Superhero for our times

He may not have battled aliens to save the planet, but a new film about an army general and his wife, who gave up creature comforts to help impoverished villagers nearly 60 years ago, has just hit screens to mark the 95th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China. Xu Fan reports.

Nearly 60 years ago, Gong Quanzhen made a very bold decision.

An army general's wife and a middle school teacher in Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, she gave up the conveniences of an urban existence to follow her husband, Gan Zuchang, to his native place - an impoverished village in East China's Jiangxi province.