To offer their children homeschool opportunities as well as better studying environment, Cai dropped her business in Beijing and moved to a new province; Wu sold his house and decided to live in a rent house in where he found appropriate for homeschooling; Yang also resigned her job and took her daughter to a place that far away from hometown. All these homeschooling stories are happening in Dali, a remote but beautiful town located in Yunnan Province, China. Far from the madding crowd, Dali attracted thousands of homeschooling pioneers all over the country.

 

The practice of homeschooling has been ongoing for decades in China, but till today, they are considered to be “unofficial” and are restricted by national education system. My project will focus on several homeschooling families in Utopian Dali.

 

So it will be a short documentary film that explores how they experienced struggles in traditional school and start a journey in “unschooling” and unfolds their backgrounds, their situations, and their challenges.