A Lifelong Dream

In 2009, Cao came to Anren with his collection. The reason he chose Anren was to do with the climate. “Preserving filmstrips requires temperatures ranging from 12 to 25 degrees centigrade and humidity of above 65 percent. The climate in Anren is perfect,” explained Cao.

Upon hearing about Cao, managers of a cultural development company in Anren decided to help him realize his dream of sharing his collection with other film lovers. They supported the establishment of the movie museum at Liu Yuanxuan’s Mansion in the town. On the day the museum was formally established in 2011, Cao felt gratified in the knowledge he had built a paradise for old movie lovers like him.

In fact, Cao has given up much in pursuing his dream. He resigned from his job as a manager in a state-owned enterprise, and his wife left him because he spent too much money and energy on his collection. Cao has also accumulated a huge amount of debt. However, no difficulty stands in his way. “As I appreciate every piece of my collection, they seem like children, and I feel I can’t live without them,” Cao said.

Thanks to Cao’s collection, other film lovers now have the opportunity to realize their lifelong dreams. For example, an old woman in Shandong Province participated in the production of a documentary about New Year woodblock prints in the 1970s, but had never seen it. She wanted to watch it very much, but it was not easy to find such an old documentary. Her family members made contact with Cao in 2009 and he found he had bought a copy of it in Guang’an City, Sichuan Province in 2005. Cao immediately transferred a copy onto a disc and sent it to the old lady. Not long after, Cao received a call from her family. They told him how happy she had been to watch it. The woman passed away a week later.

In the museum are various stationary movie projectors. The oldest is a Songhuajiang 5501 type 35 mm stationary film projector. It was modeled on a projector bought from the U.S.S.R. and produced by the Harbin Film Machinery Plant in the early 1950s. Cao bought the projector from a retired projectionist in Shaanxi Province.

One day a special visitor came to the museum. The old man asked for a chair and just sat beside the Songhuajiang 5501 projector for half an hour, before bursting into tears. He turned out to be an engineer who had participated in the development and production of this movie projector. It was totally beyond his expectations that he would ever see the machine again in his old age, so triggering so many memories about his career. He thanked Cao and said he had nothing left to wish for after seeing the projector again.

Cao is now in his late 50s. He has been thinking of how to preserve and pass on his collection to future generations. “I have spent most of my life collecting over 200,000 old film-related items. I can’t afford to lose any of them,” said Cao. He said he has the simplest wish as a collector: to donate the museum to society when he gets too old to manage it so that all people can share in his treasures.