CRI听力:?Cinema attracts visually impaired audience in Beijing

For a lucky few non-sighted people in Beijing, Saturday is film day in a courtyard cinema in Xicheng district.

Xuwei ,a volunteer at the cinema acts as a narrator to "depict" the films through a loudspeaker for the visually impaired audience.

Xu suggests he finds the narration work is quite challenging as his audience largely rely on auditory descriptions and imagination as well as sense of touch.

And he has to make a lot of preparation beforehand.

"When I first received the task to narrate the film for blind people, I felt a bit nervous. I did quite a lot of preparation at home and drafted a script to try to accurately describe the picture and precisely get the idea of the movie through to the audience,"Xu says.

The cinema, named Xinmu, literally meaning to see with the heart, was opened in Beijing 12 years ago.

It’s reported to be China's first cinema for blind people.

Instead of forbidding people from speaking during screening, it requires someone to speak very loudly.

Due to a lack of funding, the equipment at Xinmu is quite shoddy.

In a 30-square-meter house, there is one television set, a DVD player, a loudspeaker and about 30 chairs.

But this doesn't dampen the audience's enthusiasm.

Since it was established, Xinmu has recieved thousands of visually impaired moviegoers and showed hundreds of films. The cinema has also become a regular gathering place for blind people.

Xie Jinying is a regular guest at the cinema.
The eighty-year-old suggests the special cinema helps him perceive the colourful world through darkness and bring happiness for him.

“I feel really warm when I come here. We come to listen to the film. We can’t actually see anything, yet it seems like we really watch the film when we hear the narration. It feels great. The staff members here are very responsible. We sit and chat with each other. I feel happy. And it’s like a family which always make me feel at home,"Xie noted.

Statistics show that there are more than 6 million blind people in China. A great many of them reportedly live far outside mainstream society. A lack of basic amenities keeps them shut-in.

The Cinema is opened by Wang Weili, a local resident in Beijing.

He suggests blind people really want to communicate with sighted people and to feel like they are part of society.  

At his cinema, Wang says his audience can enjoy the pleasures of visual arts and the films give them a greater understanding of society.

"I think for those who are visually impaired, it’s very important to deliver more information for them in a way that could get through to them. And this could help them to better integrate into society. So apart from improving the service of the cinema, we’re also dedicated in the production of audible books for the blind and help make it more convenient for them to get information,"Wang added.

Wang said more than 500 volunteers have come to the cinema to narrate films, including some renowned TV anchors. He said they need more young people to join them to help narrate films.