ZHI WU XUE JIA (THE BOTANIST)

13-year-old Arsin, his grandmother and his older brother are members of the Kazakh minority in the Xinjiang region in north-west China. When Arsin isn’t herding sheep in the scenic environment of his home, he collects and analyses plants and explores fantastic worlds with Meiyu, a Han Chinese girl of the same age. The growing affection between the two is ill-fated, however: Meiyu is moving to Shanghai. In addition to the idyllic coming-of-age in the middle of nature, Jing Yi’s picturesque debut also explores the contrast between living in the countryside and modern city life that characterises China.