By Yuan Liping and Ma Jing
BEIJING, June 3 -- The film Island Keeper featuring Wang Jicai, a role model and a militiaman who kept watch on an island for 32 years, will be screened nationwide on June 18 on the occasion of celebrating 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC).
Wang Jicai was head of the militia sentry post on Kaishan Island, Guanyun county of Jiangsu province. He and his wife Wang Shihua lived on the island and devoted their lives to the national coast defense. On July 27, 2018, Wang died of a sudden illness while on duty at the age of 58. Two months later, he was posthumously awarded with the honorary title of National Outstanding CPC Member by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. On September 17, 2019, Chinese President Xi Jinping signed a presidential decree to confer national medals and national honorary titles of the People's Republic of China (PRC) on dozens of individuals, in which Wang Jicai was awarded with the national honorary title of "the people's role model".
As an outpost on China's Yellow Sea , Kaishan Island measures only 0.013km2, about the size of two football fields, and the living conditions on the island are deplorable. The film highlights typical episodes from the couple's life – how they felt lost when first coming to the island, how they saved a drowning young man, fought with smugglers, delivered a baby in a rainstorm, accompanied their comrade-in-arms in his last moments, and held family Spring Festival activities on the island.
These episodes – depicting the love between husband and wife, father and son, and comrade- in-arms – show the audiences the inner world of Wang Jicai and his wife, as well as their noble dedication that “guarding the island is protecting the country”.
The film reproduces the couple’s 32-year-long struggle with the harsh natural environment on the island and how they lived amid typhoons, rainstorms and billows through all those years. The protagonists’ patriotism and dedication pervade the whole film and encourage every one of us to create extraordinary feats in ordinary positions through passion and perseverance.