• Date: December 16th, Monday, 2019 14:00-18:00 (Running time: 170 min.)
• Location: Youngone Hall (2F), SNUAC (Bldg. 101)

CAUS Documentary Film Festival – 《We the workers》

SNUAC Center for Asian Urban Societies is screening <We the workers>, a documentary film that realistically illustrates the movements of Chinese workers. While there is cheap labor hidden behind China’s rapid economic growth, these workers now start a fight to find their rights. By appreciating this film that closely and meticulously depicts the organization process of workers, we would like to discuss the issues on East Asian developmental cities and labor.

* The language is Chinese, with Korean subtitles.

On December 16th, CAUS screened a documentary film at Youngone Hall, SNUAC. Screened in this event, <We the workers> is a film that deals with the issue of labor and social movement among Chinese rural workers. Directed by Huang Wenhai and released in 2017, the film was praised in multiple international film festivals including those in Rotterdam, Paris, Montreal, Amsterdam, Taibei, San Diego, London, Buenos Aires, and Hong Kong for its realistic depiction of the actualities faced by Chinese labor activists.

After the screening, a panel discussion was held with Prof. Jungkoo Kim (Ewha Womans Univ.), Prof. Kyu Sik Jeong (Wonkwang Univ.) and activist Myungkyo Hong (PlatformC). Prof. Kim discussed the film from the perspective of documentary film theory, while Prof. Jeong explained the Chinese labor conditions and strikes.  Myungkyo Hong provided the video and subtitles for this screening, and also shared his experience and episode meeting the director of the film. There were over 20 participants from both inside and outside academia, allowing for a wide discussion on the laborers’ survival in cities and the problems of urbanization along with various cases of Chinese labor conditions and movements.