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A curly young man with long braided hair rummages through a pile of plastic bottles, cardboard boxes and other trash scattered on the floor inside a rundown apartment in northwest China.
“Trash doesn’t seem worth that much,” comments the director. “No, but you can sell it, right?” The man answers without raising his head.
The exchange epitomizes the gritty yet dark mood that permeates “Trashy Boy,” an indie documentary about a struggling young rapper that became a cult hit among millennials in China this year.
Trailer of “Trashy Boy”.Courtesy of Zheng Yifei
In the film, director Zheng Yifei follows childhood friend Zhang Haichao as he tries to establish himself as a hip-hop star in his hometown in northwestern China’s Gansu province.
Chan, who prefers to be called Big Sponge, is an unlikely leader. Lonely, unsuccessful, and so poor that he has to collect and sell garbage to make money, he spends much of the film staring into space, roaming the streets, and wondering what he might find himself if his rap career failed. I worry about what will happen. off.
But it is precisely his helplessness that has made him a cult hero. They are coming of age in a world of extreme youth unemployment, rising inequality and draconian lockdowns due to COVID-19.
“Trashy Boy” was the dark horse of this year’s FIRST International Film Festival, China’s leading independent film festival held in Xining, northwestern China. It won an Audience’s Choice Award and was shortlisted for Best of His Documentary. This was an impressive result considering it was Zheng’s first feature film.
For Chen, the film’s popularity stems from its familiarity. He suggests that many viewers, especially those living outside of China’s wealthy major cities, also find it “crap.”
“It’s a youth movie and you can find resonance in it,” Zheng told Sixth Tone. “I’m a trash person too.”
Zheng and Big Sponge have faced significant barriers to success due to their respective backgrounds. The pair grew up in the remote Longxi region of the Loess Plateau, which was lifted from absolute poverty for the first time in 2019.
For Big Sponge, trying to make it as a rapper on Longxi proved to be an uphill battle. The high school dropout has struggled with obesity, bullying and depression since his teenage years. But hip-hop has become his passion and solace.
Now estranged from his family, Big Sponge lives a mostly reclusive life in a run-down apartment. He has no job and hardly enough money to survive. He carefully stores all trash and sells it as recycled. All his time and energy is devoted to his only emotional outlet: rap.
To kick-start his music career, Big Sponge starts hosting live-stream shows where he creates hip-hop tracks on the fly. He managed to gain thousands of followers and become a local influencer. But to his dismay, his fans spend more time mocking his looks than appreciating his music. His dreams of stardom are going nowhere.
In fact, Big Sponge may have been destined for failure from the start. Hip-hop has grown in popularity in China since 2017 when a series of reality TV shows such as ‘The Wrap of China’ brought the genre to mainstream audiences. However, China’s hip-hop scene is still concentrated in major cities such as Beijing and Chengdu. In rural Gansu, MC is almost unheard of.
“My place is too small,” Big Sponge tells Six Tone.
A still from the documentary “Trashy Boy.”Courtesy of Zheng Yifei
The label “crap” is a nod to this reality, says Zheng. Big Sponge has become “crappy,” he says, as a natural reaction to living in an environment where social mobility has stalled and success is out of reach. This is an attitude similar to that expressed by “let me corrupt,” a popular slang term that has captured the nihilistic outlook of many young Chinese in 2022.
“People share this sense of hopelessness,” says Zheng. “For Sponge, I think he’s fighting this kind of life by ‘rotting’.”
Zheng could have easily followed the same path. After studying Tibetan in Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu province, he lost his way and spent several restless years working in youth hostels and theaters. Although he fell in love with cinema during this period, he was unlikely to enter the film industry after graduating from the inexperienced Gansu Province.
But the 31-year-old was lucky enough to meet Chan Nan. Zhang Nan is an independent filmmaker and his documentary ‘Stuttering Ballads’ (a portrait of the famous Chinese folk singer Gusong) was critically acclaimed and screened at the Rotterdam International Film Festival. Working with Zhang Nan helped Zheng get his foot in the door and laid the foundation for his subsequent success.
Zheng and Big Sponge speak with Sixth Tone over the phone from their homes in Beijing and Longxi, respectively, to discuss what it means to be “shit” and the hip-hop scene in China’s small cities. Interviews have been edited for brevity and clarity.
Zheng Yifei (left) and Big Sponge (right). Courtesy of Zheng Yifei and @大海纵大海纵 on Weibo
Sixth Tone: How did you get interested in hip-hop in the first place?
Big Sponge: Where I grew up, hip-hop was very difficult to access. But when I was still a student, I heard Yin Ts’ang’s generic album at a record store. It was the first time I heard a rap song. I grew up in a very strict household. Maybe it was because of my family background that I didn’t like swearing, but I soon fell in love with Yin Ts’ang. After that, I downloaded a lot of similar music and got into hip-hop.
Sixth Tone: How was the rap scene in Longxi? Is hip-hop popular there now?
Zheng Yifei: My hometown is not a third-rate city. It’s like a small county with 18 layers. Once an important town on the ancient Silk Road, it is now very small and rustic. So in Yonggye, hip-hop is something different. no one is interested in it. Before The Wrap of China branded hip-hop trendy, hip-hop only existed in Beijing, Chengdu and Xi’an, where the genre has local roots.
Spongebob suddenly met hip-hop. He first listened to rock legend Cui Jian, who had several rap songs, and then Yin Ts’ang. But our hometown maintained a very traditional lifestyle, so when a child listened to that kind of music, no one understood him. His father said that when he was rapping, he sounded like he was chanting scriptures.
When reality TV shows made hip-hop popular, lower-class youths like Ryukei began to discover this culture. I started to understand what was going on and approached him to learn how to rap.I think this is the power of business branding.
Big Sponge: There weren’t many people doing hip-hop in Yonggye. I tried to spread this culture, but now I am no longer enthusiastic. Reality shows have made hip-hop popular, but newcomers don’t always agree with what they’ve learned from hip-hop’s big names.
Sixth Tone: As one of the first local rappers, how do you see your role in building Longxi’s hip-hop scene?
Big Sponge: I really think I did my part. I didn’t rap alone. I also tried to put on a show with everyone I knew, including bands and folk singers. However, there wasn’t much of an audience for it, so the reaction wasn’t as enthusiastic.
I don’t consider myself part of the hip-hop scene. I only chat with a few friends and like-minded people. I live in a small area, so I don’t talk much about hip-hop. Most of them love to make fun of it and I don’t want to argue with them. Anyway, I’m just trying to get through now.
A still from the documentary “Trashy Boy.”Courtesy of Zheng Yifei
Six Tones: Where did the term ‘crappy’ come from?
Zheng Yifei: When I started brainstorming ideas for the film’s title, buzzwords like “lying”, “degenerating”, and “corrupting” didn’t exist yet. I didn’t know the slang, but I think everyone has this silly feeling. Societies are under pressure, channels of social mobility are very narrow and inequalities are widening. Given that reality, I think it’s inevitable that this sense of hopelessness permeates the minds of young people.
After deciding on this title, I received a lot of voices saying “I want to see it with just the name”. They wanted to know if the story was about them. The name is charming. I’m also a crap person. We all think of ourselves that way.
Editor: Dominic Morgan.
(Header image: still from the documentary “Trashy Boy”, courtesy Zheng Yifei)
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