Uncle Hai'an premieres in Hai'an on Sept 8. [Photo/WeChat account: hafbwx]

Uncle Hai'an, a film about Hai'an teachers offering educational support to the Yi ethnic people, made its debut in Hai'an, Nantong, East China's Jiangsu province, on Sept 8.

The film was adapted from the documentation Hai'an Teachers and Volunteer Teaching: 28 years in Xiaoliangshan Mountain by Hai'an writer Jiang Lian.

The film details the huge changes brought by the volunteer teachers from Hai'an to Ninglang Yi autonomous county, Southwest China's Yunnan province.

Thirty-five years ago, Ninglang and Hai'an inked an educational cooperation agreement and since 1988, more than 310 teachers from Hai'an have set foot in Ninglang and cultivated groups of Yi children. These Hai'an teachers are called Uncle Hai'an by local residents. For Yi people, "uncle" is the most respectable personal address.

At the premiere, volunteer teachers were invited to share their teaching experience in Ninglang. Liu Weiqin, one of such teachers, said that after six days of traveling, they were greeted with a roaring mudslide and they also needed to overcome difficulties such as altitude stress and a language barrier.

Liu also said that they were delighted to see off their Yi students who were admitted to universities and felt that all the hard work was worth it.