New York University

New York University

The Office of Public Affairs

Monday, Jan 28, 2008

N-246, 2006-07

In this film series-Reel Work - The Transformation of China’s Workforce-Peter Hitchcock, professor of English, film, and women’s studies at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, hosts three evenings of film that explore six personal and distinctly different responses to the transformation of the modern Chinese workforce.

All events are free and open to the public, and unless otherwise noted, take place at the Center’s location at the Woolworth Building, 4th Floor, 15 Barclay Street [between Broadway and Church Street]. By subway, take the R or W to City Hall; the 4, 5 or 6 to City Hall/Brooklyn Bridge; the 2 or 3 to Park Place; or the A or C to Chambers Street. Space is limited, and reservations are required for most events. For more information, the public may call the Center at 212-992-8380 or visit scps.global.affairs@nyu.edu.

Wednesday, February 13, 6 p.m. Reel Work-The Transformation of China’s Workforce: Durian Durian (Hong Kong, 2000). Fan strikes up a friendship with fellow immigrant Yan. The hardest working prostitute in town, Yan must endure the harsh condition of her job on one side of the border (Hong Kong) while she tries to turn her profits into success on the other side of the border (China). The idealistic view of Hong Kong shared by the two girls is shattered by limited opportunity, unfamiliar culture, and marginalized existence. Directed by Fruit Chan. Color. 116 minutes. Mandarin with English subtitles.

Wednesday, February 27, 6 p.m. Reel Work-The Transformation of China’s Workforce: Blind Shaft (Hong Kong 2003) Two criminal drifters, Song and Tang, have developed a scam: they tell one of the many men looking for work about a job at a rural mine, and tell him that to be hired he must say he is their brother. Once they go down the shaft with their new relative, Song and Tang stage the unwitting man’s accidental death, and, as the dead man’s nearest relations, collect payoff money from the mine’s owners. The writer-director Li Yang shot his vérité footage inside illegal Chinese mines without government approval. Color. 89 minutes. Mandarin with English subtitles.

Wednesday, April 2, 6 p.m. Reel Work-The Transformation of China’s Workforce: Still Life (Hong Kong 2006) How could one of China’s most gorgeous regions, one that brings in 1.3 million tourists a year, be the setting of squalor and degradation for millions of workers? Focusing on the displacement of workers for massive industrial and engineering projects, Still Life explores the lives of laborers who are forced to decide between making 50 yuan a day to pull down walls or 200 in a dangerous coal mine not knowing if they’ll come out alive. Directed by Jia Zhang-Ke. Color. 108 Minutes. Mandarin with English subtitles.

The new NYU Center for Global Affairs, within the University’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies [www.scps.nyu.edu], is located in the School’s state-of-the-art facility in the Woolworth Building - one of downtown New York’s architectural treasures. The Center presents provocative and timely public events regarding the latest topics in world affairs (formerly held at the NYU Vernon Center for International Affairs), and houses a new graduate program in global studies and myriad non-degree courses in international affairs.