1935, Miao Village in Western Hunan. The leader's third child, Depa, was raised as a girl due to his fate to die young. She combed her Miao hair into a bun, wore a silver hairpin and a silver bell, and her folk songs spread throughout the country. Those were the cleanest days for her, as clean as the pool of water under the waterfall.
Until the King of Xiangxi announced that he was looking for a Miao village girl who could sing folk songs.
The village elder sent her out of the mountain overnight. Grandma made a basket full of rice balls, and sister inserted the silver hairpin from her wedding into her bun and said six words: "Remember your name." From that day on, Depa cut off her long hair and put on men's clothing. There are pursuers on the river, there are gunshots on the bank, the team in gray clothes is on a long march outside the mountain, and the team in yellow clothes are chasing. She didn't know these big words, she only knew that "those people" came and "those people" left. She mingled with the fleeing people and rode a cargo ship down the river...
This is a story about names. A child loses one name and finds another. The green mountains of western Hunan are getting farther and farther behind her, and the moon of Dongting Lake spreads out into a silvery white in front of her. The silver bell on her ankle was still ringing, ding, ding, ding, like an unfinished folk song.
The mountains and rivers are broken, but the songs are immortal.
The idea: to hide names in troubled times, and to preserve songs in mountains and rivers.
