A Winter in the Winter

In 2023, three fires occurred in my hometown, Jiamusi. This prompted me to reflect and create this short film. Jiamusi, located in Heilongjiang Province in Northeast China, is covered in snow and ice for six months out of the year. Historically, the Northeast has been a special region for China, having experienced both prosperity and desolation. It has been termed the Rust Belt of China. Similar to the Northeast in the United States, Heilongjiang Province has transitioned from a thriving industrial background to its present state of depression. Between 1990 and 2000, Northeast China faced a significant wave of layoffs, following which, the city's economic development was severely hindered.

This short film is set in an everyday breakfast restaurant in my hometown. A man returning from Beijing engages in conversation with the restaurant owner, reminiscing about their teenage years. Currently, the Northeast is primarily populated by middle-aged and elderly individuals. Few young people opt to return to their hometowns for opportunities. Consequently, hometown life has been devoid of vitality for decades. The dialogue between the two middle-aged individuals in the story also reflects the current perceptions of their living environment.

Thirty years ago, prior to the wave of layoffs, the people of Northeast China were vibrant. In China, the Northeasterners are perceived as rough and worldly. Yet this rudeness demonstrates the region's humanity. The film contains a flashback scene where a group of teenagers is preparing for a fight. The fight itself is reckless and uncivilized. However, it embodies a certain kind of energy and spirit. Teenagers are brimming with energy during their formative years. Even in conflict, their actions signify vitality and exuberance. Two teenagers running in opposite directions at a fork in the road cannot alter the course of time. Two middle-aged men now face each other, and seemingly nothing has changed. The flashbacks seem to show stories of what the middle-aged men were once like. However, this clip could also represent someone else's story, more like a depiction of the state of teenagers decades ago. Today's teenagers sitting in the restaurant only seem to talk about computer games and trivial matters. The younger generation currently living in their hometowns appear to have little motivation to move forward, much like the middle-aged men sitting in the restaurant who all seem very calm. We can only sense a feeling of powerlessness in the cold winter.

In the title A WINTER IN THE WINTER, A WINTER represents the winter that appears in the short film. It is an ordinary and unexceptional winter. And THE WINTER represents the winter in the stage after the layoffs. The original title of the film, YUE DONG, means “get through the winter” in Chinese. It also represents my attitude towards this short film, as well as my hometown and the entire Northeast region. Our generation of young people in Northeast China hopes that our hometown can develop and prosper. We don't know how to express this individually, but we know that we are experiencing and surviving the long winter of this era.

Some people describe Northeast China with these words: the winter wind is sluggish, the time is stagnant, the tiger is in its cage, and it looks through to the end.

The fire in the short film keeps burning. However, the temperature is getting colder.