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The Greatest Documentary you've Never Heard Of
Tie Xi Qu. In 1999, filmmaker Wang Bing used a camcorder and walked into a dying factory district in northeast China and spent two years filming what he found. The result was Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks - nine hours long, no narration, no score, no interviews. This is one of the most important documentaries ever made, and almost no one has heard of it.
This is a fourteen minute explanation and overview by Youtube Ken D.
Tie Xi Qu is banned in China. It has never been shown on Chinese television. Wang Bing's entire filmography is erased from Chinese internet as of today.
posted by Sebmojo on Apr 17, 2026 at 4:06 AM
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It's fascinating that while globalism was destroying the manufacturing industry in the US, it was simultaneously destroying the extant manufacturing industry in China (set up along socialist lines) in favor of setting up a new Chinese system with fewer benefits to workers.
It's almost as if the working class needs to come together across national borders and struggle against the ownership class that is exploiting them.
posted by rikschell at 4:41 AM
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best of the web
posted by Reasonably Everything Happens at 4:41 AM
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I watched the 13 minute summary of the film, which is a lot for me. It seems incredible. Thanks for this!
posted by caviar2d2 at 4:42 AM
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I'll watch it..
谢谢。
posted by growabrain at 4:49 AM
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best of the web
posted by Reasonably Everything Happens at 7:41 AM on April 17
Yes! Now I want to watch his other films, especially The Ditch.
posted by NoMich at 5:25 AM
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This looks amazing. One of the things that interests me about documentaries about change is the choice of where to begin, and when to end. Earlier this week I got to see a documentary about the rezoning and demolition of chunks of my neighborhood that I would best describe as "hyperlocal Koyaanisquatsi interspersed with community board meetings". The documentarians thought they would capture the process until they reached a satisfying stopping point. They never did. They spent ten years filming, and decided to finish the process out of sheer exhaustion. I'm wondering how Wang Bing chose the two-year window, and if it was an artistic choice, or a practical one.
posted by phooky at 7:06 AM
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(also, if you also saw "9 hour documentary" and immediately thought of Shoah, Wang Bing talks about Lanzmann in this interview, but apparently did not see Shoah until well after he'd made Tie Xi Qu.)
posted by phooky at 7:19 AM
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Up the Yangtze, 2007 is a similar doc focused on the people affected by the building of the Three Gorges Dam.
posted by Lanark at 7:34 AM
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What a great format for a documentary, and what great historical documents. Cursing the fact that I am too old and responsible to walk off my job and start making one of these about Seattle, especially focusing on the lives of the unhoused.
posted by Smedly, Butlerian jihadi at 8:16 AM
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Wow true to the post title I have never heard of this and it looks amazing, absolutely right up my alley. Will be watching for sure. Thanks.
posted by zoinks at 10:20 AM
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Wow, thanks to the OP, but also to you, growabrain, for a link to the 9-hour documentary.
posted by rmmcclay at 9:13 PM
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"...a new Chinese system with fewer benefits to workers."
Right? We can't just walk around naked in the break room anymore. What's with that?
posted by symbioid at 2:45 PM
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