The successful launch of two manned spacecraft has sparked space mania across the country.

Space heroes have toured the nation and were greeted with applause, flowers and red carpets; space science has become a hot major for university students and the selection of women astronauts has been praised by many.

A TV drama series entitled Shenzhou Missions captivated a TV audience when it was screened last month on China Central Television.

The latest vehicle for tapping into enthusiasm for space is a children's film called Golden Butterfly Knot (Jin Hudiejie), which depicts Chinese space scientists from a little girl's point of view.

"My film is dedicated to the unsung heroes," said Liu Liewa, who co-directed the film with Sun Xiaoguang.

"The public and the media's attention is mainly focusing on the space heroes such as Yang Liwei, Fei Junlong and Nie Haisheng, who successfully piloted the Shenzhou V and Shenzhou VI space missions.

"But generations of Chinese space scientists working behind these heroes and their family members are largely ignored."

The 90-minute feature film stars Wang Zehui as primary school girl Ding Duo and Liu Yi as her mother Su Hang, a space scientist working in a remote space base in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

It provides a vivid portrayal of a group of young Chinese space scientists that have made sacrifices and contributions to China's space missions in remote areas in the country over the decades.

The original script, co-authored by Liu Liewa and high school student Duo Ge, won a 2004 Xia Yan Film Literature Award. The film also won a Best Actress Huabiao Film Award this summer in Beijing.

(China Daily January 5, 2006)