Short Take: Suburban Birds

In Qiu Sheng’s tale of urbanization in western China, governmental mechanisms behave like cosmic forces of nature. While a group of surveyors investigates complaints of sinkholes around a new suburb—most likely linked to the haphazard ongoing construction of a subway tunnel—Xiahao, the most contemplative of the engineers, happens upon a diary in an abandoned school. As he reads, he immerses himself in the tenderly quotidian rhythms of a group of schoolchildren—anchored by a charismatic little boy also named Xiahao—moving through a world that still feels new, exploring seemingly limitless local forests (also the audience’s first lush experience outside of concrete). Gradually, a handful of these friends disappear, displaced by housing reassignments; as rendered by Xiahao’s young memory, these are sudden and inexplicable vanishings.