Civilization Shanghai’s new film for Alibaba Travel Services is inspired by poems of dreams

Quan Peng, paralysed since the age of 14 from the mid-chest down, left Beijing in August 2014 and has logged in over 5000 kilometres on his wheelchair in pursuit of his dream to travel across China. His destination? The southernmost tip of the island of Hainan, which Chinese call the “world’s end”.

“I came across his story on CNN and was deeply moved,” Andrew Lok, this film’s director, muses. “Serendipitously, we had a brief from Alibaba Travel Services to create a film about those who dream of travelling. I immediately shared his tale with Andrew Yang, the marketing director, who green-lit the project on the spot.”

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The idea was to interrupt Quan Peng’s ongoing two-year journey with an offer to bring him to another “world’s end”, the Arctic Circle, to lay eyes upon the Northern Lights. Quan Peng, whose quest has also evolved into a mission to showcase the severe lack of handicap-friendly facilities in Chinese cities, leapt on board as he saw it as a chance to inspire others like him to never give up on the dream of travelling.

“The biggest challenge was to recreate his two-year journey across the varied landscapes of China and take into account the changing of seasons he experienced, all shot within the space of just one week and in only one province, Guangdong,” Lok chortles. “It is a testament to our location and cinematography teams that we were able to pull it off.”

Alibaba Travel Services also tied up with Finland’s tourism authority to facilitate the shoot in Lapland to capture the natural beauty of this region and the ethereal Northern Lights.

Quan Peng’s devotion to reading poetry is what helps him through his darkest days. “Poems can inspire you to dream,” he said. “Dreamers will not give up on life. Travelling has always been my dream, so I decided to do just that even if I had to do it on my wheelchair.” And it is with this in mind that the entire film was shot within the structure of a poem being written:

“Fly with arms of steel, across the world I soar. Flying over 5129 kilometres, flying over living lands, flying over unawakened valleys, flying over 745 days and nights, flying over the warm lights of 58 cities. To never depart is to never arrive at your side. You are my faraway dream. You are my tireless wings. You are my sacred light.”

Credits –

Client Executives: Chris Tung, Andrew Yang, Liz Wang, Alex Xue