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"Long Season" Douban 9.5 points, why is it difficult for Northeasterners to get out of the era of drastic changes and trauma?

Core Takeaways:

  • 1 In the early 90s of the last century, the efficiency of most factories was not very good, and young people no longer regarded factory units as "fragrant food", and few people chose to enter the factory. I saw a statistic in my fieldwork that a factory built during the Japanese period and rebuilt in the 1950s went bankrupt with only 12% of the post-70s workers.
  • 2 The main difficulty faced by the Tohoku factory at that time was "where the money came from and where did the people go". Some cities in the northeast have dealt with the property rights and human rights of small and medium-sized enterprises in a "sporty" way, and in such a stormy movement, human problems have not been properly handled, and finally brought hidden dangers.
  • 3 It is very difficult for laid-off workers to re-employ, most of them are highly repetitive re-employment methods, like Wang Xiang who choose to engage in taxi drivers, there are some, but the premise is that there must be enough money to contract or buy a taxi, but also to be able to drive, have a driver's license.
  • 4. College-educated young people often find it difficult to find suitable job opportunities in the northeast after the transition, and can only go to other cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen to find employment. Many of the young people who remain in the northeast continue to work within the system or work freely.
  • 5 Individuals who have experienced changes will be traumatized psychologically, and the aura of the former worker big brother is gone. These people are also very lost, unable to find their new position in the loss caused by the rupture. Sometimes we hear them talking about the past precisely because they can't talk about the present.
  • 6 The reform of state-owned enterprises in 1997-1998 was an important "event" that reconstructed the entire social foundation, because it was sudden, violent, and large-scale, and the Northeast society under the influence of this event was also mutated, bringing about a state of abnormality.
  • 7 The popularity of Northeast literature and literature is on the one hand in line with the confused mentality of today's young people, who empathize with the experiences of a group of people who were once left behind by high-speed trains. On the other hand, these narratives also resonate with relatively older people who have gone through the complex reform process itself.
"Long Season" Douban 9.5 points, why is it difficult for Northeasterners to get out of the era of drastic changes and trauma?

Recently, an online drama called "Long Season" has been warmly sought after by netizens, and the Douban score has soared to 9.5 points. The play takes the changes in the old industrial area of Northeast China as the background and tells a life suspense drama. The "elderly trio" in the play recalls the past glory years in the process of tracking down the old case 20 years ago. Some people say that the play is an elegy for the old times, presenting the drastically changing old industrial area and the behavioral logic and psychological dilemmas of individuals under the changes. Some people also mention the collective creation of the three masters of the Northeast Renaissance, fascinated by the mysterious and dangerous northeastern temperament. What happened in the Northeast at that time? Why has there been a sea change? And what are the impacts? Tencent News Knowledge Vientiane Team talks with Xie Wen, assistant professor of sociology at Peking University.

Dialogue with Experts:

Xie Wen丨Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Peking University

Tencent News Knowledge Vientiane: Is there a realistic basis for the background of the times in the play? What was the situation of people at that time?

Xie Wen: I paid special attention to the age of Wang Xiang (Fan Wei) in the next play. There was a scene in 1998, Wang Xiang said that he had been working in this factory for more than 30 years, so he joined the factory in the sixties, and he should have been born around 1950. Wang Xiang's age group and the post-50s and post-60s are the main force of the factory. Unlike Wang Xiang, Gong Biao (played by Qin Hao) is a college student who graduated in 1997 and directly entered the factory after graduation, which should be a post-70s generation. In fact, like Gong Biao, there were relatively few at that time. At that time, college students had already seen the decline of the factory, and not many chose to join the factory. I saw a statistic in my fieldwork that a factory built during the Japanese period and rebuilt in the 1950s went bankrupt with only 12% of the post-70s workers.

There are many northeastern symbols and northeastern elements behind this drama, but there is no definite reference, and it is in a mixed state. For example, the play mentions the place name of Liuma Road in Tiexi District, which has obvious Shenyang characteristics. The character of Ma Desheng (played by Chen Minghao) combines the dancing uncle in Shenyang's labor park as part of his other character. The two leading actors Fan Wei and Qin Hao are also from Shenyang, so the accent of this drama is relatively heavy on "Shenyang taste". Director Xin Shuang himself is from Jilin, and there is also the shadow of Jilin behind this drama, and the mixed bellflower that has appeared many times in the play is a characteristic of Jilin. And the core plot of the play is the restructuring of Birch Steel, some netizens say that it is Angang (Anshan Steel), my personal preference is more like Tonggang (Tonghua Steel), because the overall transformation of Angang is relatively stable, and Tonggang had a more intense restructuring process in 2009, which had a great impact on the country. There is a plot of Hong Kong businessmen taking over in the play, which may have been created by the main creative team in order to set up conflict points. Among the factories I investigated, I did not encounter Hong Kong companies taking over directly, but there are examples of Hong Kong capital market operations. Of course, this is a literary and artistic work, and the director does not want to "realistic" these details, all for the purpose of creating services.

"Long Season" Douban 9.5 points, why is it difficult for Northeasterners to get out of the era of drastic changes and trauma?

In the early 90s of last century, the efficiency of most factories was not very good, many factory workers have changed units one after another, or left industrial enterprises, some with doorways can go to other more reliable, or more emerging industries, such as insurance, electricity, railways, etc., most people can only be self-employed.

Tencent News Knowledge Everything: Why was the efficiency of the factory so poor at that time, and young people were unwilling to stay?

Xie Wen: The reason for the poor efficiency of the northeast factory is on the one hand the competition of private enterprises, and another very important reason is that the northeast factory was established earlier, and a large number of workers joined production in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China. This actually puts the northeast factory at a disadvantage. Emerging private companies outside the northeast employ a small number of people and have a young workforce, and do not have the burden of employment and pension payments for these placements, which has a great impact on operational efficiency. People often think that factories in the northeast are congenital deficiencies in property rights arrangements, and there is a congenital deficiency in this, which is a heavy historical burden.

The main difficulty faced by the Tohoku factory at that time was to deal with the problem of "where does the money come from and where are the people going". There was indeed a lot of chaos in 1998. At that time, the newspaper would publish articles on tofu nuggets from a certain factory, and those who wanted to take a long vacation and did not find two would immediately return to the factory to go through the buyout procedures. For example, Shenyang City sold the property rights of hundreds of small and medium-sized enterprises in 1998, and Liaoning Province "merged" nearly 3 million former unit employees in 1998. In such a stormy movement, human problems are not properly handled, and finally bring hidden dangers.

Tencent News Knowledge Vientiane: What to do with these laid-off people, do they all drive taxis like Wang Xiang?

Xie Wen: Although laid-off workers have always been encouraged to re-employ, at that time, it was very difficult to re-employ. Many of my interviewees would tell me that there were many "pulling feet" near the train station at that time, pedaling three wheels, pulling one piece or two, and they could only barely make a living from this. At that time, a large number of workers were laid off, and this generation of laid-off workers had a special experience, their educational experience was also disrupted, most of them were junior high school education, everyone was similar in the eyes of employers, very homogeneous, so it was very difficult to find a job. The work they can do is also very repetitive, many of them pull a car to sell popsicles, pull feet at the train station, and change the door of the community window to make a commissary, it is difficult to make a greater breakthrough.

I have written before that the employment model at this time is "localized", difficult to expand, and can only be made up of laid-off workers. It is unlikely that these economic actions will drive local economic growth. Like Wang Xiang, there are also some who choose to work as taxi drivers, but the premise is that there is enough money to contract or buy a taxi, and you must be able to drive and have a driver's license (driving a train and driving a car are still different).

"Long Season" Douban 9.5 points, why is it difficult for Northeasterners to get out of the era of drastic changes and trauma?

The role of Wang Xiang has undergone great changes in the play. At first, you will think that Wang Xiang in 2016 is very "social" and knows how to walk between rules. But when you turn the camera to 1997 and 1998, you will find that Wang Xiang is a person who is completely imprisoned in his "activist" box, including embarrassed to give gifts to the factory director, embarrassed to ask for people, embarrassed to bow his head. After being laid off, he found a way to adapt to his life after being laid off, but his whole logic changed, which is very interesting. Of course, an important stimulus was the death of his son Wang Yang.

Tencent News Knowledge Vientiane: Did the subsequent national revitalization policy stimulate the economy of the old industrial base?

Xie Wen: In 2003, the state proposed the policy of revitalizing the old industrial base in Northeast China, and the overall economic development was slightly better, including strengthening investment in some existing industrial enterprises, and dealing with the bankruptcy of some factories, and more abundant funds. However, more resources for revitalization are invested in heavy industry, because the overall policy orientation is still to "revive the majesty of the old industrial base". Interestingly, after the implementation of the national revitalization policy, Liaoning's economic proportion has become more "heavy". In 1999, the proportion of heavy industry output was 64.5%, and in 2010, it was 80.5%.

The aging of the northeast society is serious, and young people are reluctant to come, which is a thorny problem encountered in the new stage of development in the northeast. Many young people with university education find it difficult to find suitable job opportunities in the transformed northeast and go to cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen to find employment. A large part of the young people who remain in the northeast continue to work in the system, which can be the government, public institutions, monopoly industries, and state-owned enterprises. It is difficult for the northeast to have large foreign companies, successful start-up companies, etc., and the urban culture is not young enough, so it is difficult to attract young people to return.

Tencent News Knowledge Vientiane: On the whole, is this group of people who have experienced layoffs psychologically traumatized?

XY: Of course, individuals who have undergone these changes have a kind of trauma, and the aura of the working class of the past is gone. However, behind this is also the frustration caused by the ruptures accumulated in the life course of the individual. For example, model workers, the model workers at that time were all for a specific honor, a labor god (Northeast dialect: meaning honest, this duty), serious work. And this honor is of no use at all after leaving the factory. Sometimes when you see the former model worker medal in the used goods market, you will feel very sad. There is also education, and many of these employees who enter factories, especially management positions, will continue their studies and obtain higher diplomas. However, these diplomas are also completely useless after leaving that unit. In society, their education is not as good as that of college students, and their age is not advantageous, and they are finally in a very embarrassing position. Therefore, among the laid-off workers, the most frustrated are often model workers and small cadres who have reached a certain position.

"Long Season" Douban 9.5 points, why is it difficult for Northeasterners to get out of the era of drastic changes and trauma?

Laid-off workers cannot find their new position in the irregularities caused by the rupture. Even if these Northeasterners like to talk about the glory of the past over and over again, it seems to make everyone feel that they are nostalgic. But we need to know that sometimes we hear them talking about the past precisely because they can't talk about the present. It's not entirely because they live in the old era, but just this so-called old age, and they live to understand the logic of it. And in the face of the so-called new era, they are at a loss and lose their speech.

Tencent News Knowledge Vientiane: For a while, everyone paid great attention to the "Rust Belt" of the United States, is our northeast region a bit similar to the "Rust Belt" of the United States?

Xie Wen: The "rust belt" in the northeast region of the mainland and the United States is relatively similar in terms of structural and industrial transformation and the social consequences brought about by this transformation, and some people call the northeast the "Chinese rust belt". But the Northeast as the "Chinese rust belt" and the American rust belt is still very different.

A big reason for the American Rust Belt is that globalization and the expansion of free trade agreements around the world have hit the U.S. manufacturing economy. The main economic aspect that made the Northeast a "rust belt" was the domestic reform and transformation, and the drastic turning point in the Northeast came before the mainland's accession to the WTO in 2001. The deepening of globalization continues to solidify the position of the coastal areas, making it more difficult for the northeast to "turn over".

The role of government is also different. The development of the United States is more decentralized to local subjects, and the federal government will not "rescue" these rust belt cities. Several representative rust belt cities, such as Detroit, Michigan, Gary, Indiana, Flint, Michigan, Youngstown, Ohio, etc., are still deeply affected by the industrial recession, and Detroit even filed for city bankruptcy protection in 2013. Our country has the policy of revitalizing the old industrial base in the northeast, which belongs to the national macro-control, which is very different from the United States. Including the restructuring of some state-owned enterprises in the northeast, local governments have also intervened, and some central enterprises have also reorganized some enterprises. Of course, there are also drawbacks to government involvement in restructuring.

Tencent News Knowledge Vientiane: Back to the name of this drama "Long Season", from a sociological point of view, how do you understand it?

Xie Wen: Actually, the title of the play comes from Ban Yu's novel (Ban Yu is the literary planner of the play), but it does not fully use the setting in the novel. I think the name and the setting of this play are very interesting, especially in line with our sociological understanding of time. A season can feel very long for those who are in it, because the changes are so fast and there are so many experiences. The impact after this season is very deep and far-reaching, and it will not be until the next twenty years that these people will not forget this season, and it will be twenty years before we can truly understand the meaning of that season.

Sociology's understanding of time is not simply focused on linear time, but emphasizes eventful temporality, that is, time organized around events. The course of time is not completely linear, and certain events play an important role in reconstructing time and society. The reform of state-owned enterprises in 1997-1998 was an important "event" that reconstructed the entire social foundation of Northeast China, because it was sudden, drastic, and large-scale, and the Northeast society under the influence of this event was also mutated, bringing about a state of abnormality.

Under the influence of this event, the once accustomed society of industrial unit system was suddenly extracted from people's lives, and a new set of social order was not formed in a short period of time. People have always wanted to maintain the moral systems and norms of the past, but have found that there is no way to rebuild them. This sense of rupture in time will bring what we sociologists often call "anomie", so there will be a moral vacuum, which brings about the dissolution of meaning, the dissolution of relationships, and the dissolution of institutions, and also brings a crisis of meaning and trust to the individuals in it, and people have nowhere to rest their souls.

"Long Season" Douban 9.5 points, why is it difficult for Northeasterners to get out of the era of drastic changes and trauma?

Tohoku society is a society that has been reborn from aberrations. We can understand it only from the perspective of the former and past unit society, nor from the ideal market society, nor can we understand the northeast from the logic of the more successful development of the southeast coastal region now. Only by going deep into the mechanism of this social change, considering such an abnormal process and the subsequent reconstruction of order, can we understand the current society in the northeast, and know what this society needs and how it should be revitalized.

Tencent News Knowledge Vientiane: The works of the three masters of the Northeast Renaissance are sought after, why do you think this group of writers like to use the Northeast as the background for suspense novels? What is sought after by the masses?

Xie Wen: Of course, the northeast in the 1990s did have a relatively high crime rate, some criminal gangs took action, and there were several major cases that shocked the whole country, and some suspense novels were based on these major cases. On the other hand, the state of aberration I just talked about also provides a lot of inspiration for writers, writers can add suspense elements to the aberration state of the moral vacuum, amplify the situation of people in the moral vacuum, and provide a lot of space for writers to play.

"Long Season" Douban 9.5 points, why is it difficult for Northeasterners to get out of the era of drastic changes and trauma?

There are also many reasons for the popularity of literature and literary works in the northeast. On the one hand, today's young people are generally confused, and there is no era full of huge dividends waiting for them in front of them, so they will have some empathy when they read the experiences of these people who have been left behind by high-speed trains. On the other hand, it is true that our literary works and literary creations of the past few years have lacked descriptions of the different aspects of the complex reform process, and these narratives will also win some resonance among relatively older people.

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