Set in the fast-growing factory city of Huzhou in eastern China, Bitter Money (Ku Qian) jumps between day-to-day moments in the lives of workers who migrated to the city in search of higher wages. Its title refers to a slang expression used in Huzhou to describe the hardships of living away from home and enduring the factories’ gruelling working conditions in order to earn an income. Opening with a shot of a teenage girl leaving her village for the city, and closing with the end of a production line, the film takes in the tragic ripple effect of violence and oppression stemming from the pyramid schemes and inhumane systems of industrialisation expanding in the city.
![a woman sits on the sofa](https://media.tate.org.uk/aztate-prd-ew-dg-wgtail-st1-ctr-data/images/bitter_money2.width-340.jpg)
Wang Bing Bitter Money 2016, film still. Courtesy Pyramide International
![a girl falls asleep on a woman's shoulder in an airport](https://media.tate.org.uk/aztate-prd-ew-dg-wgtail-st1-ctr-data/images/bitter_money3.width-340.jpg)
Wang Bing Bitter Money 2016, film still. Courtesy Pyramide International
Programme
Bitter Money (Ku Qian), 2016, DCP, colour, sound, 152 min, Mandarin with English subtitles
The Wang Bing: Traces series is programmed in parallel with the UK premiere of Dead Souls at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, 27–28 November 2018