Mandarin

Left with few options, Juma and Latso leave Beijing for home, a remote village in the foothills of the Himalayas. But home is no longer what it was, as growing exposure to the modern world changes the provocative traditions the Mosuo have built around their belief that marriage is an attack on the family. Determined to keep their mother and siblings out of poverty, Latso sacrifices her dream of an education and stays home to farm, while Juma leaves to try her luck in the city.

A young man left behind by Beijing’s fabulous new wealth has lost his job, his apartment and the woman he loves. Even Happiness, his dog, has left him. Lovelorn, self-destructive and desperately aimless, the man nevertheless has moments of euphoria amid his own despair, as he roams the sleek, shifting city with other soulful, cash-poor dreamers and misfits.