Ethnic film screenings launched in Beijing

An event showcasing the diverse cultures of China's ethnic groups was launched at the Beijing Film Academy on Saturday with the screening of Wan Tongshu, a heartfelt biopic about the titular ethnomusicologist who devoted his life to preserving and promoting Xinjiang Uygur Muqam, a traditional art form.

The event, the Ethnic Film Exhibition Season, was held on the same day as the 12th Ethnic Culture Festival, which kicked off at Beijing Foreign Studies University, where the 135-minute biopic was also screened as part of the festival.

A total of eight films have been scheduled to be showcased during the exhibition. Other titles include Chaogtu with Sarula, which follows the life of an ethnic Mongolian couple on the grasslands; The Botanist, about a Kazakh boy's fascination with plants; and In Search of Lost Time, adapted from the true story of 3,000 orphans who were relocated to the Inner Mongolia autonomous region and adopted by local families.

Based on real events, Wan Tongshu follows the protagonist Wan and his wife, Lian Xiaomei, who traveled to the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region in the early 1950s to rescue the Twelve Muqam — one of the major schools of Uygur Muqam — which was on the verge of being lost. During that time, only folk artist Turdi Ahun, who was in his 70s, could perform the complete set, consisting of around 300 melodies and 4,000 lines.