the last train home观后感

Behind the Facts

--- Thoughts on Last Train Home

“chunyun(Spring Festival rush)”“liushouertong(the left-behind children)” “nongmingong (migrant workers)” Being a Chinese, I have heard these phases a thousand times through media or daily conversations. However, before I watched Last Train Home, those concepts seem so remote and insignificant for me, because I never have a comprehensive understanding for them. This documentary helps me see through the cold facts, getting to understand the daily life and struggles those of those migrant workers and left-behind children.

In 1990, the farmer couple Changhua Zhang and Suqin Chen left their hometown Huilong village and went to a garment factory in Guangzhou to support their family, leaving their one-year-old daughter Qin Zhang at home with her grandma. They work in a noisy and messy factory, and live in a crowded and shabby room. Their happiest thing is going back home during the Spring Festival to reunion with the family. They try to save as much money as possible to support their children Qin and Yang’s education, because they think education is the only way for farmers to change their lives.

Qin, their 17-year-old daughter, obviously does not agree with her parents. She does not like schools and does not believe that education can change her life. She likes freedom and the fancy city life. To pursue her dream, she quits school and goes to a factory in Dongguan to work. Qin’s parents are devastatedbyher decision and do everything to bring her back to school. Qin, on the other hand, does not understand her parents, thinking that they never care for her. Their conflict peaks during the time they go back home during the Spring Festival.

The contradiction between the two generations is intense. However, their starting points are the same --- to change. Changhua and Suqin want to change their kids’ life. Their approach is traditional: they believe education is the only way to change a person’s life, which is a typical Confucius way. Qin also wants to

change her own life. She does not like the village life and is enchanted by the colorful city life. As a result, she thinks the way to change life is to go to the city to seek opportunity. As migrant workers and left-behind child, the parents and kids seldom have time to communicate, so they never understand each other. As we could see in the documentary, the conversation between the parents and child always fall into silence. The problem of migrant workers and left-behind child is serious and common in China. Qin and her parents’ story can be seen as a representation.

This documentary also adds another dimension into my understanding for Country Driving. It uses a different approach to tell the stor y of people’s life in a factory. Last Train Home is sadder than Country Driving since it shows how hard it is for the migrant workers to go home. Also, it may bring us to a deeper question: where are the migrant workers’ homes?