LOCAL writer and director Li Yawei won three awards at the 27th Chinese Documentary Academic Gala held Sunday with her short documentary “The Diary of Weiwei,” her feature-length film “A Native of Xiasha Village,” and her TV series “Meizhou: The Revolutionary Base.”

“The Diary of Weiwei” tells the story of a Shenzhen government worker who devoted himself to poverty alleviation in a village in Heyuan, Guangdong Province.

“A Native of Xiasha Village” focuses on the story of Huang Guocheng, who owns eight apartment buildings and at the same time runs a small restaurant in the village. As a veteran and Party member, Huang has opened the restaurant to provide jobs for other veterans.

The award-winning TV series includes eight episodes that tell the stories of how ordinary people supported the CPC to set up revolutionary bases in Meizhou.

Last month, Li also claimed the best documentary film and the best documentary film director awards at the 2021 Canada Golden Maple International Film Festival for another two films, namely, “The Fortune Cookie Family” and “Shang Deqian’s Parly.” Both films also received the multi culture contribution awards at the film festival.

“The Fortune Cookie Family” documents Zhong Yunshui and his family business of making fortune cookies in Heyuan. “Shang Deqian’s Parly” tells the story of how Shenzhen designer Shang Deqian develops his furniture brand Parly through combining Chinese cultural elements and animal patterns into the design of European-style furniture.

Li came to Shenzhen in 1994. Over the past 27 years, she has created more than 300 TV series, films and documentaries that mainly focus on stories of Shenzhen and on ethnic minority cultures. (Lin Lin)