Spaces of Labour: Three Sisters, ’Til Madness Do Us Part, Bitter Money

Abstract

Wang’s focus on workers constitutes a unique entry point for studying labour conditions throughout China’s economic development. This chapter offers an in-depth discussion of Wang’s filmmaking in relation to spaces of labour and labour issues. Through the close analyses of Three Sisters, ’Til Madness Do Us Part, and Bitter Money, the discussion expands on the topic of labour which Wang first explored with Tiexi qu: West of the Tracks. These works also re-connect to the flow of laid-off and migrant workers of the Tiexi industrial district and evoke the overarching power of the economy in defining people’s lives and destinies. This chapter also offers a comparative reading of Wang’s Three Sisters and John Ford’s The Grapes of Wrath (1940).