There are 75,000 children in China orphaned by AIDS (2004). In Yingzhou District, impoverished farmers sell their blood for 53 yuan (slightly less than $7) and some cake. The plasma is removed from the blood, and the remainder re-injected into the donors, so that they can recover quicker to donate again. Infected blood has given AIDS to 10% of the population of some villages.
The Blood of Yingzhou District chronicles the lives of several orphans: and also documents the efforts of Chinese and foreign relief workers to help the children, even though the challenge appears overwhelming.
No one knows how old Gao Jun is. Four? Older? Younger? Whatever his biological age, he has none of the verbal babble, or ready tears, of a child his age. The film tracks this orphan for a year as his closest surviving kin - his uncles - weigh what to do with him.
The older uncle's dilemma: if he allows his children to play with Gao Jun, who is HIV-positive, they will be ostracized by terrified neighbors. The younger uncle's dilemma: so long as Gao Jun remains in the house, the young man may not be able to find a wife. Gao Jun is one of just a handful of children we come to know in this film.
Nan Nan who after her parents' death, was shunned by relatives and left to live without adult care, with "Little Flower," her teen-age sister; and the Huang siblings who vividly describe their ostracism at school. The result of misinformation about the nature of the disease, the suffering of these orphans is all the more devastating for being largely unnecessary.