Besieged City Diary

Ten-year-old Han Xuemei lives in a lively Beijing courtyard house. Her school diary assignments become a window onto the world. This year, with a child's innocent yet perceptive voice, she records everything she sees and hears over 365 days.

The courtyard of gray bricks is home to all kinds of married couples: her stern eldest uncle and his rule-abiding wife; her second uncle and his wife, who scrimp and argue constantly to make ends meet; her youngest aunt's family, who pursue refinement but can't hide their exhaustion; the plainspoken, nagging Grandpa Sun and his wife; and her own gentle parents. New Year's visits, relatives coming and going, worries about school, everyday life among the neighbors... The “besieged fortress of marriage” the adults talk about takes shape in Xuemei's eyes as the silence in her eldest uncle's home, the clacking of the abacus in her second uncle's, the cold coffee in her youngest aunt's, and sighs and smiles scattered through countless fragments of daily life.

In her innocence, she records the arguments, compromises, tenderness, and helplessness. As the seasons turn and relationships shift in the courtyard, she begins to touch, without fully understanding, the complicated flavors of “home” and “love.” Her 365 diary entries are like 365 puzzle pieces, assembling a vivid portrait of the many faces of marriage in everyday life. Seen through an innocent child's eyes, they reveal life's truest mix of sweetness and bitterness.