At this time, Ying is an unmarried factory employee with a heart of gold and a work ethic that embodies what dedicated contribution to collective effort is all about. While tearfully attending her mother’s deathbed, Ling is just as miraculously lifted into the clouds and hurtles back to Earth in 1981, before she was born.īreaking Ling’s fall from the sky is none other than Ying (now played by a radiant Zhang Xiaofei). No sooner has Ling expressed her deep fear of not becoming successful enough to make her mother proud than Ying is fatally injured in a road accident that miraculously leaves Ling unscathed. Surrounded by relatives obsessed with personal wealth, career opportunities and luxury goods, Ling’s painfully aware that such things were out of reach for her mother, Ying (Liu Jia), when she was young and China’s economic reforms had only just begun. Slightly awkward and immediately likable, Ling narrates her story as it begins in 2001.

Now 38, Jia plays the autobiographical role of daughter Ling with such sincerity and enthusiasm it hardly matters that she’s twice the character’s age. Expanded from a popular TV comedy sketch Jia performed in 2016, “Hi, Mom” is based on memories of her mother, who passed away when Jia was 19.

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