On a winter night in 1976, Nanhuai Village, Shandong Province. Before he died, Lin Shoutian asked his grandson to dig three shovels under the old locust tree, but he suddenly stopped, leaving only a disturbing last word: "Don't go north in the future."
For the next thirty years, the Lin family kept moving north. Some people leave the land with an admission notice, some rely on their household registration to enter the county, some get rich in Jinan's construction sites and business world, and some gain knowledge, identity and dignity in Beijing. They have transformed from farmers into workers, cadres, businessmen and intellectuals, thinking that as long as they go further, they can completely change their destiny.
However, wealth brings betrayal, identity creates barriers, and success makes relatives strangers to each other. Until 2006, when my hometown was about to disappear, the old locust tree was dug down by its roots, and an iron box that had been buried for thirty years was finally revealed. Photos, land deeds, old letters and a pack of lifeless wheat seeds revealed secrets that no one in the Lin family dared to tell.
This is a family epic about four generations of Chinese people, and it is also a pursuit that lasts for thirty years: When a family finally gets everything their ancestors dreamed of, do they change their destiny, or do they lose their way home?
Purpose: The work depicts the northward migration of four generations of a Shandong family to describe ordinary people's pursuit of survival, identity, wealth and freedom in the changing times. It tries to express: personal struggle can change the situation, but it cannot cut off the connection between people and the land, family and history; true growth is not only to go further, but also to understand where one starts from and bear the gains and losses caused by every choice.