "But I didn't" "Around that time the people who'd been "sent to the countryside" began returning to Shangha" "My brother came back from Jiangxi" "My elder sister came back from Heilongjiang" "And my second sister from Anhui" "So the family was reunited" "And the house was full of people" "Including the three of them" "And my kid brother, who was in middle school" "There were seven of us in all" "But the house in Yangshupu was only 20 metres square" "How could all seven of us live there?" "We had to divide each room in half" "And build a temporary attic" "There's a Shanghai saying..." ""Putting an elephant in the stomach of a sparrow"" "I slept in the attic with my two sisters" "So I thought I should leave" "At that time..." "In Factory '420'..." "There were far more men than women" "Girls from Shanghai, like me were very few" "On my first day at work  I went to Canteen 2 for lunch" "It was terribly crowded" "I later found out why" "The men who were supposed to eat in Canteens 1 and 3  had come to Canteen 2 to see the girls from Shanghai" "Especially the younger men" "They made comments about us" "Things like that went on for quite some time" "Later some guy, I never knew who gave me the nickname "Standard Component"" "What does that mean?" "To begin with  I had no idea what it meant" "Later I came to know" "It meant "Flower of the Factory"" "After that  people began calling me "Little Flower"" "There was a movie named 'Little Flower' at that time" "That's right." "It starred Joan Chen, Tang Guoqiang and Liu Xiaoqing" "Our factory showed that movie for a whole week" "Many people saw it several times" "They came out saying I looked like Little Flower" "That is, the movie's heroine, played by Joan Chen" "At first, they used the name behind my back" "Then, to my face" "After a while, my real name was known to very few people" "What is your real name?" "Gu Minhua" ""Min" as in "Mingan" (sensitive)" ""Hua" as in "Zhonghua" (China)" "I guess you had many admirers?" "Back then  people weren't as open as they are now" "And everyone was so busy" "Overtime every day" "One time..." "On the workshop notice board" "Someone put up a photo" "There was no caption" "It showed a young guy" "Good-looking, sporty type" "Anyhow..." "During break times we all gathered round to look at it" "Some of the girls began guessing who he might be" "Some thought he was from the Communist Youth League and due to visit the factory" "Others thought he was the representative we'd chosen to commiserate with the army after the defeat on the Vietnam border" "Staring and speculation went on day after day" "Then it went even further" "Someone said to me..." ""This guy is handsome"" ""He's as good as Tang Guoqiang" (film star)" ""You two should become a couple"" "My colleagues in the factory back then were all matchmakers" "Two people who didn't even know each other as long as they had matching names, would be put together in a love story" "Some of them really did get married" "I was pretty annoyed at first" "I thought..." "How dare they try to match... a living person with a photo?" "But later..." "Very gradually..." "My thinking  began to change" "I imagined that he really was a Communist Youth League secretary coming to our factory" "In fact I imagined him... turning up the very next day" "I was 20 years old" "I'd never been in love" "Some days later there was a big meeting in the factory" "The leaders asked us  if we'd seen the photo" "Did we know who the man was?" "Everybody stayed silent" "The Party Secretary said..." "The young man was a pilot" "Our country had spent eight years, and more than 200,000 yuan on training him" "Something went wrong with his plane" "Trying to save the plane  he didn't parachute to safety" "And he died" "He was just 24" "Anyhow..." "The Secretary went on..." "The accident, he said could be blamed on us" "Some components we'd produced  had gone wrong" "He added..." "Amongst all of you there's someone who was responsible for this tragedy" "We should reflect on our mistakes" "Anyhow, after that..." "Many people introduced boys to me" "And I started going out with one boy" "He taught on the factory's educational TV channel" "The son of high-ranking officials They worked in ministries" "So he had a good family background" "But then something bad happened" "In the neighboring workshop, #34 there was one guy who was apparently in love with me" "This guy wrote love letters to himself in my name" "Hard to understand, no?" "But that's exactly it, he wrote to himself" "And signed my name at the bottom of the page "Gu Minhua"" "Then he showed off the letters to his workmates" "Soon enough, everyone was talking about our supposed love affair" "And everyone thought I'd taken the lead" "My boyfriend heard about this" "He got quite angry" "I tried to explain to him, but he wouldn't listen" "So I had no choice  but to break up with him" "After that, I thought I might as well go back to Shanghai" "And if I got married in Chengdu that would be an obstacle" "Back then, the easiest way to move was to make an exchange" "I had to find someone in Shanghai who wanted to move to Chengdu" "But there was hardly any military activity by 1 984 or 1 985" "Armaments manufacture fell on hard times..." "Nobody wanted to exchange with me" "Those were hard years for the factory" "Later on the plant moved over to civilian products" "Such as..." "Double Swallow brand fridges and washing machines" "Suddenly we needed sales people" "I was from Shanghai" "So..." "They made me a saleswoman in Shanghai" "I had to drink with clients every day" "It ruined my stomach" "And I wasn't making money for myself" "So I took unpaid leave and started my own company" "I did some business" "I was a wholesaler of Tianfu peanuts" "But I found it quite tough" "So I moved back to Changdu" "By 1 989, when I got back here  my sisters already had kids in school" "So I thought I might as well marry a Chengdu man" "Well..." "I was in my thirties by then" "And all the men I was introduced to were divorce" "The thought of being a step-mother  made me uncomfortable" "So I passed on all of them" "The latest one I've met..." "He was also introduced by others..." "He's good in all respects" "He's a boss" "But after we'd met a couple of times  he told me something" "He'd been a mason when he was young" "He'd passed our factory gate, pulling trolley-loads of stones" "And he'd seen me often" "He knew I was the "Flower of the Factory" and liked me very much" "But he was poor then" "And the factory had a high reputation locally" "So he felt that I was beyond his reach" "But he promised himself that he would come to me when he got rich" "Hearing all this  made very uncomfortable" "Maybe I'm no longer a "Standard Component"" "But I'm not a "Reject" either, right?" "I have my own standards" "I thought it over and ended it" "Now I'm single" "I live a happy life" "Some of my workmates who married are now divorced" "They live alone, just as I do" "We go out to sing karaoke" "We play mahjong, it's fun" "Gu Minhua, born 1958 in Shanghai." "Worked as quality inspector in the precision workshop of Factory "420"." "Feature film 'Little Flower' (1 978)" ""A girl is sad"" ""Tears in her eyes"" ""She cannot see her beloved"" ""Anxiously waiting"" ""Thy image lingers in my heart..."" ""Amid conflicted feelings about the spring"" "" " Cao Xueqin (from 'Dream of the Red Chamber')" "Young lady... what's your name?" "Yang Mengyue." "In school?" "Third grade" "Anyone in your family working in Factory '420'?" "That one?" "Yes" "My Pa and Ma work there" "Ever been there yourself?" "No" "china RESOURCES LAND LTD: 24 city" "The land area of Chengdu City is still expanding" "Factory '420' was in the center of the old city" "An area no longer suitable for a factory" "CR Land is spending 21.4 billion yuan to redevelop the 560,000 square metres of the factory's land" "Soon a modern, living community, named '24 City' will arise on this site" "Factory '420' will use the income from the sale of the site to reform and modernize its technology" "This will ensure that its aeronautics technology does not become obsolete in the next half-century" "ZHAO GANG" "These white bits are for housing developments" "The gray bits are for commercial use" "And in the South-west corner that is, these red bits we retain some of the distinctive buildings from the old factory" "Like the old mill buildings and the watchtower here" "Why is the development called '24 City'?" "The name '24 City' comes from an old poem" ""The cherished hibiscus of 24 city In full bloom, a flourishing flower"" "We have some scale-models here" " Will you take a look?" " Thanks" "Over there" "Zhao Gang, born 1 974," ""News Round-up" presenter on Chengdu TV." "I was offered a place in the College of Technology in Jilin" "Our teacher introduced us..." "Several of us..." "And gave us the rail tickets from Chengdu to Jilin" "We'd never been on a train before" "We were told to give the tickets to our parents for safe-keeping" "They'd hand them back on the day of departure" "They were scared we'd lose them" "I looked closely at the ticket" "It was the kind they had in the 1980s A "through ticket"" "All the way from Chengdu to Jilin" "Anyhow, I looked at it" "And I was amazed to see... that one station en route was Beijing" "I'd never been to Beijing" "I was really startled" "It meant that" "I was going a lot further than 20 miles" "I was actually leaving" "I was really leaving Chengdu" "We were in a state of excitement all the way to Jilin" "The semester began on 1 September I looked forward to it eagerly" "It snows in Jilin, right?" "Heavy snow, first time in the North-east..." "Everything was exciting" "That term I must say ...and I spent that first semester  learning new things non-stop" "Everything was great" "It had a gradual effect on my thinking" "I began to compare my life in Chengdu with my new life in Jilin" "I don't know quite how to put it" "But compared with Factory '420' with the environment I grew up in this was very different" "I don't think Chi Chin's song" "'The Outside World' had come out by then..." "But that song certainly expressed my feelings" "When it came out in 1 990, I think it was so great" "Just great" "Anyhow..." "My thinking changed a lot  in the second half-semester" "The first half-semester was all theory" "Technical stuff" "Heat-treatment of metals, stuff like that" "Engine-building" "In the second half-semester which lasted three months  I had to put on work clothes" "During that apprenticeship  my whole attitude changed" "Until then, I'd respected work clothes" "As a kid, I'd watched my father put on his factory uniform" "At that time, you know only policemen wore uniforms" "And soldiers" "I was always impressed when I saw people wearing work-uniforms" "Work-uniforms meant high social status" "So I liked factory uniforms," "But when the teacher gave me those work clothes and I put them on  I didn't feel any different" "Anyhow, I put on the work clothes..." "Took my lunch-box, complete with spoon rattling inside and went to the factory" "And during that apprenticeship  my way of thinking changed" "How to put it..." "Your status is different" "You'd been a student..." "You'd seen workers, right?" "Now you're wearing worker's clothes" "It's not the same" "I remember very well from that time, one episode that really affected me" "Another boy from Chengdu and I were apprenticed to an old North-easterner" "He taught us metal-polishing" "You use a big stone wheel" "He gave us a basketful of parts" "Straight off the production line Newly made component parts" "Our job, he told us was to smooth away the rough edges of these component parts" "I'm quite a sensitive guy..." "I did ten of them" "Twenty of them" "I guess I thought it was quite interesting" "I focused on the technical skills" "And that held my interest" "But when you've done 50 or 1 00 of them  it's impossible to feel good about it" "Something snaps in your mind" "You're exhausted, really exhausted" "My head was covered in sweat" "The old worker said something, which I can't forget to this day" "In North-eastern dialect, he said..." ""Don't worry..."" ""lf you can't finish this morning, you can go on with it in the afternoon"" ""This basketful is for the two of you"" ""lf you don't finish them today, there's always tomorrow"" "That really got to me" "I was so bored" "The component parts bored me rigid" "I finally got through 100 of them, and there were still many more to go" "But he said that would be my job from then on" "So I told him I was quitting" "I meant it, too" "It was no fun" "I said I wanted to go back to being a student" "I said "I'm a 1 6-year-old student," "I don't want to wear work clothes any more"" "I told my parents, and they were strongly against it" "It was hard to find a decent job back then" "But I did quit" "I left without my luggage" "Zhao Gang and his father" ""Long, long ago..."" ""l belonged to you"" ""You belonged to me"" ""Long, long ago"" ""You left me"" ""Flying high in the sky"" ""The world outside is wonderful"" ""Li Xuemei, 2003," "Exam Registration Paper"" ""Arise!"" ""Ye prisoners of starvation"" ""Arise!"" ""Y e toilers of the earth"" ""For reason thunders new creation"" ""Tis a better world in birth..."" ""Things we have thought and done"" ""Must ramble and thin out"" ""Like milk spilt upon a stone" " " WB Y eats" "SU NA" "It's such a hassle!" "The stuff you want is so expensive!" "Who can afford it?" "Who can afford to show off like you?" "Su Na, born 1982 in Chengdu." "THE SCHOOL in FACTORY '420'" "In Grade One, I was 1.66 metres tall" "Quite a good figure..." "So I thought I could be a model" "Or anyway something like that" "But I didn't get any taller" "It was such a shame" "Most of us in school were not good students" "And the teaching was pretty bad too" "So my father was worried about me" "At that time, he was manager of one of the workshops in '420'" "So he had good connections" "He used his influence with his friends to get me transferred to #4 High School" "He thought I'd go to some famous university" "Like Tsinghua or Peking University" "To make him proud of me and honour our ancestors" "But actually I'm not the studying type" "Not at all" "I failed the college entrance exam" "I had the strong feeling that I'd let my parents down" "For a while I just hung around on the streets" "I had nothing to do" "I wasn't willing to work in '420'" "But things are going fine now" "I work as a shopper" "I go to Hong Kong every two weeks... to buy things for my clients" "There are lots of rich people in Chengdu" "So I can easily make money" "Rich women with time on their hands..." "They like fashion but don't have the energy to buy it" "So they hire me to buy for them" "All the famous brands" "The latest styles" "Shoes..." "Scarves..." "Belts, watches..." "I get 1 000 yuan per item" "Enough to live on" "Pretty good, in fact" "See that tower?" "Yes" "We call it the Panda TV Tower" "I have a friend from Malaysia..." "I met him on a plane..." "He wants to take over the revolving restaurant on that tower and hire me to manage it" "I've never worked in catering  but there's no harm in trying" "Maybe I'll become a powerful woman!" "What do you think?" "The car is essential for me" "If I had to see those rich ladies every day and didn't have a car of my own  I'd feel quite embarrassed" "I'll repay the loan myself" "All of my classmates around town..." "Their parents put money aside for them when they were little" "I forget the name of the fund" "Anyhow, it's ring-fenced" "And when they're old enough they can spend it on apartments and cars" "My mother was laid off in 1 995" "While my father was working, he kept his hands clean" "So he never found my mother a well-paying job" "She found a part-time job  in a telegraph-pole factory" "She's still doing that now" "Since he retired  my dad's permanently grumpy" "He can't adjust to not being in charge" "Also..." "When he had his job the house was packed with visitors" "Now nobody at all comes to visit" "In the first few months of retirement  he hardly stepped outside at all" "And he became very taciturn" "When he got up in the morning  he'd just sit on the sofa chain-smoking" "I didn't go home much" "I didn't want to" "Whenever I was there  I felt the mood of failure and depression" "I lived with my first boyfriend  in Royal Mansion, Yulin Gardens" "It was a pretty nice place" "But we eventually broke up" "Then I found another guy" "And we lived in a place called "ln the Mood for Love"" "I also had a one-room flat with a double bed at one time" "I think that was with my third boyfriend" "The bottom line is, I didn't want to go home" "Not if I could avoid it" "The day I applied for my permit to travel to Hong Kong and Macau  I needed to show my permanent residence document" "So I went home to get it and found the door locked" "I realized I didn't know where my key was" "I don't know what was wrong with me" "So I went looking for my mother at the telegraph-pole factory" "I'd never been there before" "As soon as I went inside the noise was deafening" "You had to shout to be heard" "I looked around the place" "But I couldn't see my mother" "The staff were all wearing blue uniforms" "Working with their heads bent down" "I had to go up to every person" "This one..." "Then this one..." "Trying to find which one was her" "Finally I found her" "Over in a corner" "She was carrying ingots of steel" "Throwing them..." "One after another..." "Into some boxes" "Every time..."Bam!"" "Every ingot landed with that noise" "I had never felt more sad... than I did at that moment" "It was like a sharp pain" "Suddenly striking my heart And it made all my limbs ache" "My mother..." "I didn't even know if it was a man or a woman when I approached" "The head was bent down" "I started crying when I saw it was her" "And I ran off" "I had dinner at home that night" "My parents were so surprised" ""Why have you come home for dinner?"" "I didn't answer" "After eating, I told my mother that I would stay the night" "She was very happy" "She made my bed and brought a quilt" "I hadn't touched that bed in ages" "As I lay on it  I suddenly felt grown-up" "I began to care about my parents" "The thing I most want now  is to make a lot of money and buy them an apartment in '24 City'" "I now it will cost a lot" "But I can do it" "I'm the daughter of a worker" ""Chengdu!"" ""Home of the lotus-eating life"" ""That's what makes my life worth living" (from a poem by Wan Xia)"