Documenting a giant of literature

During production, which took nearly six years, Wang and his team interviewed 30 scholars and researchers in cities in China, Russia, Japan and France. Over the course of these travels, which totaled 42,000 kilometers, they consulted historical archives and read extensively, while also shooting 23 terabytes of video footage.

The documentary includes some lesser-known stories about the writer. For example, there is the story about Ba Jin leaving Paris for the nearby town of Chateau-Thierry to study French at a middle school and seek respite from his recurrent tuberculosis in cleaner surroundings. The story is recounted to the film crew by a retired teacher called Tony Legendre, who showed them a letter and several photographs from Ba Jin.

Other examples include Ba Jin's two journeys to the front lines of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea (1950-53), the conflict known outside of China as the Korean War, where he collected material for his novel Tuan Yuan (Reunion), which was published in 1961 and inspired the 1964 national hit film Heroic Sons and Daughters.

"Ba Jin's life is like an epic. Through the documentary, we want more people to explore his world, grasp the essence of his work, and discover the enlightenment and vibrancy of life in his thoughts," Wang says.

Wang Yichuan, vice-chairman of the China Literature and Art Critics Association, says that the documentary not only explores Ba Jin's most famous novels but also sheds light on later work, like Sui Xiang Lu (Random Thoughts), which was written between 1978 and 1986, and offers reflections on the era as well as the author.