What can move you

Author: Shanghai Media Group Television News Center Commentary Department, True Stories Column
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-10-01
Features: Pursuing Genuine Emotions
Meng Lipeng, original director of True Stories, first met Lao Ke in winter. In a small mountain village in Hebei, everything was covered in snow. Lao Ke, dressed in a thick cotton coat and with a weathered face, was waiting for us at the village entrance. Following him was a boy of about ten years old, wearing a brand-new down jacket, constantly sizing us up. But his eyes were completely different from Lao Ke’s—they were blue. The little guy extended his hand to take the tripod from us, and I knew then, he was Ke Xingliang, the mixed-race son of the farmer Lao Ke.
Lao Ke’s wife, Liu Xueying, said, “Look at this child. His nose bridge is so high, his nose tip is so pointed. His eyes are like this—they’re recessed inwards. His eyeballs are yellow, his eyebrows are yellow, and even his eyelashes are yellow.”
Sitting on the warm kang (traditional heating bed) in Lao Ke’s home, we talked about the boy’s background and the hardships the entire family had endured for him. During the several hours of conversation, Ke Xingliang sat quietly by the stove. Lao Ke’s gaze kept drifting to his son’s face, filled with nothing but smiles. Outside the window, the smoke from someone’s kitchen had already begun to rise, much like the emotion stirring in my heart.
During a break in the interview, I went to the small shop at the village entrance and bought a pair of shoes for Lao Ke. Ke Xingliang obediently took my hand, while holding a bag of food I had bought for him in the other. The bag was quite heavy, and as he swung it, the shadows it cast danced across the snow-covered ground.