Winter Pasture
Join Chinese writer Li Juan as she leaves her small-town life behind to embed herself with a Kazakh nomadic family in Xinjiang’s frozen winter pastures. For months, she braves subzero temperatures, howling winds, and the stark isolation of the wilderness to document their unvarnished daily existence: trekking miles to haul snow for water, collecting sheep dung for fuel and building materials, surviving brutal blizzards, and honoring the age-old ritual of winter slaughter. Alongside Juma, his wife, and their daughter Jamal, Li experiences the raw grit, warm family bonds, and dry humor that sustain these herders through the harshest seasons. She also witnesses the slow erosion of traditional nomadic life—from land disputes to the pull of modernity—painting an intimate, unflinching portrait of a community clinging to its roots amid changing times.