A film about rapid urbanisation in China, the desire to buy a house in the city, and the inability to live there.
In contemporary China, cities are growing fast with large-scale investments in urban housing to accommodate rural-urban migration. For people from rural areas, buying a house in the city has become an important symbol of success. Yet, the houses they are able to afford are often located in city outskirts with few labour opportunities. Therefore many are unable to stay long-term in their newly acquired house, and instead furnish and store it for the future. This film is about such a house. It is empty most of the year, but the owners still consider it their home.
Direction: Sanderien Verstappen and Willy Sier
Research & translation: Willy Sier
Camera: Sanderien Verstappen
Montage: Sanderien Verstappen
Editing support and postproduction: Hilbert Kamphuisen
The film is based on a doctoral research project by Willy Sier in the city of Wuhan, at the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR). It had its premiere at the VU Ethnographic Film Festival in 2016, and was financially supported by the University of Amsterdam (Anthropology Department and Moving Matters Research Group) and technically facilitated at DIA (Documentary Institute Amsterdam).
