The Mosuo Sisters

Sisters Jumo and Latso earn their living as dancers in a Peking bar. They moved to the capital from a Himalayan village in search of the ‘modern life’. As members of the Mosuo, a Chinese ethnic group whose matriarchal structure means that women are the lynchpins of the family, most of the money Jumo and Latso earn is sent home. The sisters are forced to return to the foothills after losing their jobs, however, and Latso lets her dreams of education fall to concentrate on family life and fieldwork. Juma, on the other hand, decides to continue trying her luck in the urban environment. However, the reality of the surrounding provincial towns falls well below her expectations. Marlo Poras followed the two very different sisters as they try to balance cultural traditions on one side and modern role models on the other.