Where did he get the story?
After doing some reading, I found out that Tian Zhuangzhuang originally meant the movie to be set in modern-day China, but the Chinese authorities added the introduction to make it seem that it all took place in the 1920s. Unfortunately this is the information that has persisted in all the reviews I've read in the West and elsewhere.
So his idea was to criticize the Communist influence on such minority cultures as the Tibetans (and also the Mongolians, the subject of another of his films). Of course he was quite young and not Tibetan. He didn't understand Tibetan culture very well, but he did the best job he could. He was censured when he returned to Beijing and only 10 copies of the film were allowed out in China. My VHS copy is dated 1991 (bought in the U.S.), so even though it was made in 1986, it took that long to get to me, anyway.
My curiosity is about where he got the idea for the story. Who wrote the script? Did he write it? Was it based on some kind of folk tale from China? Or what?
If anybody knows, please post an answer. Thanks!
Stirling