The Lamp by the Long River

Zhu Duyi, a young PhD in literature, has yet to meet someone she likes. When her parents pressure her to marry, she tells them she wants to remain single. Her mother slaps her, and Duyi goes to hide at her best friend Xinhuo's home. Duyi's father, Zhu Hu, visits Xinhuo's father, Dunhuang, hoping Xinhuo can persuade Duyi to change her mind. But Xinhuo supports Duyi, saying she regrets rushing into marriage just because her parents told her to. Dunhuang and Zhu Hu are both worried about their daughters' marriages when they get a call from Dunhuang's father, who wants to gather people to tell "old tales," a folk custom from Meijiang in southern Jiangxi, as part of a project to renovate the earthen houses in their hometown. They take Xinhuo and Duyi back with them, hoping the story of their ancestor Denghua will change the young women's views on love and marriage. Duyi specializes in the Songs of Chu. When she hears that the old auntie's folk storytelling resembles Qu Yuan's "Summons of the Soul," she eagerly agrees to go. As she listens, Denghua's difficult life leaves a deep impression on her. Zhu Duyi records what she sees and hears on the trip. Through conversations and exchanges of ideas, she gradually comes to understand the meaning of Denghua's life, and eventually meets and falls in love with one of Denghua's descendants, a rural planner.