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The layoffs of the 1990s
In the 1990s, as China reformed its state-owned enterprises, millions of workers were 下岗, laid off from state factories. Shanghai's textile industry, once one of the city's largest employers, was cut back sharply, and many of those affected were women in their thirties and forties. The city set up re-employment service centers and training programs, and many laid-off workers found new work in services, small businesses or offices; others struggled for years. Assessments differ: some emphasize the hardship and the loss of security, others the necessity of reform and the opportunities that followed, and many families' experience contains both. 周丽's account — sleepless nights, a training course, a bookkeeping job, and friendships that outlasted the mill — is one family's version. The film presents it alongside her former workmates' different paths.