Li Ruijun (b. Gansu Province, 1983) began to study painting and music when he was a teenager, but subsequently graduated from an institute of management. For several years now he has been working mainly as a TV director. His feature debut The Summer Solstice (Xiazhi, 2007) was screened in several film festivals both inside and outside China. His other feature is Old Donkey (Lao lütou, 2010), a very powerful reflection on old age. All Li Ruijun’s films to date show his persistent concern for the problems of ageing and the plight of the elderly in modern Chinese society, his preoccupation with the ultimate meaning of life and death, and a deep, abiding affection for his native province of Gansu, its people and their traditional rural way of life.