Runaway Girl,
2014-2019
The "Nuosu" people of Yi nationality live in the mountains of Liangshan Prefecture, Sichuan Province. They adhere to traditional customs and have a serious preference for boys over girls. Long-term extreme poverty and the shackles of the concept of "hierarchy" have marginalized Yi women, and they face many problems in education, marriage, and occupation.
Babykinning is a common phenomenon in Yi areas, and many girls are accused of being parents before they graduate from primary school. According to the customs of the local Yi people, when a woman marries, the man often needs to pay a high dowry, and if she divorces her husband after marriage, the woman needs to return the full dowry and sometimes additional compensation. In the region, divorce is considered to dishonor the family, destroy the family tradition, and be a shameful act that brings shame on the family and the individual.
When it comes to marriage, Yi women have very little power to make their own decisions, and when they marry people they don't like, these young women have to escape the bondage of marriage by working in the name of work.