Synopsis

There is a very famous painter's village in China, located in the town of Songzhuang in Beijing's Tongzhou district, where the most famous painters, calligraphers, artists, and so on, gather. Mo Sha, the hero of Breaking Into the Lake, is one of the millions of calligraphers in Songzhuang. He is old and still healthy, so he takes his young daughter with him and makes a living by selling calligraphy on the side of the road. In December in Beijing, it was freezing cold, minus 10 degrees Celsius at night, and Mo Sha, dressed in thin clothes, was selling calligraphy by the side of the road with trembling hands for 50 yuan a piece. Mo Sha is an ardent Mao fan and almost all his calligraphy is "quotations from Chairman Mao". He claims that selling his writing is only make-do work, what he really wants to do is to promote Mao and Chinese culture through his writing (quotations from Chairman Mao). Not only does Mo Sha promote Mao Zedong's thought in Beijing, but he also goes to Hong Kong once a year to do so, and he is happy to do this. Mo Sha lives in Songzhuang, Beijing, in a small house of less than six square metres. His young daughter, who wanders with him, was born to him and an apprentice, according to village legend. His daughter has no family registration and cannot go to school, so she has to follow Mo Sha on his journeys. Mo Sha's ex-wife, according to his description, died of a heart attack 20 years ago in Zhengzhou People's Hospital. He and his ex-wife also had a daughter who died shortly after birth in Zhengzhou People's Hospital. According to Mo Sha, the head nurse of the hospital "murdered" her. He said that 20 years ago, the year of his fortieth birthday, three members of his family died: his wife, his daughter, and his elderly mother. His mother never forgave him for leaving home as a teenager to pursue a career in the arts before she died.