I Am Zhang Jianjun paints a vivid portrait of the hard life of a young man from the countryside of Henan between 2003 and 2023.
In middle school, the protagonist struggles between muddy roads to school and grueling farmwork. Unsure of what the future holds, he endures the awkwardness of his classroom years and the burden of worrying about tuition, growing up with difficulty between the fields and his desk.
After graduating from vocational or high school, he is persuaded by a fellow villager to head south in search of better prospects. Instead, he falls into the traps of employment agencies and endures backbreaking labor in illegal workshops. He gets his first taste of life's harshness, drifting between the monotony of assembly-line work and setbacks in sales.
From 2010 to 2015, he loses his way amid the daily oppression. After falling for a pyramid scheme, he goes astray and gets involved in telecom fraud, ultimately facing legal punishment and hitting rock bottom.
After serving his sentence, the protagonist struggles to atone and be reborn. He hits one dead end after another in his job search and can only find manual labor. Amid hardship, he falls in love with a factory worker named Xiaomei and starts a family. With the arrival of their child and the support of his loved ones, he finds hope in life again.
From 2020 to 2023, their ordinary days are troubled by factory shutdowns during the pandemic and the pressure of school fees. Still, he holds down a steady factory job and earns recognition through his diligence, while his home is filled with warmth. In the end, he joins the tide of migrant workers, weary yet at peace. His story shows the resilience of ordinary people as they press on through the currents of their times, conveying the profound theme that ordinary life is its own answer, and resilience is strength.
