Beijing Taxi

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Beijing Taxi
Direct by : Miao Wang
2010


Beijing Taxi follows the life of three taxi drivers across China’s capital city, during the two years run up to the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. Providing an insight into the drivers’ profession, families, hobbies and dreams, the film also documents the impact the Olympics had on the city and on the life of the average Beijinger.

Against the backdrop of Beijing’s fast modernization, characters’ voices provide a mix of resignation, hope and contentment. Bai Jiwen is a man in his fifties, who likes to dream of getting the education he was refused during the Cultural Revolution, but who is lucid enough to realize that the time has gone. Wei Caixia is a young woman struggling with a deceiving marriage, but filled with love for her daughter. She dreams of a better future, of a successful business and independent life. Zhouyi, on the contrary, does not seem to be tempted by a modern, glamorous life. He enjoys fishing with his dad, he is content with his job and he hopes to get by easily.

Beijing Taxi suggests that, to many Chinese, the Olympics have only been a temporary white-noise added to the constant bustling changes and modernization of the capital city. Even though certain related facts are touched upon – such as the massive mobilisation of volunteers and the vast-scale English learning scheme – the Olympics are treated in the documentary as a sort of background pretext to capture a city that was already and independently undergoing vast changes. Although all three characters are aware and affected by this transformation, they are not actively part of it. Bai Jiwen is left behind because he is part of the wrong generation. Wei Caixia is stuck in the middle, feeling on the one hand the weight of the past and on the other the lure of the future. Zhouyi is the one who, unwillingly, will probably have to adapt to a new city and a new society.

Olympics apart, Beijing Taxi is a great way just to share the life, families and jobs of three people on the other side of the world. It offers an intimate peek into a fast-changing country, of which we constantly hear about, but which we still do not fully know or understand. In this regard, the documentary undermines a dominant western stereotype of Chinese people as hard-workers. We are told that Beijingners do not like competition, are not extremely ambitious and that they enjoy a calm and slow-paced life. Probably, not for long though…

A richly varied soundtrack unfolds along the documentary, introducing into the picture of deconstruction and construction of Beijing the similarly fast-changing Chinese music scene. The camera maintains a curious look which at times lingers on small scenes, quotidian objects and unusual views along the road. The documentary feels like a real taxi ride through the city, unfolding and capturing places and views with no explanation other than they existed at that moment. The respectful close up on the characters’ lives, however, is what ultimately gives meaning to the city’s changes.

While the West impatiently looks at China’s race to modernization to perceive its final outcome, Beijing Taxi offers a glimpse into the lives of three Beijingners also struggling to get to terms with the city’s fast-moving transformation.

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