Contemporary Social Issues Revealed in Jingfang Hao’s “Folding Beijing”

Contemporary Social Issues Revealed in Jingfang Hao’s “Folding Beijing”

“Folding Beijing,” original title 北京折叠 Běijīng Zhédié, written by Jingfang Hao, is a science fiction firstly published in 2014 on Chinese magazines. The English translation of the story by Ken Liu was published in 2015 and won the 2016 Hugo Award for Best Novelette, an award specifically for science fictions. The fiction is set in Beijing, China in the future, where citizens have been divided into three classes according to their social status. The three classes are namely the governing class, the middle class, and the lower class. As they share a 48 hour cycle, the city would fold and unfold every time each class starts to work, which is called the Change. Lao Dao, the protagonist, is a third-class worker trying to send a message for Qin Tian to the first class in reward of an amount of money to support his daughter to go to kindergarten. Although the story is set in the future, it reveals several social issues which are existent in contemporary China. Despite the fact it is considered to be a science fiction, the actual rationale for the author to write the fiction is to expose these problems.
Firstly, it suggests the social inequality in the current situation of China. As briefly mentioned above, Beijing residents in the fiction is clearly classified into three categories according to their positions in the society. The first class takes over the city for 24 hours out of the 48 hour cycle, the second 16 hours, leaving the third only 8 hours. Settings of the city are different for the occupation time of each classes. For instance, high buildings are only for the first and the second class people. Transportation among the three classes is made impossible and illegal; anyone who violates the rule will be “locked for months” (Hao 2015). This is an extreme version of the current situation in China. The society is divided automatically by the social status of its citizens. The boundaries between classes are not visible, as described in the fiction, but it functions the same as a physical border. It is impossible for a waste processing worker, like Lao Dao, to get near to a government official; their worlds are separated. It is not completely unreasonable to imagine that the future in the story will actually become the reality one day—the boundaries are already there, a physical form of them would not make any huge difference.
The division among the classes is also reflected in the relationships among the characters. When Lao Dao was about to leave the world of the first class, he was stopped by a secretary. He was questioned about his identity and eligibility in this world. Lao Dao could not provide a valid identification as he is not a legal resident of the first class but the third class. However, he is rescued at the last minute by a childhood friend, Lao Ge. Lao Ge was born in the third class but climbed all the way up to the first class. Although he and Lao Dao were the same when they were children, the huge difference in social status between them now makes it impossible to connect with each other. Similar situation can apply to Qin Tian and Yi Yan, who have no whatsoever association with each other once Yi had left for the first class. The change of their relationships is drastic when their social status is changed. It is natural but also cruel process as the “no connection allowed among different classes” rule is well-accepted by every citizen.
Secondly, money becomes of great importance among citizens in the fiction. The prices for everything is ridiculously high in the fiction. As Li said, twice-cooked pork is charged 340 yuan (approximately 54 US dollars) and boiled beef 420 yuan (approximately 66.7 US dollars. Lao Dao’s daughter, Tangtang, needs a great amount of tuition fee, two months of which roughly equals what Lao Dao has been saving for one year. Thus, Lao Dao, together with most residents in the third class, cannot afford those. The setting of the city allows almost no space for third-class citizens to improve their life as no one is allowed to enter other classes. By the end of the story, Lao Dao earned 10,000 yuan (1585.7 US dollars), which can barely cover the kindergarten tuition fee. The current situation in China is rather similar. Education is one of the most important things for parents so they are willing to pay a huge amount of tuition fee, even though sometimes institutions’ charge is ridiculously high. In association with great demand of proper education, other industries flourish accordingly. For instance, residence in educational areas (学区 xuéqū) has a relatively high price compared to regular residence thus the real estate industry benefits from parents’ eagerness of getting their children into better schools.
Moreover, the consideration of one’s financial status in marriage perspective in the fiction is similar in present-day China. Yi Yan,