Soma in June

Five years in the Liangshan Mountains, one heart lighting the way. Yajin, born on a stormy night in northeastern Yunnan, set out for the Great Liangshan Mountains, carrying the poetry and learning passed down by her grandfather and the ancient wisdom of the hearth. Among the red earth and somi flowers, she began a chapter of teaching in which she gave her heart to win the hearts of others.

Here, education unfolds in all its everyday reality: trekking winding mountain paths on home visits, all to bring a child back from dropping out; grading assignments in a leaky dormitory on freezing nights, patiently easing students' rebelliousness; building bridges with Yi and Chinese, bringing ancient epics together with modern textbooks. Behind the names of more than fifty Yi children are attentive eyes in the classroom, warm companionship by the hearth, and the simple affection of cured pork.

Yajin witnessed the confusion of cultural collisions and encountered the helplessness of harsh realities, but also received the purest kind of moving kindness: wild fruit secretly left on the teacher's desk by a student. There were no earthshaking acts of heroism, only day-after-day perseverance, allowing the faint light of education to spread slowly through the mountains.

This is a true account of putting down roots and passing on traditions. It bears witness to the power of one soul awakening another, and tells a moving story of civilizations coexisting and the torch being passed down across the red earth.