My Overthinking

Philly Area mom, Life forever changed by adoption

Last Train Home {Giveaway}

I’m quiet tonight as a few scenes from Last Train Home continue in my mind.

Every year, as Chinese New Year approaches, 130 million people in China who have left their homes to work in cities return home, creating the single largest migration in the world every single year. Last Train Home, created by Chinese Canadian Lixin Fan, focuses on two of those 130 million people–Zhang Changhua and Chen Suqin. They left their two children as infants in their rural village in Sichuan Province to be cared for by an elderly grandmother and set out for Guangzhou with the hope of giving their son and daughter a better life than they had experienced themselves.

The stunning contrast between the crowded, riotous train station as they and many others literally push their way through to leave their factory work and dormitory living to journey home and the peaceful, magnificent landscapes they can see from their train window left me stunned. Chaos and beauty–true of the physical world as well as their relationships.

Though these parents gave all they literally could for the sake of their children, their relationships are critically broken with a wall between the father and daughter in particular that you can nearly reach out and touch as you watch them on the screen in front of you on the other side of the world captured in time. Their pain is intense. Somehow, it became even more real to me with the English subtitles as I was forced to focus on expressions and tones rather than simply words.

As their 15-year-old daughter wrestles with her own desire for independence and the hole left in her heart from absent parents, I realized I was literally holding my breath while I watched, wanting to see something happen that wasn’t going to happen while feeling somewhat embarrassed that I was getting such an intimate view of their brokenness. It isn’t fair. Her mother told her daughter she had not yet tasted the bitterness of life; I think she’s known it all along.

This is one family’s story, one intimate and intense enough to leave you holding your breath. Multiply their story by the 130 million who share similar journeys as migrant workers and this movie becomes epic in impact, no less necessary that Schindler’s List or Hotel Rwanda as we consider the reality of the world outside our own small borders.

I want you to see this. I want you to own it and share it with others. I want more people to understand the lives of Zhang Changhua, Chen Suqin, and Zhang Qin and the 129,999,997 others their lives represent. So, I’m giving away a copy of the DVD here.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

*note* this movie is not appropriate for young audiences. There is one particular scene with language and domestic violence. 
Giveaway is for the DVD and shipping to the Continental United States. If winner cannot provide a mailing address within the Continental United States, he/she will have the option of paying for shipping for the DVD.

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Comments

  1. Thanks for sharing this. I would love to learn more by seeing this, as I am always hoping to learn more about the chinese culture! Thanks so much!

  5. I watched this on Netflix…I didnt know how to process the whole thing…and being that one of my kiddos is from Sichuan made it all the harder~

  6. I am always interested in learning more about life in China, my daughters country of birth. I just finished Kay Bratt’s book “A Thread Unbroken” about the trafficking of young teens as potential brides. Heart wrenching what goes on outside our borders as you mentioned.

  9. I have a feeling I would need a box of tissues. Would definitely be interested in watching this movie though.

  10. Wow this movie looks so intriguing! I love watching about different countries and learning new things. Id love to watch it!!

  12. Thank you for sharing. Looks like a very interesting movie. Would love to see more of China than what we saw when we were there for our adoption. By the way you have a beautiful family. :-)

  16. Such a hard thing to learn about, this second group of “orphans.” Though their parents are alive, in order to take care of them, they must leave them. What a choice!

  17. Wow! This sounds like a very interesting story! Both of my children were born in China (my son from Sichuan). We love to learn as much as possible about all aspects of China.
    Thanks,
    Violet

  18. This is a great opportunity to learn more about China’s people and culture. I hadn’t heard about this one before.

    It reminds me a little of the Orphan Trains of early America – many, many of them weren’t really orphans. Rather, they were left behind by parents looking for opportunity or sent off by parents who wished for a better life for their children. I know there was a documentary that went around recently about that, too. Anyone remember it? I’d love to get my hands on that one too. You can pm me if you know the one I’m thinking of…..

    Thanks for the chance to win this one….

  21. Thank you so much for sharing this story! God has recently laid on my husbands heart to leap forward in adoption from China so our hearts are in this country as were are in the process of adopting a little girl from China…I would love to have you as a guest on my blog sometime…I’m still VERY new to all this-but I really want to advocate for adoption so much more!

  23. Thanks for the movie review. It sounds like a movie we would like to see. I have been reading “Factory Girls” which highlights the difficult lifestyle of the migrant factory workers in China. My three daughters born in China are teenagers now which makes documentaries like this relevant to a broader understanding of their home country.

  24. With 4 from China and we try and expose our kids to their history and past, I would love to see this film and others like it. We have a few, but it is always important to see the other perspectives out there. My one daughter struggles with her adandoment and these types of films help her connect.

    Thank you for your on-going dedication to the adoption community :-)

  26. For both our adoptions we were in China for major holidays, Lunar New Year in 2005 (last group to the Consulate)and Autumn Moon in 2007. We saw the mile long lines to buy train tickets, and everyone we talked to was preparing for the holidays. Overheard cell conversation on our train to Hong Kong, “So I go all the way home and all there is to do is go out and get drunk with my cousins and eat too much.” In English, my Mandarin is not that good.

  28. ooooo me! Pick me!! Been dying to see this!! Wait….am I supposed to sound more dignified when begging to win? Ahem. Ok. Here goes. Dearest friend, at your earliest convenience kindly if you would, select me for this most precious and lovely prize. All my thanks, Sonia.

  33. Thanks for sharing this. I have friends with kids from China, and my daughter is from Vietnam. I would love to share this video!

  34. WOW! I havent heard of this movei but, now I really want to see it. Thank you for bringing it to my attention.

  39. I’ve traveled through Ghangzhou with work in the past and it really is heartbreaking. I would love to see this movie. Thanks!

  40. Would love to win this! We are adopting from china in the summer and are trying to learn as much as we can about the culture :)

  41. Would LOVE to see it! Never even heard of it and am a bit embarrassed to say that. I try to saok in as much as I can about their homelands.
    nancy

  42. I have never heard of this and would love to see it. It sounds very interesting!

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