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!
