Promotional material for Jinxiu heshan Photo:Courtesy of Douban

'Shanhe Jinxiu': TV series praised for realistic depiction of poverty alleviation efforts

A TV series focusing on China's successful poverty alleviation efforts debuted in November, earning good reviews thanks to its realistic background and down-to-earth characters.

The TV series Shanhe Jinxiu (lit: splendid mountains and rivers) is set among the Qinling Mountains in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province. 

Back in the 1990s, two villages were forced to merge into one village due to a natural disaster. 

However, the village struggled with extreme poverty after the merger due to constant natural disasters and a long feud between the two formerly separate villages.

The leader of the village, main character Zhao Shuhe, decides to change the situation and help pull the village out of poverty. 

Another main character is Guo Wen, who has been living in village with his father for a long time. He develops a deep relationship with Zhao and the other people in this village.

Guo also pays more attention to  the impoverished village after he begins to work in the government and eventually his long-cherished wish is to help lift the place out of poverty as well. 

In order to create a better life for the village, people of two generations, under the guidance of Guo and Zhao, work to combat the poverty the village has suffered for nearly three decades and, in the end, finally succeed.

The series has been praised for its realistic depiction of poverty in a mountain village.

For example, at the beginning of the show, Zhao Laifu's death reveals the harm of the village's ancestral motto "starve to death rather than beg for food" has caused.

In addition, more details such as the village school's struggle to pay teachers, children's resistance to school, poor villagers who can't afford to see a doctor or repair their house make the term "poverty" a living fact rather than an abstract concept for audiences.

Global Times