Liu Sanjie is a story that originates from the Zhuang minority people; the largest of the minority groups in China. It’s based on the legend of a woman called Liu Sanjie (literally meaning “third sister of Liu family”). Across generations, the story has become an oral tradition amongst these people and similar characters have even been found to exist in other minority cultures. According to legend, Liu Sanjie had the gift of a beautiful singing voice from a very early age. So beautiful was her voice, she could quell anger and raise the spirits of the people around her. The story became famous around China when the movie Liu Sanjie was released in 1960 – a rare musical production in Chinese cinema.

A Peng meets a girl named Jinhua at a festival and they agree to meet the next year but she fails to turn up. He searches for her and finds other girls named Jinhua.

The film tells the story about the daughter of a Nationalist general who revisits the famous summer resort Lushan Mountain in Jiangxi province in 1980 and falls in love with the son of a senior general of the Chinese Communist Party.

1980 film by Xie Jin

It is the late 1920s when six-year-old Yingzi and her family move to Beijing. As Yingzi explores the busy streets and alleys, she befriends a widow who, driven mad by grief, stands vigil at the entrance of her hutong, waiting for her missing daughter to return.