Life passion in making

As night falls, only cicadas, crickets and other bugs' chirping could be heard deep in the mountain. Several flashlight beams, penetrating the pitch darkness, swing across the underbrush and probe the grass.

The flashlights are held by 11-year-old Yin Ran, his mother and others who often make their way into the mountains around South China's Guangdong province during holidays to search for different species of insects and observe them up close.

"Mom, this huntsman spider is molting," Ran says excitingly to his mother, Xing Xiaojuan.

He has also found firefly, moth, spittlebug and other species. He tenderly touches the insects, observing them. And for further observation, sometimes he brings them back home.

Ran has raised more than 200 insect species of different colors, shapes and sizes.

"It seems to us adults that collecting insects is useless, but both Ran and I enjoy the moments. It's very joyful for me," says Xing.

She is so supportive that she'd like to observe various species of bugs with the son and always accompanies him to go up to the mountains with other bug enthusiasts.

However, many of Ran's peers fail to understand his obsession with bugs which they find gross and scary.

Regarding that, Ran says: "Everything is neither good nor evil. As for bugs, there's no difference either. Good or bad, it's all made up by human beings. That's the philosophy of nature."

Ran's story has been recorded in a six-episode documentary, titled Little Giants, which aims to film children who have talent in sports, arts, natural science, technology, music or other fields to see how creative they can be as they seem to have found a life passion at a young age. The episode on Ran is titled Philosophy of Nature.

Other children in the online series include a 9-year-old boy who is fascinated with composing and playing music in a band, a 14-year-old racer who is the only female motorcycle rider in her team and two high school students who work as partners to compete in international robotics contests.

The documentary, aired on the streaming platform Bilibili since early March, has notched up more than 7 million views so far.

"I wanted to capture and present to the public the charisma of talented children in a certain field," says Sun Chao, the documentary's director, adding that many people fail to find a life passion throughout their whole lives and it's good for children to find that at a young age.

They should be encouraged to chase after what they want, she says.

"I hope the documentary will inspire parents to be more willing to support their children's interests and hobbies."

The series also follows 9-year-old Wu Gangyun's continuous efforts to improve her dancing skills for more than a year.

The girl grows up in a remote village in Yanshan county in Wenshan autonomous prefecture, Yunnan province.

Her father is a truck driver and her mother runs a food stall where she usually hangs around to help and practice her dancing skills by getting online video tutorials.

Without a dancing teacher, the girl was able to perform difficult dance movements that require a high level of balance, flexibility and body control.

Her talent attracted the attention of veteran dancer Zhang Ping and her husband, Guan Yu, a ballet teacher at Beijing Dance Academy, who later gave her systematical instructions. And the couple initiated a program that runs free dance training sessions for girls from impoverished families in the mountainous regions to help them gain self-confidence and appreciate their own beauty while embracing the art form.

In October 2019, Zhang brought Gangyun and some other girls involved in the program to Beijing and they together performed in a program hosted by China Central Television.

"We don't know if dancing will bring great prospects for Gangyun, but we are pretty sure that she completely enjoys herself when she dances. And that's what really matters," says director Sun, adding that she will continue to use her camera to document the stories of other girls, too.