Hope
The humbling story of four visually impaired Tibetan children hits the big screen By Lu Yan
Thupten is a 10- year- old boy living in Lhasa, southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region, partially sighted in one eye and blind in the other. His doctor says that there is a chance he could completely lose his sight, but that there is an operation that could offer a 50 percent chance of saving his vision. His teacher is adamant that he should have the operation right away, but Thupten is afraid and wants to see the world before his life is plunged into total darkness.
Along with three friends who also suffer from blindness, Thupten embarks on an exciting adventure. Together they decide to go to Shenzhen in south China’s Guangdong Province, a city more than 3,700 km away from Lhasa. They choose Shenzhen because Kelsang, the youngest of the four children, measures the distance with his arm on the map and realizes that it is merely a forearm away. During the trip Thupten is to serve as the group’s leader because, despite his ailing sight, he is the only one among them who can see anything at all.
But why exactly would four visually impaired children from Lhasa travel all the way to Shenzhen?
Thupten and his friends are characters in the new film Ballad From Tibet, set to debut on January 9, 2018.
“It’s about a group of people achieving their