Floating

China’s current economic disparity between rural and urban areas is so great that a large amount of rural people are flowing into urban areas; however, the Chinese government’s “Regulation on the Detention and Repatriation of Vagrants and Beggars in Cities” introduced since the 1980s has made these migrant people the target of punishment and discrimination.

Yang is vagrant singer from Henan rural area; he earns his life by singing in the subways of urban business centers. Everyday he brings with him his temporary residency and identification card to avoid being caught and detained by local police. In order to continue with his work, he has to bribe the subway security guards, deal circuitously with Urban Management people, and squeeze other street artists out. From time to time, many of his friends who live just like him are detained by local police and repatriated back home, but soon after they come back to the city again and continue their drifting life. Yang, now 30 years old, considers ending his ‘floating’ life, going back to his hometown and marrying his first lover, but the complications with old and new lovers has made his life even more chaotic. Finally, he is caught by local police when he is singing, detained, and send back home. —China Independent Documentary Film Archive