Michael Wood traces thousands of years of Chinese history in this six part documentary travelogue series. He starts from the mythic age all the way to the present. It's millenia in three hundred sixty minutes. It is compelling and informative. It doesn't have the time to be that detailed although he hits on the main points. He's a great presenter but his boyish charms have weathered over the years. He brings a nice mix of academia with a human touch. He is the essential modern British explorer.
4 Reviews
Informative and Insightful
aarondodo18 February 2016
This new BBC series on Chinese history was full of pleasant surprises.
First surprise: the level of bias, for what I can remember as the first time in BBC or even the whole of western history, was as neutral as it gets. It is so often that we see strong bias against anything Chinese in the past few decades. Sometimes aggressive, sometimes defensive, most of the time suspicious and condescending. So much so that the joy of watching a good documentary - the exploration, the admiration, the feeling of opening up a door to a brand new world - were all lost. Nowadays "documentaries" about China are no longer documentaries, but excuses for us to criticize it. But that is not true for this series. It takes as little political position as possible, it speaks of China in ways that both the host and the Chinese themselves can agree with, all with understanding eyes instead of suspicious ones. And that, is the top notch documentary that so many of us are drawn to.
Second surprise: The host is so cheerful and charming, not to mention he seems utterly fascinated and awed by his subject matter, and that definitely leaves a mark on all of us watching. I see so much sincerity in his interest and joy, that I can't help but get excited too.
Third surprise: I knew that Michael Wood is an experienced and well known host/historian, but for anyone who have studied eastern cultures/history it is simply amazing that he can go through the history of China in 6 episode yet still point out the essential and important turns of events. It takes more than just knowledge to condense such a long story into a compact one, it takes years of refinement and understanding, years of critical analysis and discussion to find out the absolute key points. It simply amazes me how well he was able to incorporate not only "what happened", but also "why and how" into the story. There are threads of Chinese philosophy in all its plethora of forms dabbled throughout, in a way that reminds us time and time again that the essence of China has always been kept the same throughout history. It's just so much insight, in a way that is artistic and moving. In the first episode, I was impressed but not sure if he was able to pull off this series using themes and even philosophy, but now after watching episode 5, I am very confident that he can... And very, very impressed by it!
First surprise: the level of bias, for what I can remember as the first time in BBC or even the whole of western history, was as neutral as it gets. It is so often that we see strong bias against anything Chinese in the past few decades. Sometimes aggressive, sometimes defensive, most of the time suspicious and condescending. So much so that the joy of watching a good documentary - the exploration, the admiration, the feeling of opening up a door to a brand new world - were all lost. Nowadays "documentaries" about China are no longer documentaries, but excuses for us to criticize it. But that is not true for this series. It takes as little political position as possible, it speaks of China in ways that both the host and the Chinese themselves can agree with, all with understanding eyes instead of suspicious ones. And that, is the top notch documentary that so many of us are drawn to.
Second surprise: The host is so cheerful and charming, not to mention he seems utterly fascinated and awed by his subject matter, and that definitely leaves a mark on all of us watching. I see so much sincerity in his interest and joy, that I can't help but get excited too.
Third surprise: I knew that Michael Wood is an experienced and well known host/historian, but for anyone who have studied eastern cultures/history it is simply amazing that he can go through the history of China in 6 episode yet still point out the essential and important turns of events. It takes more than just knowledge to condense such a long story into a compact one, it takes years of refinement and understanding, years of critical analysis and discussion to find out the absolute key points. It simply amazes me how well he was able to incorporate not only "what happened", but also "why and how" into the story. There are threads of Chinese philosophy in all its plethora of forms dabbled throughout, in a way that reminds us time and time again that the essence of China has always been kept the same throughout history. It's just so much insight, in a way that is artistic and moving. In the first episode, I was impressed but not sure if he was able to pull off this series using themes and even philosophy, but now after watching episode 5, I am very confident that he can... And very, very impressed by it!
Mesmerizing.
nampach-500-89602225 August 2016
I live next door to a Chinese family that runs a Chinese restaurant. They are very pleasant but do not (cannot?) socialize and so I have always thought of them as indifferent to us. Having seen this documentary I will henceforth regard them with greater respect. In addition I could understand if they regarded us as being inferior to them - I know they don't. I now can see that, as a nation we are as children when compared to China. I sat through the entire series in awe of both the revealed history and of the expertise of Michael Wood in condensing it into only 6 episodes. His exposition of how the Chinese have managed to hand down and hold on to values formed thousands of years ago held me spellbound.
Excellent & Entertaining: Essential for Understanding Modern China
bgkmaywood-27-74142329 June 2018
Informative, even-handed,very well done. Essential for understanding modern China. This is a well-thought-out documentary the (amazingly) covers thousands of year of history in a thoughtful and interesting way, rather than become "a long march" through history.Michael Wood's use of individual Chinese persons/families keeps the flow going in an otherwise impossible task...keeping it interesting and entertaining.
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