Northern Mushrooms, Southern Fragrance: A Military Wife's Story in the 1980S

A bygone era + an army wife + building a fortune + the ups and downs of family life Who says a woman can only support her husband and raise children? She’s determined to let her husband focus on leading the troops while she builds a prosperous household. In 1984, Su Xiu, an army wife in Northeast China, moves south with her three-year-old son to join her husband, Zhou Zhihang. In an unfamiliar military family compound in the south, a pot of mushroom soup made while he recovers from an injury unexpectedly opens the door to entrepreneurship. Wang Mingyue, an army wife from Guangdong who speaks in a soft Cantonese lilt, helps her expand her customer base. Meanwhile, Lin Tao, a bold and fiery army wife from Sichuan, marches into the back courtyard carrying a chopping board covered in chopped chilies. “Sister Xiu, this sauce needs a handful of erjingtiao chilies to give it some kick!” The three women, each speaking in a different regional accent, cook up lives of their own in the spring breeze of reform and opening up.