Stay on the South Bank of the River

Independent woman An Yanhe is leaving Henan for a high-paying job and better prospects, flying off to distant Hong Kong.

Hakka woman Yu Zhisu came to Henan for the first time and was caught in a devastating rainstorm. The second time, she came for love.

One was a traveler bound for elsewhere, the other a visitor returning home. They met in a field of wheat in western Henan, where Song-dynasty stone carvings stood tall.

A glance at the carvings spans a thousand years; the wheat returns year after year.

The Yellow River flows east against the wind. Why has history continued here, never breaking off?

All their lives, the people of Henan want to flee the red earth of Henan.

And what they find hardest to leave behind is that very same red earth.

Upon the red earth, golden fields of wheat flourish without end, sheltering their ancestors and nurturing all life.

A grain of wheat, a mouthful of food, a mighty river, a civilization.

The girls, each carrying her own dreams, ultimately stayed in the wheat fields.

They stayed on this red earth, where so much is possible.

They stayed south of the river.