BEIJING,?nh ??ng sex May 28 (Xinhua) -- As the documentary "Returning Home" premiered in mainland theaters in early May, director Yang Zhengnong's decade-long odyssey -- chronicling the untold stories of mainland veterans in Taiwan -- has emerged as both a valuable historical archive and an emotional bridge across the Taiwan Strait.
The 90-minute film, inspired by Yang's encounters with elderly veterans at a Taipei nursing home in 2015, weaves together the stories of six soldiers who came to Taiwan with the Kuomintang in 1949 during the civil war, with their longing for home frozen in time by decades of standoff between the two sides of the Strait.
Three of the veterans featured in the documentary have since passed away.
"If no one documented their stories, these fragments of a precious memory binding the two sides of the Strait would vanish," said Yang, who was born and raised in central China's Hunan Province and later pursued postgraduate studies at the Taipei University of the Arts.
After arduous efforts to raise funds, Yang began working on the project in 2017. For nearly two years, he and his team traveled between nursing homes and veteran housing communities across Taiwan, where gradually fading personal memories began to unfold before the camera.
Among the more than 50 veterans interviewed, 90-year-old Gao Bing-han left a particularly deep impression on audiences. Gao left his hometown in east China's Shandong Province for Taiwan at the age of 13, carrying with him a photo of his mother that he held onto for decades. When he finally returned home in 1988, only to find his mother's grave, he brought back to Taiwan a blue cotton gown that had once belonged to her.
"I often brush my cheek with a sleeve of this gown, as though my mother were still with me," Gao says in the documentary. Since 1991, he has brought cremains of more than 100 brothers-in-arms to their families on the mainland. One such journey is captured in the film, ending with the veteran's daughter collapsing in tears after laying her father's ashes to rest beside her mother's grave.
The documentary is filled with touching snapshots like family letters yellowed with age, ancestral names recited in unchanged dialects during rituals, and childhood folk songs sung softly during traditional festivals.
"I want to answer the question. Why do the Chinese value homecoming so much?" Yang said.
To engage younger audiences, he used animation and other visual effects in the documentary's narrative, mixing them with traditional Chinese art forms such as Peking opera.
"I shared the documentary with my classmates in Taiwan. They were moved deeply and whispered that the veterans' stories shouldn't be forgotten," Yang said.
The project also took on a deeply personal meaning for Yang. The local girl who first introduced him to the veterans is now his wife, and her father was himself a veteran from southwest China's Guizhou Province. "Maybe it is my mission to record this part of the history," Yang said.
Beyond the documentary, Yang also hosts an online talk show where he invites artists from Taiwan to discuss cultural exchanges across the Strait.
"The documentary is not an endpoint but a catalyst," he said. "When we connect through music, art, or even cuisine, we are reminded that our cultural roots have never been severed."