Dirt and glory capture Beijing living

A film about sanlitun showcases the lives of the expat community in the chinese capital

Expat troubles are a new topic among directors in Chinese and European independent cinema. From the follies of Chinese living abroad and Americans living in China, there is a wealth of ridiculousness to be parodied, from linguistic high jinks through to any number of cultural faux pas.

Such films feature expatriates searching for identity, often with mischief on their minds or to escape heartbreak. In many cases these characters feel alone and uncomfortable in their own skin. In fact when they are exposed to the world they can go through an identity crisis: "Who am I?" and "Why am I so different?"

The film This Is Sanlitun, directed by Icelander Robert Ingi Douglas and starring the co-writers, Beijing-based stand-up comedian Carlos Ottery and Christopher Loton, is a rambling mockumentary about the struggles of expats that had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival last year.

Ottery plays British loser Gary, who makes it to Beijing from London in search of riches and a better life. Things do not go as planned, and he ends up taking a variety of jobs, including becoming an English teacher, while he sets about looking for his divorced wife and child. Along the way he meets Frank, an inept mentor and fellow expatriate living in Beijing who believes in all his heart that he is Chinese. It is up to Frank to show Gary how to live in China. The duo - one of them outright assertive and dead wrong about nearly all aspects of Chinese culture and the other a quiet, unassuming dupe - are like a modernized version of traditional Chinese stand-up comedy. Without one of them, the monologues could become rude or meek, but together, Frank and Gary provide a sobering sense of humor.

Frank: Hey, mate. How much is that one?

Hēi! Gēmenr, nàge duōshǎo qián?

嘿！哥們兒，那個多少錢？

Bike seller: It's 2,880 yuan.

Liǎngqiān bābǎi bāshí.

兩千八百八十。

Frank: 2,880 yuan? Not bad.

Liǎng qiān bā bǎi bā shí? Bú cuò.

兩千八百八十？不錯。

Frank talks to Gary in English then back to the seller.

Frank: I told him it's 3,500 yuan. He will give you 2,880 and I will keep the rest, Okay?

Wǒ gàosu tā shì sān qiān wǔ bǎi. Tā gěi nǐ liǎng qiān bā bǎi bā shí, nǐ gěi wǒ shèng xia de, hǎoma?

我告訴他是三千五百。他給你兩千八百八十，你給我剩下的，好嗎？

Sanlitun is an area of Beijing known for being a hangout for expats, replete with swarming bar streets juxtaposed against the squeaky clean mall space of a shopping center, full of bourgeois stores such as Gucci and Prada.

It is a fitting setting for the film as there is no place in Beijing more awkwardly confused with East-West modernity than Sanlitun's filth and splendor. The film is not only about a foreigner in a foreign country, but rather its awkward extra-diegetic perspective on just what it means to be a foreign film in a foreign country.

One may not necessarily consider This Is Sanlitun to be a Chinese film, but at the same time it is clearly not a European one. While the foibles of Gary and Frank tend to mostly stay in English, their environment is unadulterated, modern Beijing, in all its dirt and glory. Asked whether his portrayal of Gary is at all similar to his own life, Ottery replied: "I am a foreigner in China trying to find my way, and I have taught English ... So on the basic level, yes, but I'm not really like Gary. A lot of it is caricature; we saw things going on in Beijing that we found funny, and exaggerated them, though not always by much, for comic effect."

Frank: You're Beijingers, right?

Nǐmen shì Běijīngrén, shìba?

你們是北京人，是吧？

Old man: Oh, yes.

Duì.

對。

Frank: You drink erguotou, the old Beijing liquor?

Lǎo Běijīng èrguōtóu, shìba?

老北京二鍋頭，是吧？

Old man: Yes, three.

Duì, sān píngr!

對，三瓶兒！

Frank: Three bottles? Three bottles of erguotou?

Sān píng? Sān píng èrguōtóu?

三瓶？三瓶二鍋頭？

Old man: Yes.

Ai, duì le!

唉，對了.

Frank: No way.

Gānmá ya?

干嘛呀？

Old man: I will have some more in the evening.

Wǎnshāng yě hē.

晚上也喝。

Frank: You're joking.

Kāi wánxiào ba?

開玩笑吧？

Old man: No joke.

Bù kāi wánxiào.

不開玩笑。

Frank: You must be pissed.

Hē de zhēnshì tài zuì le.

喝得真是太醉了。

As with almost all films that deal with expat troubles in China, This Is Sanlitun has been received by expats with mixed feelings: while some praise the movie for its portrayal of expat attitudes, others are too bitter and locked inside their bubbles to appreciate the absurd humor about themselves.

Shortcomings aside, Beijing, according to Gary, is a place that, despite its best attempts to eat him alive, manages to remain a place with remarkable charm. Most seem to agree: living as a foreigner in Beijing is a day-by-day struggle. The question we then should ask and to which we have yet to see an answer is: "How does the other half live?"

Courtesy of The World of Chinese,

www.theworldofchinese.com

The World of Chinese

Above: Frank (left) and Gary exchange high-fi ves over an amusing fact. Below: Gary and his beggar friend advertise their miracle hair growth product. Provided to China Daily

(China Daily Africa Weekly 03/07/2014 page27)