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If the test of cultural prosperity lies in the prosperity of documentaries, then the year 2011 has brought the great news for all the documentary makers and audience across China. CCTV, China’s largest television network, ushered in a documentary channel to screen nothing but documentaries on the New Year’s Day. The initiation of the national documentary television channel is considered as arrival of the vernal spring of the national documentary industry.
Zhejiang boasts quite a few experienced documentary producers and a batch of prize-winning documentaries made in recent years. The following are a few representative documentaries made in Zhejiang.
West Lake
For centuries, the West Lake in Hangzhou has stood to symbolize a kind of life everybody dreams of: natural beauty, prosperity, peace, art, poetry. In a sense, the lake stands for the city and the province. However, most people know the beauty of the West Lake only on the surface. For the profound cultural context of the West Lake had never before been presented in a way that everybody could easily appreciate. In order to best present the West Lake in an unprecedented way, Zhejiang Radio and Television Group launched a project to make a ten-episode documentary in 2007 with a total investment of 10 million. The producers and script writers studied the West Lake thoroughly. They summarized the beauty of the West Lake in a simple statement: the beauty of the lake started with nature and is now consummated with culture. The lake has never been a regional phenomenon: it belongs not only to Hangzhou and Zhejiang but also to China and the world. The 10-million documentary touches upon various aspects of the lake: the memory of the national capital; the yesteryears of the lake; the scenic charm of the lake; the religious pilgrims; the regional opera and its repertoire; artists of the lake; the West Lake Expo; tales and folklore of the lake; and the paradise. The episodes highlight the lake’s geography, history, human interests, culture and art, life and religion, modern business, science and technology. In the post-production period, the crew put together three versions but none was good enough. The fourth version was a resounding success.
The documentary was first screened on March 1, 2010 on Zhejiang Satellite Television, causing a sensation. It has been repeatedly screened. Meanwhile channels of CCTV vied each other in purchasing the rights to screen the documentary. CCTV International Corporation, TVB and three other video publishers competed for the right to international distribution.
100 Years of Yueju Opera
It took five years for a group of professionals in Hangzhou to complete this documentary in honor of Yueju Opera, which originated in Zhejiang and spread to the whole country over the past century. With the most authoritative information, the documentary features stories on and off the stage of the regional opera, showcasing its history, masters, events, and representative plays from its repertoire. After it was screened in 2010 on the occasion of the opening of the China Yueju Opera Festival, the documentary received applauses from experts, artists of Yueju Opera, and audiences. It is said to be the most authentic, most elegant, and most complete and most touching visual record of the Yueju Opera.
Zhejiang Cultural Geography
The epic documentary was screened first on September 13, 2009 on Zhejiang Satellite Television. Directed by the national grade-one director Xu Jifeng, the documentary took three years to complete. It tells the story of Zhejiang’s cultural past and present. With a focus on movers and shakers of cultural events in the south of Yangtze River Delta, the documentary is characterized by fine photography and elegant textual illustration.
The stories of the 7,000-year history of Zhejiang are narrated through representative subjects such as calligraphy, sword, music, Buddhism monks, Qin (a traditional Chinese musical instrument), boats, tea, architecture, private libraries and celadon. People get to know what an ancient horizontal fiddle a legendary prime minister of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) played, what the ancient city of Liangzhu looked like 4,500 years ago, what the book looks like, whose price was once calculated by page and paid in gold. The audience also gets to know some dramatic moments of the cultural past of Zhejiang: a much-celebrated gathering of poets is said to have been a secret meeting of a military junta; a highly celebrated authenticator from Zhejiang bought a fake sword which presumably had been used by a king of Yue Kingdom; tea sippers of the Song Dynasty (960-1279) used a mysterious yet magic way of distributing tea leaves,
The documentary proves that the culture of Zhejiang as well as that of China is an uninterrupted whole since immemorial times. It is widely acclaimed for showcasing the very cultural roots of the province.
Chinese Ambassadors
The 26-episode documentary was directed by He Yani, a senior broadcaster and producer with Zhejiang Television. She has traveled a lot and interviewed a full range of people from all walks of life at home and abroad. The experience inspired the woman journalist to interview Chinese diplomats. She had some misgivings: she feared that the sensitive project would probably never get the green light from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. But it might be worth a try. In the first half of 2005, He Yani got her plan ready. With the green light from the Zhejiang Television, she approached the ministry. The ministry liked the idea. With extensive discussions for nearly a year, the production plan was finalized and approved. From June 2006 on and for more than a year, the documentary crew interviewed eleven Chinese ambassadors. The crew gathered information from the archives of the foreign ministry and the national archive. The crew also interviewed senior government officials, ambassadors, experts and diplomats of UK, Switzerland, France, and USA. The documentary touched on important historical events such as “Ping-pong diplomacy”, ceasefire negotiations at Panmunjeom, Bandung Conference, and airplanes crash over the South China Sea.
The documentary started screening at the prime time on October 29, 2007. The favorite response flooded in. Director He Yani got a call from a retired general living in Nanjing who expressed his surprise and congratulation. He watched the first episode and thought it was a documentary made and screened by CCTV. He called to ask whether the documentary was made by Zhejiang itself or purchased from CCTV. He was astonished to learn that it was made by Zhejiang Television. □
Zhejiang boasts quite a few experienced documentary producers and a batch of prize-winning documentaries made in recent years. The following are a few representative documentaries made in Zhejiang.
West Lake
For centuries, the West Lake in Hangzhou has stood to symbolize a kind of life everybody dreams of: natural beauty, prosperity, peace, art, poetry. In a sense, the lake stands for the city and the province. However, most people know the beauty of the West Lake only on the surface. For the profound cultural context of the West Lake had never before been presented in a way that everybody could easily appreciate. In order to best present the West Lake in an unprecedented way, Zhejiang Radio and Television Group launched a project to make a ten-episode documentary in 2007 with a total investment of 10 million. The producers and script writers studied the West Lake thoroughly. They summarized the beauty of the West Lake in a simple statement: the beauty of the lake started with nature and is now consummated with culture. The lake has never been a regional phenomenon: it belongs not only to Hangzhou and Zhejiang but also to China and the world. The 10-million documentary touches upon various aspects of the lake: the memory of the national capital; the yesteryears of the lake; the scenic charm of the lake; the religious pilgrims; the regional opera and its repertoire; artists of the lake; the West Lake Expo; tales and folklore of the lake; and the paradise. The episodes highlight the lake’s geography, history, human interests, culture and art, life and religion, modern business, science and technology. In the post-production period, the crew put together three versions but none was good enough. The fourth version was a resounding success.
The documentary was first screened on March 1, 2010 on Zhejiang Satellite Television, causing a sensation. It has been repeatedly screened. Meanwhile channels of CCTV vied each other in purchasing the rights to screen the documentary. CCTV International Corporation, TVB and three other video publishers competed for the right to international distribution.
100 Years of Yueju Opera
It took five years for a group of professionals in Hangzhou to complete this documentary in honor of Yueju Opera, which originated in Zhejiang and spread to the whole country over the past century. With the most authoritative information, the documentary features stories on and off the stage of the regional opera, showcasing its history, masters, events, and representative plays from its repertoire. After it was screened in 2010 on the occasion of the opening of the China Yueju Opera Festival, the documentary received applauses from experts, artists of Yueju Opera, and audiences. It is said to be the most authentic, most elegant, and most complete and most touching visual record of the Yueju Opera.
Zhejiang Cultural Geography
The epic documentary was screened first on September 13, 2009 on Zhejiang Satellite Television. Directed by the national grade-one director Xu Jifeng, the documentary took three years to complete. It tells the story of Zhejiang’s cultural past and present. With a focus on movers and shakers of cultural events in the south of Yangtze River Delta, the documentary is characterized by fine photography and elegant textual illustration.
The stories of the 7,000-year history of Zhejiang are narrated through representative subjects such as calligraphy, sword, music, Buddhism monks, Qin (a traditional Chinese musical instrument), boats, tea, architecture, private libraries and celadon. People get to know what an ancient horizontal fiddle a legendary prime minister of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) played, what the ancient city of Liangzhu looked like 4,500 years ago, what the book looks like, whose price was once calculated by page and paid in gold. The audience also gets to know some dramatic moments of the cultural past of Zhejiang: a much-celebrated gathering of poets is said to have been a secret meeting of a military junta; a highly celebrated authenticator from Zhejiang bought a fake sword which presumably had been used by a king of Yue Kingdom; tea sippers of the Song Dynasty (960-1279) used a mysterious yet magic way of distributing tea leaves,
The documentary proves that the culture of Zhejiang as well as that of China is an uninterrupted whole since immemorial times. It is widely acclaimed for showcasing the very cultural roots of the province.
Chinese Ambassadors
The 26-episode documentary was directed by He Yani, a senior broadcaster and producer with Zhejiang Television. She has traveled a lot and interviewed a full range of people from all walks of life at home and abroad. The experience inspired the woman journalist to interview Chinese diplomats. She had some misgivings: she feared that the sensitive project would probably never get the green light from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. But it might be worth a try. In the first half of 2005, He Yani got her plan ready. With the green light from the Zhejiang Television, she approached the ministry. The ministry liked the idea. With extensive discussions for nearly a year, the production plan was finalized and approved. From June 2006 on and for more than a year, the documentary crew interviewed eleven Chinese ambassadors. The crew gathered information from the archives of the foreign ministry and the national archive. The crew also interviewed senior government officials, ambassadors, experts and diplomats of UK, Switzerland, France, and USA. The documentary touched on important historical events such as “Ping-pong diplomacy”, ceasefire negotiations at Panmunjeom, Bandung Conference, and airplanes crash over the South China Sea.
The documentary started screening at the prime time on October 29, 2007. The favorite response flooded in. Director He Yani got a call from a retired general living in Nanjing who expressed his surprise and congratulation. He watched the first episode and thought it was a documentary made and screened by CCTV. He called to ask whether the documentary was made by Zhejiang itself or purchased from CCTV. He was astonished to learn that it was made by Zhejiang Television. □