Life at the heart of a city

Li's story is just one of the many presented in the documentary, Marvelous City, which aims to uncover the wonders of six cities by telling the compelling stories of their inhabitants, delving into the connection between people and where they live.

The six cities are Guiyang in Guizhou province, Southwest China's Chongqing, Xiamen in Southeast China's Fujian province, Xi'an in Northwest China's Shaanxi province, Karamay in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region and Qingdao, East China's Shandong province.

"Li radiates an infectious enthusiasm for performing crosstalk and has the courage and determination to pursue the dream, which in my view more or less shows the personality traits of people living in Chongqing and Sichuan province," says Xiao Han, director of the documentary.

Xiao, as director of Masters in the Forbidden City, a hugely popular documentary from 2016 which shared the stories of the usually unsung professional restoration experts, is good at discovering charismatic people and portraying them on film.

"We did much research to find people from various walks of life whose stories somehow reflect the characteristics of a city," says Xiao.

They include an oil worker in Karamay who is also a band leader trying to integrate elements from traditional ethnic music into modern electronic and rock genres, a standup comedian who tries to find inspiration for his scripts at the Shaanxi History Museum, a foreign bar owner with a Chinese wife in Xiamen, and a 60-year-old Qingdao native who is fond of winter swimming and collecting antiques.

"We try to film people who are not that well-known and provide a full display of their charms and talents," says Xiao.