Heroes of the big screen

Hospitality abounds

"Besides the greatly improved road conditions, over the years, I've witnessed significant improvement in the living conditions of the villagers, thanks to national policies, such as targeted poverty alleviation," Xiong says.

She travels among different villages, staying overnight at the villagers' houses, and only has time to go home once a month.

In the past, villagers lived in dilapidated cottages and it was not convenient to take a shower. Nowadays, they have new houses, equipped with solar water heaters and other modern household appliances.

"They're always hospitable. Even when they were poor, they always invited me to stay in their houses and gave me the best local specialties they had," Xiong recalls.

Hu Qin, 37, who joined the female projectionist team in 2013, agrees.

In 2019, when Hu was pregnant for over three months, she stayed at the home of the village head while she was in charge of showing movies there.

When the village head's wife accidentally found out about Hu's pregnancy, she started to make different dishes made with eggs laid by the family's hens, which are believed to provide good nutrition for pregnant women. She also helped Hu with showing the movies and gave Hu a box of milk and some cakes when Hu left the village.

In order to continue the screening work, Hu would bring nutritional supplements with her every time she went to the countryside. She continued right up until two months before she gave birth to her son, at which point she finally handed over her screening duties to another projectionist.