The lights were dimmed in a room barely 20 square meters in size
and the television set flickered into life.
"Welcome to Xinmu Cinema," a middle-aged man said into a
microphone, "I am Dawei and, once again, I will be your host this
Saturday.
"I've just been to the hairdressers for a trim so I now have a
crew cut. I'm wearing a grey coat with a hood, white shirt, blue
jeans and a pair of brown shoes," he told his 30-strong
audience.
The music accompanying the opening titles began and the
narration followed suit.
"On the screen is a white house with a private swimming pool,
where the clear blue water shimmers in the sun," Dawei said.
"Here comes the director's name .. Ridley Scott .. and now we
are in a house, the blinds are swinging in the wind... and through
the blinds, you can see the clear water in the pool. The name of
the film appears: Matchstick Man."
Once a week for the last three years, Dawei, whose full name is
Wang Weili, has narrated a film for the blind at the tiny cinema he
set up at his own expense on Gulou West Street in Beijing's hutong
area, just inside the second ring road.
Since its inception, Dawei has showed more than 100 Chinese and
foreign movies to a faithful band of followers, currently numbering
30.
"I named my cinema "Xinmu", or "Eyes of the Heart", because I
wanted to make every film visible to them," he said.
Every Saturday, Li Chongming, who lost his sight during his
childhood, comes to Xinmu a couple of hours early, sits in the
third row and waits for the film to begin.
He records Dawei's narration with his MP3 player so, as he
explains, he can "listen to the sounds and watch the movie
repeatedly" after going home.
"My favorite is Titanic," the 50-year old man
confided.
"Without Dawei, I can only listen to the dialogue in the movie,
which confused me a lot because there were no visual aids; but
thanks to this cinema, I have seen a gigantic ship and a beautiful
love story."
On a shelf above a 25-inch television and a battered DVD player,
sit several props alongside more than 250 films: rockets, launch
pads and planes.
One month ago, when China launched its Chang'e-1 lunar probe,
the cinema invited over a female anchor from China Central
Television to narrate the whole process to the audience.
More than 30 people huddled together and discussed what the moon
looks like while passing round the launch pad and rocket.
Da Wei first developed the idea in 2003 after volunteering to
narrate The Terminator to a blind friend in his house.
" He was so overwhelmed by the fact he had watched a movie for
the first time in his life, he threw his arms around my neck when
it finished," said Dawei.
He gave up his prosperous business and, together with his wife,
opened the Hongdandan Culture and Education Center, a non-profit
organization committed to skills training and an information
service for the visually and audibly challenged.
The Xinmu Cinema is run by the center and on the wall hangs a
banner which reads: "Unite the Handicapped and the Healthy, Enjoy
Life".
Before narrating a movie, Dawei watches the movie several times
and asks his wife to close her eyes and be his first spectator. He
then polishes his narration according to her advice.
However, the future of the cinema is far from certain.
"The room is too small to make sure all the audience members are
comfortable and our revenue, which comes mainly from voluntary
donations, can only sustain the cinema for a year," said Da
Wei.
But, rather than money, Dawei is concerned about society's
indifference to blind people in need, which prompted him to apply
and be selected as a torchbearer for the Beijing Olympic Games relay.
"I want to use the torch to light up the lives of more blind
people and get them seen by the world," he said.
During the Shanghai Paralympics in October, a team of four blind
children, accompanied by Da Wei, traveled to the venues, where they
enjoyed the games with Dawei's narration and interviewed game
officials and athletes, including "The Terminator" himself, Arnold
Schwarzenegger, for a radio program.
"We expect to train more blind people to report on sports events
and hopefully we will see some of them covering next year's Olympic
Games in Beijing," Da Wei said.
(Xinhua News Agency December 31, 2007)