Among the Guava Trees - Preview

A moving documentary from filmmaker Li Youjie tells the story of Li Xinglian, a man who married Youjie’s grandmother’s best friend in a childhood arranged marriage. At a very young age, Xinglian was conscripted by the National Army and forced to leave his hometown.
Xinglian was born to a foundryman in the 14th year of the Republic of China, in Yaoan county in the province of Yunnan. During his time in the army, he took part in the Second Sino-Japanese War as well as the Chinese Civil War. Xinglian eventually ended up in Taiwan, where he decided not to remarry and lived out the rest of his life alone before passing away in 2017. Since leaving home at a young age, Xinglian was only able to return and visit family for the first time more than half a century later, an aged man yearning for his wife who had long since passed.
Nearly all of “Among the Guava Trees” was filmed in Xinglian’s residence in Taiwan. There, he recounted stories from his life on the road with the army and memories from his hometown, the two most important parts of his entire life. He paints a vivid picture of the trials and tribulations he faced as an individual living in a tumultuous era that changed ever so drastically, no one able to predict what was coming next or how it would change their lives.