An unschooled young man, one of the countless victims of Mao's Cultural Revolution, is laboring in the countryside when he is assigned to teach in a nearby school. Gradually, he abandons the Maoist textbook and encourages the barely literate kids to write about their own lives and feelings.
| Directing | Chen Kaige | Director |
| Camera | Gu Changwei | Director of Photography |
| Writing | He Jianjun | Writer |
| Writing | Chen Kaige | Writer |
| Writing | Cheng A | Novel |
| Production | Wu Tianming | Executive Producer |
| Editing | Miaomiao Liu | Editor |
| Production | Shaohua Chen | Production Designer |
| Art | Shaohua Chen | Art Direction |
| Costume & Make-Up | Hong An | Makeup Artist |
| Directing | Qiang Xiaolu | Assistant Director |
| Sound | Jing Tao | Sound Designer |
| Sound | Miaomiao Liu | Sound Editor |
| Sound | Gu Changning | Sound Supervisor |
| Sound | Xiao-Song Qu | Original Music Composer |
| Sound | Tian Zhuangzhuang | Original Music Composer |