Xiao Wu

A pickpocket, Xiao Wu describes himself as “a craftsman.” After all, he earns a living with his hands. In the first scene of Xiao Wu, the debut feature of Jia Zhangke, one of the most celebrated Chinese directors, the titular character boards a bus. He sidesteps the fare by claiming he’s a policeman, which the ticket collector doesn’t believe but also doesn’t question. After scheming his way on, Xiao Wu carefully lifts the wallet of the passenger sitting beside him. The camera then cuts to a Mao Zedong medallion hanging from the bus’ rearview mirror, as though the late Chairman Mao had witnessed this petty crime but, in his current state, remains helpless to do anything about it. The moment illustrates Jia’s interest in the transitional period between China’s Maoist era and the country’s radical reform into a globalized market economy in the 1990s. Centered on its dislocated character, a socially marginalized figure who drifts through his home city of Fenyang, unnecessary to society and therefore an outcast, Xiao Wu (known as Pickpocket in some Western markets) captures how some cannot keep pace with the nation’s rapid changes. Mutating from one era to the next, less in distinct cultural stages than a gradual shift, China’s urgent capitalistic aspirations isolate Xiao Wu and render him a misfit for his failure to adapt. He is ultimately left alienated, targeted, and shunned as socially undesirable.

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