The Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law welcomed Last Train Home producer Mila Aung-Thwin to a screening of the film on October 28, 2010. James K. Galbraith, Lloyd M. Bentsen Jr. Chair in Government and Business Relations at the LBJ School of Public Affairs; Andrew Garrison, Associate Professor of Radio-TV-Film, UT-Austin; and Wenjie Zhang, PhD candidate at the LBJ School of Public Affairs participated in a panel discussion following the screening. Laura Jones, Strauss Center Senior Program Coordinator, introduced the panelists and moderated the event.
Every spring during the Chinese New Year, millions of migrant factory workers shuffle into crowded trains in China’s industry-rich coastal cities to return to their rural villages throughout the countryside. China’s massive economic growth has had a dramatic effect on the Chinese lower-middle class. Migrant workers have the opportunity to make wages at a level unknown to older generations by relocating to Chinese industrial centers to toil under harsh conditions in factories. However, the ability to pursue economic prosperity does not come without cost: traditional Chinese family units are undergoing significant transformation as workers abandon their families for the better part of the year, and the lasting effects of this practice are far from certain.
Watch an exclusive interview with producer Mila Aung-Thwin.
Last Train Home examines how a single migrant family, the Zhangs, have been affected by annual migration. The Zhangs left their children in the care of grandparent sixteen years ago for the city, in the hopes of providing their family with a more comfortable life than either had known.However, the Zhangs’ decision to join the annual worker migration carried dramatic consequences for the entire Zhang family.
Following the film, the panelists shared their reactions and offered diverse commentary on the state of modern China. Ms. Zhang discussed Chinese beliefs regarding the relationship between education level and income, providing insight into the mindset of the Chinese migrant worker. Dr. Galbraith commented on the utter lack of material wealth of the average Chinese worker and noted the extraordinary strength of character required for survival in spite of such conditions. Mr. Aung-Thwin discussed the Chinese labor market’s corrosive effects on traditional Chinese family units and shed light on how certain key scenes were filmed.
Discussants in the audience and on the panel surveyed the effects of the fracturing of Chinese family units on Chinese society more generally.The diminishment of traditional family units, it was noted, might trigger a cultural revolution of sorts, as Chinese youth spend more of their income on activities like dating and feel less restrictions in how they socialize. Discussion turned to Chinese attitudes regarding the pursuit of economic prosperity, the inability of the older and younger Chinese generations to understand each other’s hardships and concerns, and the value of investing in rural China as a means to alleviating some of the pressure inflicted on families by annual worker migration.