Full coverage: ‘看中國’外國青年影像計劃專題

By CCTV.com Panview

Editor's foreword: "Looking China" International Youth Film Project is co-organized by the Academy for International Communication of Chinese Culture (AICCC), Beijing Normal University and Huilin Foundation. The program focuses on the young participants’ personal experiences of Chinese culture and encourages them to discover and tell Chinese stories from their own perspectives.

As of the year 2017, students from all over the world were invited to participate in the project. They were stationed in 12 municipality, provinces and autonomous regions here in China. Every filmmaker has worked out a 10-minute short film about Chinese culture around the topic of "Craftsmanship·Inheritance·Innovation.”

The short movie "Set in Stone," directed by Dhruv Satija and produced by Wu Yi, brings us to the life of a Hui'an artist, Mrs. Jiang, who grew up in a family of stone carvers. For her, stone carving is not just a job, but also an old skill to inherit. She would like to make more people aware of this art in the age of the Internet.

The scarves with flora prints Jiang and her daughter wear in the movie are attention-catching. Jiang is a Hui'an woman. Hui’an is located in Fujian, southern China. Hui'an women have a very distinct costume. Typically they wear short cyan jackets and skin-tight black hiphuggers, which flare out at legs, they cover their heads with colorful scarves and conical hats. The costumes have been the focus of anthropologists. 

Costume of Hui'an women

Apart from colorful costumes, Hui’an woman are also known for being hardworking, and Mrs. Jiang is a representative of such ideals. She does artwork, runs a shop and takes care of her family. Stone is hard and rough, women who do the stone carving are gentle and precise. She thinks the harmony not just results in a beautiful craft, but also a deep relationship between the woman and stone.

For many sincere artists, the artwork they produce are just like their own babies. Mrs. Jiang carved the image of her daughter on a stone. Her wish for the future of Hui'an stone carving is same as the hope for her child, to grow strong and live long. It's a beautiful and heart-warming movie that everybody can enjoy.

(The opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Panview or CCTV.com. )

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