Arrival City: Struggle And Hope

The existence of urban villages has become an important issue in building a harmonious society and realizing sustainable development in China. It involves various aspects of the society including the household registration system, society security, equality in education as well as social wealth distribution, presenting a serious challenge to the capability and wisdom of the government. Urban villages can be either a springboard of opportunity and vitality or a trap of disorder and crisis. It’s a difficult problem for the whole society to deal with urban villages properly and bring the positive side of them.From a micro perspective, this documentary tells the stories of struggle about three migrant worker families in Beijing’s urban villages and presents the situation of urban villages by displaying the ups and downs of lives there. The documentary tries to showcase the optimism and persistence of migrant workers and provoke further thoughts of the role of urban villages in China’s urbanization process.The documentary includes three parts:the first part tells the stories of three migrant worker families represented by Liu Yufen, Wei Jinsheng and Li Minghuai and the problems they have encountered in household registration, housing, education and employment; the second part provides a deeper interpretation of urban villages through the eyes of scholars; the third entitled "hope" aims to show the hope and expectation of migrant workers in urban villages.