24 City: introduction

Abstract

In the six years since its release in 2008, Jia Zhangke's 24 City/Er shi si cheng ji has achieved global recognition for its subtle orchestration of representational strategies in order to present a multilayered report on the changes facing the urban population of today's postsocialist China. The film is largely based around a series of interviews with the people who have lived and worked in Factory 420, a former military aeroplane manufacturing site based in the city of Chengdu in the country's southwestern province of Sichuan. Factory 420 was previously one of China's State-Owned Enterprises, but under the terms of the new reform-based economy it is shown in the film being demolished, its workers and residents displaced to make way for a luxury high-rise office and apartment development called ‘24 City’. Bringing together real workers and scripted recollections performed by professional actors, Jia's …