Li works as a maternity nanny in Beijing. After being diagnosed with a serious illness, she begins to write. Under the weight of social stigma and financial pressure, her writing becomes a way to document life, to resist, and to affirm her own existence.
How do we view "workers" and "literature"?
For a long time, these two words seemed to belong to separate worlds. Labor is heavy and concrete, while literature has often been seen as something for those with time, education, and space to reflect.
When I first read Li’s writing, I was struck by her sharp understanding of human nature and moved by her insight into life. It was the way she looked closely at what it means to live.
She wrote during short breaks between jobs, writing about feeling powerless, about prejudice and misunderstanding, and also about the strength that words can carry. She once said, “Writing is how we make our voices heard.”
Through this film, I hope to turn the camera toward the workers moving through the city, to listen to their voices, to see their lives, and to recognize that their words are not just footnotes, but part of the main story of our time. Li’s path is also the path of many workers. Her writing is a response, an action, and a witness.
Minqi Lin
Master’s student in Film Directing at the University of Edinburgh. Focuses on documentaries that explore social issues, family life, and personal stories. Previously directed Her Choice, a documentary about full-time mothers raising children in Shenzhen.
