Director: Huang Weipeng

Synopsis

I began studying in another province in 2010. Through my undergraduate and master's studies and work, I spent nearly 10 years away from home, and in 2021 I returned to work somewhere closer to home. In those nearly 10 years I spent almost only the Spring Festival at home. Over those 10 years I went from 19 to 30, and my hometown changed enormously: most of the old wooden houses were replaced with rough brick houses; most of the older people have died; the farmland and mountain forests have been abandoned; most of the paths have disappeared; fewer and fewer family members spend the New Year in the village, and the festive atmosphere has faded, leaving mostly elderly people living alone and left-behind children. The friends I often played with as a child are strangers now when we meet again. The countryside has abandoned my generation, my childhood impression of home is gone for good, and my hometown has become a foreign place. The times have made us outsiders to our hometown: still connected, yet like strangers. Against this background, the film recalls my childhood memories and stories of attachment to the land, through real records and sincere recollection, expressing a deep love and longing for home.