In 1980, Xu Jingshan, a wealthy Chinese-American businessman returns to China to find his son, Xu Lingjun, whom he had abandoned over 30 years earlier. Labeled a rightist because of his capitalist father, Lingjun has been forced to live as a humble herdsman on the grasslands. His bitter life has been transformed by a happy marriage to the wise and beautiful Xiuzhi, and more recently by his rehabilitation by the Party. When he goes to Beijing for their reunion, he discovers his father wants him to work for his chemical company in San Francisco. Lingjun tells the story of his life to his father, as he ponders his future.
In 1945, Japan is defeated in its war of aggression against China. During a panic retreat, a baby boy is abandoned, but is adopted and grows up to become and eminent monk. Thirty years later, he visits China and meets his real mother who is now elderly and weak.
This simple romance story does not mean much to westerners, and in fact, does not even mean anything to Chinese today, but it was a big thing when it was made, not long after the end of Cultural Revolution in which even the personal romance was restricted. This movie is one of the pioneers of personal liberalization in advocating people seeking out their love following their own hearts, not from other people.
In the early period of China's War of Liberation the Yan'an Nursey which housed the children of the revolutionary fighters had to be evacuated. Li Nan, an army instructor, guides the group of children to the liberated area in the Taihang Mountains and their parents. Made to mark International Children's Year.
