What life holds

Located on the border of China-Myanmar, “Lengshuigou” is the "place of women origin" in the Ta'ang ethnic language on the cross-border. In 2017, Xiao Xin, an 18-year-old Burmese girl, married Cao Zhiqiang, who was teens older than her, for several hundred yuan of betrothal gifts. The camera follows her four years of life. Sudden birth of a child, husband betrayal, identity dilemma, laundry and cooking, harvesting and planting, again pregnant — wrapped up her daily life like a silkworm weaving a silk cocoon. Where should the unidentified Burmese brides and their children in the village go in the outbreak of epidemic? With the change of fate, the film also opens out a discussion of how a group of displaced girls make their home and how they can be normal women. The director alone undertook the shooting and editing of the film, quietly watching the disappearance of tradition and the modern changes of Ta'ang village in the four years. The faint flames of so-called nationality and nature intertwine the visible and invisible arcs of life on the border in a very complicated way.