As China's wave of reform and opening up began, there was an old village chief so poor that he dreamed of making the whole village prosperous. A daring woman opened a toy factory in the village government building. A man went from being a relief recipient to a general manager. Another man bravely shouldered heavy responsibilities and planned for the future. A migrant worker grew up to become a school principal. A county technology chief dared to resign and go into business with a mysterious electronics project. Investors from across China and around the world offered their support.
The story vividly depicts how the village Party secretary and old village chief, director Sun Lixin, women's affairs director Mai Miaojun, militia battalion commander Sun Dahai, and manager Mai Jiuji all did everything they could to raise funds and find investors. They boldly cleared out the Sun family ancestral hall, which housed the village committee, and set up the first toy factory. It later grew into the largest factory in Asia.
Against a particular historical backdrop, the story depicts the pain and joy people experienced, the difficult circumstances individuals faced, and the positive turns their lives took. It also explores how people's worldviews developed and how they felt amid a rapidly changing environment. The work's realism and human warmth are brought to the fore, establishing its artistic commitment to everyday life.
With a keen eye, the story focuses on the transitional nature of our era, in which everything is in flux, out of order, and undergoing a process of re-evaluation. It portrays the times in a complex atmosphere that is both solemn and comic, full of worry and helplessness, self-mockery and irony, offering us a vivid and authentic picture of society.
They were ordinary people, yet they struggled with extraordinary determination in a small village in Dongguan, at the heart of Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao. Through three or four decades of hard work amid the great wave of reform and opening up, they witnessed the remarkable transformation of their rural home into a megacity of more than ten million people, known worldwide for Chinese manufacturing.
