The Flying Songs of Funan

A boat, an acrobat troupe, and the Mekong River: their lives were bound together, each relying on the others.

At the crowded groundbreaking and ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Techo Funan Canal, a new focal point of China-Cambodia Belt and Road cooperation, a Sichuan acrobat troupe found its fate entwined with the project. A family feud hidden for thirty years was also brought to light.

The ceremony called for an acrobat troupe to perform, offering the Sichuan-based Shu Arts Soar to the Clouds troupe a chance to establish itself. But one hardship followed another: some performers were injured and could no longer take the stage, some were disheartened and wanted to abandon acrobatics, and others were bribed, only to be cruelly cast aside... Lu Qichuan never let the fire in his heart go out. He picked up the troupe's most spectacular and dangerous act, aerial silk, and, together with Yun Zhiyu, repeatedly overcame one challenge after another. They kept Shu Arts Soar to the Clouds alive amid the storm, not only securing a performance at the Funan Canal's groundbreaking ceremony but also finding a way to survive through the canal's construction and building an acrobatics theater.