Throughout China, an estimated 1.2million people are now HIV+, many of whom are poor farmers from the central Henan Province, infected by selling their own blood. For more than a year, local filmmaker Weijun Chen lived with one family in the village of Wenlou. To Live is Better than to Die is an intimate account of their daily struggles to come to terms with the disease - and their attempts to think of the future for their three children, only one of whom is unaffected by this tragedy.

(http://www.griersontrust.org/sl_internatil.htm)

In the 1990s, Chinese farmers in Henan province sold their blood to make money and escape extreme poverty. However, poor hygiene conditions infected 60 percent of the farmers with HIV, and it was passed onto their children. To Live Is Better Than to Die features the hardship of life that Ma Shenyi, Lei Mei and their three children, the victims of this needless disaster, go through.

This documentary film that consists of four stories, told by the seasons, tenaciously captures the dying body of mother Lei Mei, who is now like a withered tree, and also the bodies of three children who know nothing about their infection. The incredible struggle of the father, who is also infected but dearly devoted to his dying wife and children, deepens the tragedy of this family. The truth, conveyed through shabby household goods and their skinny bodies, affects viewers strongly and deeply. Amid deep despair, paternal love and the devotion of the oldest daughter-the only child without the virus-never wither away, and that is what the film title conveys. On the 100th day after Lei Mei died, they mourn and pray silently. Accompanied by the fireworks of a spring festival, a new sprout comes out even in the frozen land.

(http://www.asianfilms.org/china/haosiburulaihuo.html)