The Old Barber of Beijing

Another advantage of flying with Hainan Air, other than a direct flight, is the fact that the available movies forced me to watch something outside my comfort zone.

The Old Barber of Beijing (剃头匠) is a film which was made in 2006. It captures the life of an old craftsmen,a barber, living in a traditional siheyuan on a hutong near the centre of Beijing. Many of the scenes are no more than a twenty minute walk from the Forbidden City.

It's a slow moving film, directed in an artistic style, with a focus on the camera work and microphones recording the sights and sounds of old Beijingers living and dying in their traditional environment.

The main theme of the film is the contrast between old and new. Traditionalism and Modernity.

People living in this situation are absolutely still a common sight on the streets of Beijing, but for how long they and their homes will last, it's difficult to say. The debate about the preservation of Hutongs is covered more eloquently elsewhere. The only perspective I would share is that I try to avoid jumping to the conclusion that life in a siheyuan with no bathroom and questionable electricity and water supplies is necessarily preferable to a modern apartment, just because I like to cycle through 'authentic' parts of Beijing when cycling between my apartment and a restaurant.

Anyway, if you've got the patience, the time and the interest, check out these films. You'll see a very different view of our home town than I can easily show. It does have English subtitles.

The titles are hyperlinks in case the embedded video doesn't work.

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3


Part 4