By Zhang Lei

　　In an attempt to raise awareness and foster a deeper understanding of the green peacock, Wild China Film teamed up with college students in Beijing to present the stage play Peacock on the Tip of the Heart at Star Theaters last month.

　　The audience applauded wildly at the end of the play, and Xi Zhinong and Shi Lihong, founders of Wild China Film, who produce the play based on peacock protection, expressed their gratitude to these amateur actors who, passionate about wildlife, were willing to give so freely of their time.

　　Twenty years ago in Lancang River Basin in Yunnan province Xi captured some of the best photos taken of one of the most beautiful birds in China, the flying green peacock. In 2017 when Xi returned to the place where he filmed the green peacock, he was surprised to find that all traces of such birds were gone. So to save this beautiful species, Xi started work on protecting the green peacock, camera in hand.

　　According to a survey by the Kunming Institute of Zoology, part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, fewer than 500 of the peacocks may still exist, and it has now become one of China's most endangered wildlife species, even rarer than the giant panda.

　　Xi has photographed countless rare wild animals, and he is determined to use the images to promote wildlife protection.

　　"If you do nothing, you may not even change anything," he said. "If you do it, you may affect more people; if more people can do it together, that may bring real changes."

　　In 1983 Xi started a field investigation hosted by Yunnan University on wild birds in the province, and took part in filming the documentary Bird's Paradise. It was his first exposure to wildlife photography.

　　By working with photographers he witnessed the serious negative impact of traditional wildlife photography on bird-life, and was horrified by photographers' tactics that included tying the bird on a leash or shocking it to fluster. This gave birth to his photography concept of "not interfering with wildlife".

　　In 1990 Xi was a photographer for one of China Central Television's most popular and influential programs, Animal World. He twice entered the Dawei Mountain Nature Reserve and the Dulong River Nature Reserve in Yunnan. During the three-month shooting he saw no large wild animals, but instead, the skulls of white wagtail and langur, the fur of impala, the victims of assailants wielding slingshots and crossbows. Xi had earlier been wholly preoccupied by the desire to photograph birds, but he now realized that if people were to be made aware of the importance of protecting the environment, much more than pictures of birds was required.

　　"A good wildlife work can cut through to people's hearts, and that is the power of nature," Xi said.

　　"However, to render this authenticity, in addition to high degree of color restoration, the performance of different color gamut is also required. For example, a penguin's body has many gray tones, and there are many in the surrounding environment, too. These tones will produce a very dim picture … Fortunately, with quality lenses and a lot of experience you can get some remarkable shots in terms of gray scale. This effect makes the picture transitions more natural and expressive."

　　In 1992 Xi left Animal World and followed the Yunnan golden monkey research team, a three-year project by the World Wide Fund for Nature deep into the Baima Snow Mountain National Nature Reserve to shoot golden snub-nosed monkeys.

　　After three years of hard work he filmed the documentary Mystery Yunnan Snub-Nosed Monkey. These hauntingly beautiful primates, gentler than others of their kind and elfin-like, seem at once childlike and wise beyond their years.

　　It was the first time that humans had recorded the activities of Yunnan snub-nosed monkeys with a camera. The documentary is not only of important academic value, but has been praised for its artistic value and was later used as teaching material for environmental education in college classes. The film won the TVE award at the prestigious Wildscreen Festival in Bristol, England, in 2002.

　　After gaining fame with the film, Xi, started working on another documentary, Mystery Monkeys of Shangri-La, in 2012. It depicts a monkey family led by a formidable elderly leader that protects its eight or 10 clans against the hardships in the Himalayas using defensive strategies, collaboration and interdependence to survive. The film received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Nature Programming in 2016.

　　Xi was born in Dali, Yunnan, a place close to nature, where wolves' howl can be heard at night. He thought that the world should be like what he witnessed in childhood.

　　In 1997 he entered Hoh Xil Nature Reserve in Qinghai province and photographed newborn lambs in the wild, wild wolves that were adept at swiftly evading the attentions of the camera, wild donkey herds that escaped from the paws of wolves, and direct evidence that Tibetan antelopes had been poached.

　　"We found 11 places with such corpses, and 89 ewes were killed by poachers, not including unborn lambs."

　　The scene was shocking, he said.

　　"In China, to be a wildlife photographer, a desperate love for nature is the minimum you need. You also need to be patient and have strong nerve. You have to be able to face horrific scenes, you have to endure anger, and you have to record and record again."

　　His records and materials have become a potent weapon in promoting protection of Tibetan antelopes, and thanks to his work, care for protecting the Tibetan antelope has traveled well past China's borders.

　　The Chinese Wildlife Photography Training Camp that Xi set up 15 years ago has become the Natural Image School, its aim being to cultivate more wildlife photographers to make the best nature movies in China. The Cangshan Mountain Nature Education Center, which he set up in 2016, is located at an altitude of 3,800 meters in Dali, Yunnan.

　　There is more to photography than just taking pictures, Xi said. "Photography is a tool, a powerful weapon for nature conservation. But you have to be a good photographer in order to make images strike a chord with the softest spot of one's heart."

　　Xi and his wife Shi, on average make 50 to 60 public speeches a year around the globe to promote their causes, and they are trying every new alternative venue such as the peacock stage play to help get their message across.