LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
A new TV series about a Chinese eye bank aims to raise awareness of the growing need for cornea donations, Xu Fan reports.
For most Chinese people, Sri Lanka is best known for its tea and gemstones. But what is lesser known is that the South Asian country is one of the largest donors of corneas in the world.
This became an inspiration for the new 40-episode TV series, You Are Always With
Me, the first coproduction of its kind between China and Sri Lanka.
Sarath Kongahage, media advisor to the Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena, is a consultant for the TV series. And, Devinda Kongahage, a veteran television and film director, will serve as the executive director. The cast mainly consist of Chinese stars, including veteran actor Xu Yajun, pop idol Ma Ke, actresses Yue Hong and Ke Lan. The drama is scheduled to begin shooting on July 1 and due to wrap up by October.
Set between the early 2010s and the present, the drama centers around oculist Yao Kefan, played by Xu Yajun, who overcomes a string of hurdles to establish the first eye bank for restoring donated corneal tissue in the fictional Chinese province of Nanhai.
Ma, the 1990-born actor who shot to fame in the fantasy TV series The Journey of
Flower (2014), plays a fashion designer who lost his vision due to a hereditary corneal disease.
The drama will be shot in locations as diverse as Shenzhen, Hong Kong and several Sri Lanka cities, including Colombo and Kandy. Sirisena met the Chinese crew in May.
“We did a great deal of research. I met and talked with many oculists and eye specialists. They told me many emotional stories and showed me how they repaired the donated corneas and the procedures involved in performing transplant surgery,” says series director Cui Yali, adding that some of the true stories became the inspiration behind some of their storylines.
The drama begins with a cornea donation from a pop star that helped to restore the sight of two patients. The story is based on the life of late singer Yao Beina, who died from breast cancer in 2015 at the age of 33.
One episode set in Sri Lanka features the protagonist doctor who leads a Chinese medical team to travel around the country performing cataract operations on local patients. The more they see of Sri Lanka, the more they learn about their peers’ experience of cornea donations. Around 75 percent of donations in Sri Lanka are pledged by Buddhists, Cui says.
The story is based on reallife events.
In 2014, a project organized by the Chinese government with the support of first lady Peng Liyuan sent a team of Chinese doctors to Sri Lanka to perform 1,000 cataract operations for local patients and to reciprocate the 1,500 cornea donations made by Sri Lankans to Chinese patients.
Yao Xiaoming, an oculist at the Shenzhen Eye Hospital who founded China’s first eye bank in Shenzhen in 2000, joined the Chinese medical team on this visit, and now serves as a consultant to the production.
“I heard the story from Yao Xiaoming. It piqued my interest and I traveled to Sri Lanka in October. I was surprised to hear locals I interviewed say they would be willing to donate their corneas after their death,” recalls Cui.
In China, incomplete data shows that the country has around 3 million sufferers of corneal blindness, but only a few thousand corneas are donated domestically every year. After cataracts, disease of the cornea is the second leading cause of blindness in China, according to Yao.
Most of the Sri Lankan people Cui talked to were followers of Buddhism, who believe in the religious theory about the cycle of life and death. “They think kindness in this life will benefit them in the next,” she explains.
But in China the culture and tradition surrounding this are quite different.
“Chinese people have a centuries-old tradition which leads them to believe that their bodies are gifts from their parents, and they should not be damaged,” explains Cui.
“Most relatives would not be able to accept their loved ones leaving this world without their corpses remaining intact. This has made it very difficult for hospitals to persuade people to donate organs,” she adds.
But for Cui, a graduate of the Central Academy of Drama, this theme has fascinated her for long. The forthcoming TV drama is just her latest effort to raise public awareness about cornea donation, following her directorial feature
Mother’s Eyes in 2008. Promotional activities for the movie, which centers on an elderly woman who donated her corneas to her blind son, were cut short following a deadly earthquake in Sichuan province that year.
And now as a mother of a 4-year-old girl, Cui says she has spent more time pondering the meaning of life and her duty as a television industry insider.
“What kind of a person should I be? How can a television drama or a movie exert a more positive influence?” she says of the questions in her mind.
The director — who has signed up to donate her own corneas — reveals that most of the cast and crew members behind the drama are planning to follow her example.
They think kindness in this life will benefit them in the next.”
Cui Yali, director