Director: Wang Haoran | Li Chao

Synopsis

After finishing middle school, Wang Juan worked at a cloth shoe factory in her hometown of Maguan County, Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province. Influenced by her mother, a primary school teacher, she quit her job, retook the high school entrance exam and was admitted to a teacher training school. After graduating in 1989, she taught at Maguan No. 1 Primary School. Not content with teaching in the county town, she went to teach in a village on the China-Vietnam border, where she opened a door to the outside world for the Miao children. After a medical checkup found that she had cancer, Wang Juan had to leave her post early and enter another stage of life, starting a new life unlike before. Her days had once belonged to others; from now on her time is her own. After retiring, she bids a formal farewell to the classroom.