Dongtou: Home of a legendary heroine

Dongtou first became famous thanks to the movie, Haixia, or Ocean Sunglow, which was released in 1975 and told the story of a female militia named Hai Xia fighting against the Kuomintang in the 1940s.

Wang Yuexia, 79, the inspiration for the character of the female militia, was born and raised in Dongtou, where the movie was filmed. The local government preserved her former home and built a memorial hall to her and other militia women on the Dongtou islands. Today, she lives in a quiet fishing village, which has been called Haixia village since the movie was released.

Wang says her village suffered from poverty and the rule of the Kuomintang before the People's Liberation Army arrived in the region in 1952. Wang's father was a poor fisherman and died after being beaten by Kuomintang soldiers when Wang was 10 years old. Wang, her mother and two younger sisters had to survive by eating rotten fish they found on the beach. At the age of 14, Wang was forced to marry a 28-year-old man, because her family had no food for her. Wang said she cried for three days after her wedding day, but she understood why her mother allowed the marriage - there was no other choice.