With the arrival of spring, farmers prepare a feast for their former king, who returns as a cuckoo. But memories of a lost kingdom and the power he once held trouble the celebration.
Qiu is less interested in faithfully retelling the legend than in the reunion it brings about: two old acquaintances sharing a meal, their conversation wandering between old grievances and the ordinary concerns of life.
Spring returns.
So does the king.
In the legends of the ancient Sichuan Kingdom, Duyu, or King Wang, is remembered for bringing agriculture to the Sichuan Basin. He eventually yields the throne to Bieling, who is celebrated for controlling floods, and withdraws into seclusion. Accounts differ on why he left.
After his death, Duyu becomes a cuckoo. The bird returns every spring, its cry heard as both a call to begin farming and the voice of a king longing for home. Granny Yao, who grew up during his reign, has spent her life farming, cooking and raising her family. Every spring, she presides over the rite and prepares a feast for his return, with this year’s food and the work in the fields still on her mind.
MEET THE COMPANY ↘A former king, Granny Yao and her dog Pluto.
For Granny Yao, the new season begins in the kitchen. She and the farm women turn grain from the previous harvest into baba buns for the feast.
Grind rice, millet or buckwheat into flour and shape into cakes. Steam or fry, and serve plain or with meat and vegetables. Add a little Sichuan pepper, if you like.
Adapted from the FUXI feast foldout; an imagined preparation rather than a verified ancient recipe.FOOD NOTES & RECIPE · ADAPTED FROM THE SUPPLIED FUXI FEAST FOLDOUT.
The legends, people and rituals behind the spring feast. Follow the details that interest you.
Posthumously known as King Wang, Duyu is remembered in Sichuan legend as an early ruler who fostered agriculture. Qiu’s Duyu is also an old man still troubled by a reign he can no longer reclaim.
SOURCES: EXHIBITION DICTIONARY · TALE II; DIRECTOR INTERVIEW IN PRESS KIT.Bieling, whose name means “Spirit of Turtle”, is credited with saving the region from floods. According to tradition, he succeeded Duyu and began the Kaiming Dynasty. How that succession came about remains the subject of competing accounts.
SOURCES: EXHIBITION DICTIONARY · TALE II; DIRECTOR INTERVIEW.The cuckoo is the bird of King Wang’s return. Its cry was said to sound like a call of blood and longing: the people of Sichuan would hear it and cry, “O soul of our King Wang.” For farmers, the same call meant it was time to plough.
SOURCE: EXHIBITION DICTIONARY · TALE II.The film borrows selectively from the Annals of the Sichuan Kings, including stories surrounding Duyu’s departure and Bieling’s wife. Qiu leaves the rumours and competing accounts unresolved: the film is an imaginative retelling, not a verdict on what happened.
SOURCE: DIRECTOR INTERVIEW IN FUXI PRESS KIT.At the cuckoo’s call, farmers return to the fields while food is prepared for their former king. Song, dance and a shared feast welcome another season of work and the hope of a good harvest.
SOURCE: EXHIBITION DICTIONARY · TALE II.Widowed young, Granny Yao raises her children and becomes a leading voice in the community. She loves cooking with what the fields provide, and presides over the spring rite. The taste of this year’s baba buns, the rice wine and the unfinished farm work concern her more than dynastic quarrels.
SOURCES: EXHIBITION DICTIONARY · TALE II; DIRECTOR INTERVIEW.Many are widows. Together, they tend the fields, cook for the feast and keep the community’s everyday life going.
SOURCE: EXHIBITION DICTIONARY · TALE II.
Granny Yao’s beloved dog is named Pluto, after the dwarf planet at the edge of the solar system. He is also a descendant of the proverbial ‘Sichuan dog that barks at the sun’ (蜀犬吠日). The old saying refers to Sichuan’s misty, often overcast skies: the sun was said to be such an unfamiliar sight that even dogs barked when it appeared.
In Qiu Jiongjiong’s world, Pluto wanders between people, eras and worlds — a mischievous witness linking earth and cosmos, the living and the dead. His namesake was once counted among the planets but is now classified as a dwarf planet, far from the centre of the solar system. That place at the margins playfully echoes Sichuan’s distance from the Central Plains, and those left at the edges of grand histories.
SOURCES: EXHIBITION DICTIONARY · TALE II; FUXI PRESS KIT · DIRECTOR INTERVIEW.Baba is a name for grain-based cakes prepared in many ways. The film’s spring feast uses rice, millet or buckwheat from the harvest, steamed or fried and shared at the table.
SOURCE: FUXI FEAST FOLDOUT.Qiu Jiongjiong's paintings of the ancient Sichuan Kingdom, available for closer viewing.
Original script drawing and set designs by Qiu Jiongjiong. These are the artist's imaginative representations, not archaeological reconstructions.