Singer-songwriter Su Yang has been traveling around Northwest China collecting folk material from local artists. [Photo provided to China Daily]

In 2016, Su and a team of filmmakers visited four folk artists in different locations, who have influenced his music, and shot the documentary, The River in Me, which is set to be released in Chinese cinemas on June 18. The film was screened during this year's Cannes Film Festival on May 18. As the music director of the documentary, Su is also the narrator who links the four people together.

The four folk artists are Ma Fengshan, who lives in Gu'an county, Ningxia, and sings hua'er songs; Wei Zongfu, who lives in a mountainous area of Huanxian county, Gansu province, and is a shadow puppetry master; Zhang Jinlai from Yinchuan who performs Qinqiang Opera, an art form featuring high-pitched sounds; and Liu Shikai, a storyteller from Yanchi county, Ningxia.

Besides performing as folk artists, the four also work as farmers to make a living.

"I've known them for more than 10 years," says Su, who was born in Wenling, a coastal city in East China's Zhejiang province, and moved to Yinchuan with his parents at the age of 7.