Jia Zhangke casts a gentle, ruminative eye on the momentous changes of Chinese society since the 1940s in this distinguished symphony of life and literature. Inspired by a literary festival in his native Shanxi province, Jia engages three of China’s greatest novelists – Jia Pingwa, Yu Hua and Liang Hong, who were born in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, respectively – as narrators for their homeland’s march of time. Over 18 chapters interlaced with evocative images of the past and present, the writers sharepersonal stories and struggles in their lives that also indicate the greater tide of history and social transformation, from the tumult of the Cultural Revolution to the rapid changes of urbanisation.