Chinese Cinderella

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The 14-year-old Wei Minzhi appeared as the female lead in “Not One Less”, a 1998 movie directed by Zhang Yimou. The docudrama describes how a stubborn young substitute teacher in a tiny provincial town does all her can to keep the class together. The film was shot on location and all the people in the film were nonactors. This film made Wei Minzhi well known across the country. In addition to a string of honors at home and abroad, the film won Golden Lion at Venice Film Festival in 1999.

The film dramatically changed the life of Wei Minzhi and her family. A story in the issue of April of 2008 Cultural Dialogue relates how she was cast for the movie, how people helped her and her family after the movie was screened, how she matriculated at the Xi’an Foreign Languages Institute and became a student majoring in movie and television directing in 2004 and how, with the help of Dr. Chen Ergang, she was enrolled by Brigham Young University and became a student of its Hawaii campus in 2006.

In July 2010, Wei Minzhi came back with an American production group to shoot an autobiographical documentary in China.

The autobiographical documentary is called “The Daughter of a Miracle”. Wei and her group went to Chicheng County which is her home county, Shijiazhuang where she went to high school, and Xi’an where she studied at Xi’an Foreign Languages Institute. The documentary is scheduled to be screened in the winter of 2011. Her purpose for making this cinematic autobiography is to recall the past of her life, to express her gratitude, and to spread the message that hard work leads to miracles. She is an assistant director and appears as herself in the documentary.

Wei Minzhi said she was planning to take a graduate course at Brigham Young University and the university appreciated her intention.

Wei Minzhi came back to China with her husband David and parents-in-law. She first met David on the campus of BYU in Hawaii at a party shortly after her arrival. She instantly spotted an oriental face in the crowd at the party. David came over and said hello. Wei Minzhi found that David spoke only a little chinese. In October 2006, Wei Minzhi met David again at a party when she was playing Chinese chess with her classmates. David gave her tips on some moves. After the chess games, they chatted. Wei learned more about David and his family background. His is a Chinese family that has been in America for five generations. He was studying motion picture arts at the university and was one year ahead of Wei Minzhi. About a year later, David was invited to appear as a character in an assignment of a classmate of Wei. The two had more chances to meet each other. After the assignment, David invited Wei to be his partner as a school dancing party. Romance between the two started.

In 2008, David proposed twice, first on New Year’s Day and second on Valentine’s Day. She nodded on Valentine’s Day in Honolulu, Hawaii. On July 7th, 2008, they got married. Wei’s parents did not come to attend the wedding due to visa problems.

Wei’s parents are all for the marriage. Wei keeps in touch with them through video and audio functions of Internet. David first met his parents-in-law also through the computer video.

David is determined to come back to China with Wei Minzhi in future. Though David’s parents can hardly speak Chinese, their pronunciation of Minzhi in Chinese is perfect. The mother-in-law said she was surprised to find that Wei Minzhi is such a high-profile newsmaker in China. According to her, few people in Hawaii are aware that her daughter-in-law was such a celebrity. She said, “We are interested to visit places where Minzhi once lived. We like her simple and lovely personality. She is our dear.”

During Wei’s visit to her motherland, Wei had a chance to comment on the miracle in her life. She said that without “Not One Less” she would have stayed at home raising pigs, getting married, giving birth to kids and working as a housewife; she would not have had the opportunity to study abroad and would not have been able to change the fate of her and her family. A lot of people believe miracles have happened to her. But she firmly believes the real life-changing miracle that has happened to her is education.

Wei Minzhi and her husband plan to have a baby as soon as possible. They plan to live and work in China after David finishes his studies. David is learning Chinese. The couple plans to work in China’s film industry in the future.

After 12 years, Wei Minzhi still resembles the girl in her life-changing movie: zealous and one-minded about doing what she wants to do. With her life changed, she now wants to help other people.