Synopsis
On China's Jianghan Plain, the levees can restrain water but cannot keep political upheaval outside village life. Nine connected stories follow farmers, fishermen, women, children, and outsiders from the 1950s to the 1970s.
Collectivization, famine, persecution, and the Cultural Revolution reach into homes, relationships, and daily work. With dark humour and close attention to ordinary experience, Zhaochuan Zhao builds a panoramic portrait of a community struggling to preserve dignity under extraordinary pressure.