It was the midnight of July 20. Zhang Huibo sat down at his desk in the projection room. The equipment began to roll for a screening of “A First Farewell,” a new movie released on the day cinemas in China were allowed to reopen to the public after six months of closure due to COVID-19. This was the moment the 22-year-old projectionist dreamed of for months.
“It feels great. The air-conditioning is cool like before. Everything feels familiar,” Zhang told CGTN.
If it wasn’t for the virus, this would have been a regular work shift for Zhang, whose love for movies landed him a job at Wandi cinema in his hometown Lishui, in east China’s Zhejiang, about three years ago.