Yellow River - School

Duration: 22 mins 18 secs

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Description:	A FAMILY BY YELLOW RIVER (OUTLINE) Written by CCTV Re-written in English by Kenong Guan This filmed record of a small village community, namely Lijiashan (Li's Mountains) of Qikou, Shanxi Province, might serve as an illustration for a profoundly changing rural China. A town in the valley of the Yellow River, Qikou lies culturally in the heartland of the vast yellowish land. It used to be the hinge of transportation and still boasts a legacy of architecture created hundred years ago in the Ming or Qing dynasties. You naturally sense a perplexity of time, particularly on market days when you walk up and down the town in the fusion of the ancient style of the weatherbeaten buildings with a modern variety of commodities hawked by peddlers. While this is the general surroundings, Lijiashan itself is a rather remote village to reach. The path up to the mountains feels cliffy as all the slopes are more than 30 degrees steep. In the snow or in the rain, even jeeps cannot manage it. Down below this abruptness flows the Yellow River quietly. And such is the place to which we have devoted our concern for five continuous years until this year 2005. Our heroes, Li Quansheng and his family, cannot be described as so rich when compared to the rest of the village. They own seven mu (a mu is one fifteenth of a hectare) of jujube trees, which is an area expanded on a basis of one mu last year. The labour is tough with a typical droughty climate of Loess Plateau. Shouldering a pole with two buckets at either end, the family have to struggle their way about half an hour before they can carry water home. The Li's family consists of five. The eldest son, Li Yansheng, failed to do well at school and has now been away working as a peasant-labourer in the city. He wishes to settle down in the city and to quit the status of a peasant. The second son, Li Hailong, goes to senior high school in the county seat. A good student, he looks forward to going to college and thus obtaining an occupation in the city. The youngest child is a daughter named Li Xiaoxia. She is now only at junior high school, but her parents have schemed her future - managing to find Mr Right and have a good marriage at nineteen of age. The idea of living the whole life in the country, like the previous generations, and depending all on the land is increasingly abhorrent to young people of the village. Therefore more and more youngster are starting off to seek their fortune elsewhere. In this generally backward place, people's ideas and life styles are gradually straying from old manners.

Description:

A FAMILY BY YELLOW RIVER
(OUTLINE)

Written by CCTV
Re-written in English by Kenong Guan

This filmed record of a small village community, namely Lijiashan (Li's Mountains) of Qikou, Shanxi Province, might serve as an illustration for a profoundly changing rural China. A town in the valley of the Yellow River, Qikou lies culturally in the heartland of the vast yellowish land. It used to be the hinge of transportation and still boasts a legacy of architecture created hundred years ago in the Ming or Qing dynasties. You naturally sense a perplexity of time, particularly on market days when you walk up and down the town in the fusion of the ancient style of the weatherbeaten buildings with a modern variety of commodities hawked by peddlers.

While this is the general surroundings, Lijiashan itself is a rather remote village to reach. The path up to the mountains feels cliffy as all the slopes are more than 30 degrees steep. In the snow or in the rain, even jeeps cannot manage it. Down below this abruptness flows the Yellow River quietly. And such is the place to which we have devoted our concern for five continuous years until this year 2005.

Our heroes, Li Quansheng and his family, cannot be described as so rich when compared to the rest of the village. They own seven mu (a mu is one fifteenth of a hectare) of jujube trees, which is an area expanded on a basis of one mu last year. The labour is tough with a typical droughty climate of Loess Plateau. Shouldering a pole with two buckets at either end, the family have to struggle their way about half an hour before they can carry water home.

The Li's family consists of five. The eldest son, Li Yansheng, failed to do well at school and has now been away working as a peasant-labourer in the city. He wishes to settle down in the city and to quit the status of a peasant. The second son, Li Hailong, goes to senior high school in the county seat. A good student, he looks forward to going to college and thus obtaining an occupation in the city. The youngest child is a daughter named Li Xiaoxia. She is now only at junior high school, but her parents have schemed her future - managing to find Mr Right and have a good marriage at nineteen of age.

The idea of living the whole life in the country, like the previous generations, and depending all on the land is increasingly abhorrent to young people of the village. Therefore more and more youngster are starting off to seek their fortune elsewhere. In this generally backward place, people's ideas and life styles are gradually straying from old manners.


Created:	2018-03-20 16:32
Collection:	Chinese Documentary Films
Publisher:	University of Cambridge
Copyright:	Prof Alan Macfarlane
Language:	eng (English)

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