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Based on an original short story by renowned Chinese author Lu Xun, New Year Sacrifice tells the harrowing yet moving tale of a young woman whose tragic life eventually forces her to the fringes of society. In the years before the Revolution of 1911, an impoverished woman is sold off as a child bride. When her husband dies an unexpected death shortly thereafter, the young widow is enslaved and eventually sold by her cruel mother-in-law. Though her subsequent marriage to a poor peasant surprisingly turns out to be a happy one, the woman soon finds fate striking back with a vengeance as her husband and child pass on seemingly before their times. As a result of her constant misfortune, the frightened villagers begin to look upon the woman as a bad omen. Now shunned from society, the tragic woman is forced into a life of seclusion and loneliness.