On August 9, Spotlaw arrived in Xiangxi with great enthusiasm, embarking on an unforgettable week-long journey. We spent time with local students, teaching them basic drama skills and engaging in play rehearsals. Over the course of four days, we coordinated three plays, incorporating music and lighting. Starting with line memorization, prop familiarization, and emotional exploration of the characters, every movement and arrangement was finally well-choreographed by Spotlaw and the students. Unlike the awkwadness at the start, students were fully immersed in their characters in final performances and radiated excitement on stage.

Spotlaw began its preparation by thoroughly researching the topics for the plays, aiming to incorporate legal awareness in a way that resonated deeply with the community. In order to make plays more fun instead of dry and direct instruction, they delved into related laws, ensuring that the plays reflected accurate and relevant legal content. Moreover, they also continued getting contact with local students in the form of video or audio calls to have a more detailed picture of the real status quo at the current Xiangxi. This way, the team aims to make the overall story more vivid and closer to the audience’s real life. Besides interacting with the students, the team also contacted the school principals to confirm the execution details for the upcoming summer, including rehearsal schedules, student accommodation, and more.

Building on last year’s topics and researching on the internet, we brainstormed and preliminarily confirmed five topics—telecom fraud, school bullying, juvenile delinquency, domestic violence, and “out of the mountains”—for this year’s activity. To refine our focus, we conducted interviews and distributed questionnaires to local students, gaining insight into their experiences and needs. Through this process, we discovered that issues like bullying and fraud indeed existed. Additionally, many students lacked clear plans about their future such as staying in the village or moving to the city. Based on these findings, we finally ascertain the subjects as school bullying, domestic violence, and telecom fraud.