The Centre for International Film Research at the University of Southampton Presents: Transforming China: 24 City Event

About the film

"24 City is composed of the memories of people who have lived or worked in a military airplane manufacturing facility named ‘Factory 420.’ This was a State Owned Enterprise (SOE) in Chengdu (Sichuan) that was once home to over 20000 workers, but in the film the factory is being dismantled in preparation for its redevelopment as a lavish high-rise office and apartment complex to be named ‘24 City.’ The film is structured around interviews with people who were either factory workers or their family members. Once the Maoist era’s leading figures, the worker class has now fallen in status and, like the factory in the film, has been made redundant due to the state’s economic reforms and adoption of a market economy." (Schultz, Corey K.N. "Memories in Performance: Commemoration and the Commemorative Experience in Jia Zhangke's 24 City," Film-Philosophy 20, no. 2-3 (2016): 267.