This stunning film takes us to a rare matriarchal community in southwest China. The ancient Mosuo culture has survived both the time of the concubines and the Cultural Revolution, although it is now being threatened with extinction by Beijing family-planning policies and by absorption into the mainstream of the Chinese majority.

In the Mosuo culture, power is handed from the matriarch to her most intelligent daughter. The women live together, apart from their husbands whom they see only at the end of the day. Property is passed down from mother to daughter. The women do the heavy work, while the men lounge about at the homes of their mothers. The men's main job is to fulfill their conjugal duties. Interestingly, the word "father" does not exist.

This is probably the only region in China where girl babies are more valued than baby boys. While the Mosuo are shy about revealing their feelings, they have overcome this shyness here and talk about love, marriage, divorce, and the difficulties of living apart.

Life in this part of rural China is changing fast. The government wants to make Lake Lugu into a tourist site with the Mosuo people as the main attraction. Mosuo children are being educated and learn about city life with its Western goods. This film may be the only reminder of a disappearing society.

"…has successfully documented some major features of Moso culture, providing classrooms at both university and high school levels a much-needed visual document to enhance students' understanding of cultural diversity within China." Asian Educational Media Services

*National Women's Studies Association, 1999