“Deng Lang Mei” (Wait For The Birth of The Husband) was a peculiar marriage custom practiced in Hakka mountain communities before the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Young girls were married into families without sons and expected to wait for their mothers-in-law to give birth to a boy who would eventually become their husband.

The story takes place in a Hakka mountain village in the 1930s. Runyue loses her mother at a young age. When she is eight, her father, unable to support her, sends her to the Wang family to become a *deng lang mei*. On the way to the Wang household, her childhood friend Chunsheng silently watches from the riverbank as Runyue drifts away on a bamboo raft, disappearing into the distance.

Still a young child, Runyue wakes crying at night and begs to go home. Her mother-in-law, Taohua, tells her that once she has entered the Wang family, she is one of them, and leaving the household would bring bad luck. Taohua herself became a *deng lang mei* at the age of five. After the husband she had waited years for died in Nanyang, her only remaining hope was the child growing inside her. In Hakka communities, many women endured hardships similar to Taohua’s.

Aju is one year younger than Runyue. During the five years Aju has spent as a *deng lang mei*, her mother-in-law gives birth to three daughters in succession. Blaming Aju for having only daughters, she repeatedly berates and beats the girl for no reason.

Compared with Aju, Runyue is more fortunate. Her mother-in-law, Taohua, soon gives birth to a son named Sihuan. As the years pass, Sihuan grows up. During the busy farming season, Taohua invites Chunsheng to help with the work. Chunsheng’s diligence and his quiet care for Runyue soon become the subject of gossip in the village.

Worried that something might happen between them, Taohua approaches the clan elder and asks him to choose an auspicious day for Sihuan’s coming-of-age ceremony, after which he and Runyue can consummate their marriage.

After sixteen years of hard work and waiting, Runyue finally marries Wang Sihuan, the boy she has raised with her own hands. But on their wedding night, Sihuan, having received some modern education, cannot overcome the ethical boundaries in his mind. To the sixteen-year-old Sihuan, Runyue is his elder sister, not his wife. He refuses to consummate the marriage.

To avoid being forcibly conscripted by the Nationalist army, Sihuan decides to leave his hometown and travel to Nanyang. His decision leaves his mother devastated. From then on, Runyue begins another seemingly endless wait.

Not long afterward, news arrives from Nanyang that Sihuan has died. Taking pity on Runyue, Chunsheng frequently comes to help her with the farm work. It is through Chunsheng that Runyue accidentally learns of Sihuan’s death. Overwhelmed by grief, she nevertheless rejects Chunsheng’s love and chooses to continue waiting for the faint hope that her husband may one day return.

Spring comes and goes, followed by winter after winter. Decades later, Runyue has become an elderly woman with silver hair. The Hakka tulou welcomes groups of visitors, and a tour guide tells them that the old woman they see is a *deng lang mei* and the only female owner of the house.

Under the sunlight, Runyue continues quietly counting beans, waiting for her husband to return.

**Film Highlights**

This film is a rare example of an art-house film that explores the lives of women under traditional patriarchal and clan-based systems. From a female perspective, it portrays the realities of life within the large Hakka communal houses of Fujian, as well as the historical phenomenon of migration to Nanyang and the *deng lang mei* marriage custom.

The director adopts a restrained and composed style. The visual language moves fluidly alongside the characters’ destinies, creating a cohesive portrayal of their lives and inner worlds.

Rather than relying on intense dramatic conflict, the film unfolds through the subtle relationships and emotional struggles of its characters. There are no clearly defined villains or forces of evil to condemn. Instead, it observes the richness of human emotions and the inner struggles that emerge through the slow passage of life.

To modern audiences, waiting may seem painful, lonely, helpless, empty, or even absurd. For Runyue, however, waiting represents a conscious choice and a virtue—a moral commitment to enduring and remaining steadfast.

The film maintains a melancholic atmosphere throughout, with misty, damp and somber outdoor landscapes contrasted with dark interiors blackened by years of smoke. It concludes with Runyue living peacefully in her later years, breaking the film’s otherwise enclosed structure and reminding audiences that the custom of the *deng lang mei* is not as distant from our modern world as it may seem.