San jie cao

Born in Chengdu, Xiao left her family when she was very young to follow her husband, who was the head of Duosha village situated on lake Lugu in a scenic mountainous region in north-west China. After a two-month journey, she arrived to discover the way of life among the Moso people. Theirs is a matriarchal society where women are given entire responsibility for the children and the ‘visitor husbands’ are given great extra-marital sexual freedom. Having grown accustomed to this situation, she then lived through all the political upheavals of the 1949 Chinese Revolution, with which her husband fell in line. In 1996, the old lady visits Chengdu for the first time in 53 years. Marvelling at the changes that have taken place, she gets it into her head to send her 18-year-old granddaughter to the town to work and even manages to find her a job.