After 1989, the military training of college freshmen extended to nationwide universities.In 2017, the last batch of post-90s college students and the first group of post-00 college students entered the university campus together. The film records the management and operation of military training at a key university in southern China in the summer of 2017, based on direct cinema.
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There are many local Mani associations that are mainly composed of the elders in Tibetan rural areas. It’s a very important daily routine for them to recite Mani scripture (om mani ped me hom). The Tibetan people believe in the life cycle and that evil deeds will cause suffering. They have to do good things and recite the Mani all the time to relieve their sins and prepare for better next life.
The Mani association in La-Tzu is quite large and very well known. Besides reciting Mani, the elders improve the village in many ways such as raising food and money, taking care of children and constructing the ritual hall. Their outstanding contribution is to rebuild the temple that was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution in China.
In November 1993, Tian Feng, a first class composer from the Beijing Symphony Orchestra, arrived in Yunnan, and opened the Yunnan Minority Nationalities Institute of Traditional Culture.
Tian Feng proposed the prinicple of “seek authenticity and prohibit adaptations”. He wishes to start from this concept to save the music and dance culture with “classical
characteristics” (his words) from the destructive forces of recent economic trends.
The Institute has always been financially strapped. As the difficulties and financial problems mounted,the institute staff have gradually deserted the Institute. In May
of 2000, the Yunnan Minority Nationality Institute of Culture was disbanded.
This documentary film is a story of ups and downs, devotions and frustrations, tears and laughters, and tells the contradictions between ideal and reality, individual and society.
In deep Hengduan Mountain Range, western Yunnan of China, there hides a special village which is not known by people outside. All the villagers inhabited here are children between 6 and 14. They live in the village all year round to complete their six-year study in a primary school.
It’s a place called “Tian Deng” in the middle of Hengduan Mountain. Because of the high mountains, deep valleys and rugged mountainous roads, and there only stands this school in the 160 square meter area, children at the school from Bai and Lisu ethnic minorities can not go to school and back home everyday. Therefore, the parents construct small wooden rooms for their children in front of the school so that the children can stay and cook.
The film depicts a truly touching story and honestly records the eager and desire of knowledge of the mountain people in remote areas in China.
A long, long time ago, the ancestors of the Hani (Akkha) and other people lived together in the same valley. Much later, as the population grew, they fought over land,
and the Hani fled to another valley far away. After hundreds of years, war plagued the new valley, and some people fled to where a valley meets the mountains to live by farming. They built terrace after terrace on the hills and a Hani village emerged in the new valley. Although after this terrace is built, more rice can be grown, this will not solve the problem of lack of grain. The terraces already go all the way to the top of the hills. There’s simple no land left to build more, and people have to work outside. Ahlu and his brothers work outside the village, and they are searching their dreams of a better life. Due to the lack of knowledge and skills, as most minorities do, they can hardly face the challenges and hardships in such a sophisticated society.