Morning Light

1930, China. Morning Light grows up in a poor Chinese peasant family. Suffering from smallpox, the twelve-year-old girl must be isolated from the rest of her family. To escape boredom, she traces words and ideograms on the walls. When she finally emerges from isolation, it is to attend her younger sister’s engagement to a child: her family has accepted this arranged marriage in exchange for food to escape famine. Revolted by this practice, Morning Light vows never to suffer the same fate. So when she senses that her turn is coming, she flees her family and her village. In a country in the midst of civil war, she meets Master Liang, a painter, poet, and philosopher whom she manages to convince to take her on as a student.
In the mountains, Morning Light learns painting and poetry, while perfecting her reading and writing skills. Two years later, educated, matured, and confident, and with her grandfather deceased and her older brother having left the village to join the communists, Morning Light decides to return to her village where, times having changed, she becomes a teacher.