STUDY: Folding Beijing

ACT ONE:

SCENE ONE (1103)

Lao Dao is wearing the only clean clothes he has. He is looking for Peng Li. He works at the waste processing plant and rarely wears them. But today was special. He squeezes through the crowds surrounding the street vendors during dinner time. He found Peng’s apartment, but he isn’t home. He’s anxious. Some teenagers are eating. They’re talking about the price of meat. Lao Dao is hungry. He used to have morning meals. It cost 100 yuan, which translated to 3000 yuan = two months of tuition for TangTang’s kindergarten. The cleaning crew are coming. Hawkers, vendors and peddlers are dispersing like fish in a pond disturbed by a stick. Peng Li appears. Lao Dao outright asks him how to get to First Space. The cleaning crew is shouting. The change is about to start.

SCENE TWO (1202)

Inside Peng’s apartment. It’s a small space. Peng makes him reveal his reason first before he’ll tell him how to do it. He had snuck out messages to Second Space. Had to hide in a trash chute for 24 hours to make 2000 yuan. He tells him about TangTang’s kindergarten. Peng asks him why, she’s not even his real daughter. Just tell me how to do it. BACKSTORY: Peng snuck contraband four times and made a killing. Peng gives him instructions seeing that he can’t dissuade him. Lao Dao is already on his way. Peng gives him a warning, if you go you’ll see stuff and feel like your life is shit and pointless.

SCENE THREE (1025)

Lao Dao follows the instructions. Sees Peng Ling finish cigarette and goes to bed. WORLD BUILD: Peng would sleep for forty hours. We see The Change happening before Lao Dao’s eyes. BACKSTORY: Lao Dao thinks about his last venture to Second Space and waking up and seeing the city rotate and turn and rebuild like a Rubik’s cube. We jump to truck drivers POV and they seeing the city turn from outside on the seventh Ring Road.

ACT TWO:

SCENE FOUR (1013)

WORLD BUILD: First Space, 5M population, 6am to 6am, 24 hours. The other side Second and Third Space. Second Space: 25M, 6AM to 10PM the next day, 14 hours. Third Space: 50M 10PM to 6AM, 8 hours. BACKSTORY: Lao Dao’s father was a construction worker who built this city. He barely managed to get a job as a waste worker. Talk about the inequality.

SCENE FIVE (2031)

MORE BACKSTORY: Second Space adventure. Qin Tian had slipped a message inside a bottle and hoped someone in Third Space would find it. Lao Dao did. Qin Tian had met someone in First Space because of an internship with the UN Economic Office. Qin is a hopeless romantic going after a girl that’s above his league. Yi Yan had given him a single kiss and now he pined for her. His roommate Zhang Xian talked about going to Third Space to do an admin job so he could launch himself to First Space. If you stayed in Second, you got stuck there. Zhang Xian talked about getting into government and changing policies because the current administration is old and ossified. Qin Tian pays him 50k. It’s no big deal to him. Lao Dao made 10k/month. He is incredulous at the wealth. Qin Tian freely offers food and comfort and tells him to wait before the change. Lao Dao looks outside and observes Second Space. He sees garbage flowing in the hallway. He sees another roommate doing things casually. Everyone goes about the Change very orderly.

ACT THREE:

SCENE SIX (946)

Lao Dao had to climb and traverse over dangerous shifting ground to get to First Space. He was confused by the lack of buildings at first. He’s next to two rows of sturdy gingko trees. He’s outside Yi Yan’s building. Yi Yan is surprised by him. She cannot accept his letter. She gives him a business card and asks him to meet him at a bank at noon in the underground market. An older man, same age as Lao Dao appears and kisses Yi Yan. A driverless rickshaw shows up for Yi Yan. Then a car.

SCENE SEVEN (1705)

Lao Dao heads to the bank district. There are underground passages. There’s a lot of WORLD BUILDING here. Yi Yan shows up and takes him to a restaurant. She’s refusing the letter. She wants to explain her situation. She’s not playing Qin Tian. She’s older than him. She told him she was an intern but she wasn’t. Wu Wen was much older. Made enough money for both. She did half-time work because she didn’t want to be bored. Yi Yan wants Lao Dao to not tell Qin Tian anything. She wants to wait to tell him herself. She wants Lao Dao to be quiet. She gives him $50,000 in hush money. Lao Dao stands up in anger. Yi Yan rummages and finds another 50. She begs him to let her tell her because she’s hanging on to the hope that one day she might have the courage to be with him. Lao Dao finally succumbs and tells her, I can’t take this. it’s too much. She tells him she earns this in a week. it’s no big deal. She writes a note for him to deliver to Qin Tian. Lao Dao hates himself.

ACT FOUR:

SCENE EIGHT (1592)

Lao Dao leaves. He’s back at the park where he came. Two robots are patrolling the park though. And then they beeped as soon as they sense Lao Dao. Three men appear. One scans him. Lao Dao is not registered. Lao Dao runs. A younger man tackles him. The robot picks him up and they ride to a building. They took him to a room. It’s a Hotel room? The older man is kind to him. Lao Dao is suspicious. Lao Ge recognized the brand on Lao Dao’s pants. Lao Ge used to be Third Space. They shared stories. Lao Ge had joined the army as a radar technician. He did good work, got promoted and when he retired he did logistics for First Space. There were a lot of people like him here. Chefs, Doctors, Secretaries, Housekeepers. Skilled blue-collar workers needed to support the lifestyle of the First Space. Lao Ge offers him the bed to nap.

SCENE NINE (1715)

Lao Ge gives him a new suit and they head downstairs into the open lobby. Banquet hall had standing tables. It’s a celebration of The Folding City at Fifty. The screen behind the lectern on the dais showed images of Beijing in all it’s different permutations. A man is speaking. He’s talking about the Green Economy and Recycling Economy. Lao Dao sees Wu Wen, Yi Yan’s husband, at the head table. Lao Dao, out of curiosity, followed Wu Wen and the speaker outside. Wu Wen made the proposal, but because this new technology basically needed very little workers, it would disenfranchise tens of millions of people. So his plan wouldn’t work. Employment is the government’s number one concern. Secretary noticed Lao Dao. He interrogates him and is about to call him in when Lao Ge shows up. Lao Ge gets him back to the hotel room. He sleeps wondering if what Wu Wen proposed was good or bad for him.

SCENE TEN (1164)

Lao Ge has brought back food for him. The dishes are just 10-20K. Or 30-40K. “No big deal”. Lao Dao eats. Lao Dao asks Lao Gao about the man giving the speech. He asks about automatic waste processing. They went with manual labor for a reason. It was like Europe at the end of the 20th century. unemployment kept rising even though the economy was growing. Printing money didn’t solve the problem. Economy refused to obey the Phillips curve. Robots are replacing workers. What do you do with workers? If you keep protecting them, it costs more to hire people and nobody wants to hire people. So you shove people into the night and you reduce the amount of time they get to live. Like Third Space. They drink and reminisce about their youth in Third Space. He goes downstairs and the dance party was nearing an end. It’s dirty and grubby like a woman who had just taken off her make-up after a long tiring day. Lao Ge makes a comment “This is the only moment when First Space shows its true face.” It’s time for Lao Dao to go.

ACT FIVE

SCENE ELEVEN (1326)

Silver-haired man was on a video call with Europe. Secretary calls him. Printing error on report. Lao Dao POV change. He’s on the lake waiting for the Change. He’s not sad nor nostalgic. But he enjoyed the place. The report was still late at the printers. Secretary asks if they should delay the change. The silver-haired man said of course we should delay it. Lao Dao begins to climb the shifting land. The Old man gets another call telling him that something was left at the Banquet hall. He stops and reverses the change. Lao Dao is caught. Not crushed, but stuck. He’s freaked out. He’s stuck there prostrated contemplating everything he’d heard on his journey. He had glimpsed some aspect of the truth. But it was cold and distant. And what was the point of knowing if you can’t change your fate? Stuff happens on the Wu Wen and silver-haired side. The Change starts again.

SCENE TWELVE (896)

Lao Dao sleeps in Second Space for ten hours. Qin Tian gets the message from Yi Yan. It’s happy and filled with loss as well. He orders chow mein with shredded pork. Just once, as a reward. Then he delivers the medicine to Lao Ge’s parents. Ah Bei and Lan Lan are arguing with the landlady. The two girls had often taken care of TangTang. Lao Dao wants them to be quiet and hands her a 10K note. He picks up TangTang and smiles. He had completed his mission and got the money. It’s time to work again.