The divide between country people and city people in the film is actually quite stark, as Guei discovers. City people seem to operate and exist solely to pursue wealth and money and, in fact, equate their own happiness with the amount of money they have and the assets they own. In his transformation, Guei must give up his country identity to fully assimilate into the city. An identity crisis ensues from which one can extrapolate that the whole of China is suffering: a supposedly communist society that practices capitalism and sticks advertisements on every available space that the eyes can look at while a simple boy walks his streets absolutely full of people who care more about money than money. morality. During this period, modernization is a rather strange process in Beijing. A lot of emphasis is placed on smoking cigarettes to look cool and fit. Even the poorest of the poor have access to toothpaste and insist on brushing their teeth incessantly, almost as if doing so elevates their social status and makes them appear urban and "civilized." Guei assimilates into city life, undergoes a process of transformation by learning to deal with revolving doors and cigarette smoking, and a rather apt distinction is embodied in the characteristics of the city's poor versus the city's rich. The movie