ADDITIONAL RESOURCE
Ku He, a discharged officer of the Chinese military, integrated himself into the aging and rapidly disappearing group of individuals, the Chongqing porters. For them he produced a documentary, The Last Generation of Bang-Bang.
Huang
In 1949, Huang was born into a landowner family as the fifth son. Just two days after his birth, his family fell from grace as landowners.
Huang became a father for the first time at the age of forty. He was promptly fined 1000 Yuan for his violation of the birth control policy because his wife was widowed and had three children already. After spending three years as a migrant worker in a northern city, Huang finally paid off the fine. However, during this period, his wife left him.
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Huang left his daughter in the care of his relatives while he went to work as a porter in the urban area. His daughter had a baby with a man she had met online while she was in middle school. Later on, Huang’s daughter and son-in-law bought a second-hand house in a small town. The mortgage payments were 100,000 Yuan a year. Huang said that once those are paid of his life will be much easier.
Dashi
Dashi is 59 years old, working as a porter for 31 years.
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He recalled that porters could earn a lot in those days when Chongqing’s transportation was underdeveloped. Most of them only slept for two to three hours a day.
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Working as a porter, Dashi was able to save up enough money to buy two houses in urban area of Chongqing. After experiencing the benefits of being a landlord, he decided to lease out the whole neighborhood as well as 8 other apartments. Now he went from a porter who did physical work to a landlord earning over 10,000 Yuan a month.