A town built by the people

Zhu's book, published in December 2021, was shaped by the writer's interviews with nearly 100 people who personally experienced the birth and development of Longgang, a county-level city administered by Wenzhou in East China's Zhejiang province.

Once an area of tidal flats made up of five fishing villages and home to 8,000 residents, Longgang is regarded as a pioneer in the country's urbanization campaign. It underwent three milestone transformations: being designated as a town relying on self-raised money in 1984, named "China's printing city" in 2002, and becoming the nation's first town-turned-city in 2019.

Director Sun Hao was captivated by the project while he was still engaged in post-production work for the second season of the costume drama Joy of Life.

Sun was a college student at the Shanghai Theatre Academy in 1986, and he found that the story — centered on a group of local officials leading townspeople to strive for economic development — evoked the vigorous, resolute ethos of that earlier era: a time when dreams, pursued with diligence, often came within reach.