This is a joint presentation by Equator Magazine, King’s College London’s Lau China Institute as part of China Week 2026 and Chinese Cinema Project.

The screening on 22 October will be followed by a panel discussion which will focus on the shifting status of Chinese migrant workers and the recent flourishing of artistic production by and for them, from poetry to literary fiction.

A documentary portrait that follows parents and factory workers, Zhang Changhua and Chen Suqin, who leave their hometown and children in search of work and economic opportunity in China’s booming cities.

In Lixin Fan’s IDFA-winning debut film, the Zhang family, along with millions of migrant workers enlisted into China’s manufacturing revolution, are offered space to narrate its profound and destabilizing effects on their lives. For the makers of modern China, even the mundane task of securing a train ticket home for Chinese New Year can prove to be a mammoth struggle.

Cast:
Zhang Changhua, Chen Suqin, Zhang Qin, Zhang Yang