An iron bar, three chords & the truth
- Source: Global Times
- [21:47 September 09 2009]
- Comments
Migrant workers perform the play Our World, Our Dream on January 1, 2009 in the village of Picun, east Beijing, during the First Culture and Art Festival for and by Migrant Workers.
By Jiang Xueqing
He strode out into the dirt yard and plunged an iron pole deep into the ground, levering and planting the point firmly into the unforgiving soil.
Next he pulled a microphone out of his backpack and strapped it to the shaky pole.
Now he adjusted his acoustic guitar strap, flexed and unflexed his rusty fingers in the-9 degree centigrade chill of last winter.
Xu Duo breathed in, closed his eyes and launched with gusto into "City Life", one of an album of songs about the tough life, bright dreams and hard decisions of a migrant worker:
"Through the finger sliced off by a machine like a falling leaf. Through the miners in the dark pit risking their life at any moment. Let all hypocrisy and injustice get out of the way," he sang.
"Vendors selling us the European lifestyle. Selling us lottery tickets and illusions like Super Girl. Selling us desires in fancy packages. Selling us workers like cheap and durable goods."
No stage. No fancy lighting. Only two men, one guitar, one bass drum, a mike and a tiny sound box. As the song entered its refrain, about 1,000 workers' hands clapped to the rhythm.
"Just don't think the world will always be like this. Just don't think the poor can be so easily written off. Just don't think your trick can fool all of us. Let all hypocrisy and injustice get out of the way."
The 1,000 cheered.
In a world labeled 'free', do you find real 'freedom' or do you only find money that rapes you body and soul? Do you howl resistance or moan in ecstasy?
Xu Duo
Our World, Our Dream
A few times a year since 2002, Xu, a 32-year-old migrant worker-turned-singer-songwriter, stages a show like this together with his friends at different construction sites around Beijing.
Founded by migrant workers for migrant workers on May Day 2002, the New Worker Art Troupe has expanded from construction sites to indoor theaters. Their performances have also expanded to include traditional xiangsheng comedy, plays and movies. Rock 'n' roller Xu has expanded his own range by completing his first play Our World, Our Dream to be presented to a larger, more diverse audience at the Second Beijing Youth Theater Festival September 8-27 this year.
"Through 30 years of reform and opening-up, we shall endure," his actors state repeatedly in the play.
Telling the 30-year story of this marginalized group of people, the play attempts to offer a faithful reflection and accurate interpretation of the real-life experience of migrant workers.
"I don't want to see our experiences wiped away and forgotten by the world as time goes by," Xu said, "at least not so soon."
The play, which came from an album by the art troupe with the same title, debuted at the New Workers' Theater of the Migrant Workers' Home in the village of Picun, Chaoyang District, Beijing, on New Year's Day.
