The second part of Wang Bing's epic documentary series Youth focuses on the problems of workers in Zhili's textile workshops, fighting for a fair wage - or any wage at all. The film avoids a purely individualistic perspective, nor does it paint a collective portrait.

The second part of Wang Bing's documentary series Youth distances itself from the atmosphere of occasional frivolity within the harsh conditions of textile workshops in Zhili, China. The focus is entirely on the workshops and cramped living spaces introduced in Youth (Spring). Central is the difficulty of getting paid, at a fair rate, or at all. We see the consequences of bosses in debt, haggling over wages or disappearing off the face of the earth. And we learn about a historic event in 2011 when similar tensions led to violent clashes between workers and the police.

Wangs has a very careful approach to editing the vast amount of footage. He does not want to highlight individuals and their ‘storylines’ (as many documentaries do), but neither does he want to paint a portrait of an anonymous community. According to Bang, both approaches lead to flat perspectives at the expense of important details. With each of the individuals he films, he gives us time to discover their individuality and notice how they interact or struggle with his work situation. Throughout the project, we are implicitly asked to see the overall, social dimension of the problems of contemporary China.