A ramble through heritage

An old man is often seen flying a kite, which looks like an eagle, on the Broken Bridge over West Lake in Hangzhou city, Zhejiang province. Seventeen years ago, he was diagnosed with cancer, and couldn't stop thinking about his misfortune.

To distract himself, he started to fly the kite, saying that when it went high, his worries seemed to fade.

The story is recounted in the series Ramble in World Heritage, which aired on CCTV-9, China Central Television's documentary channel, over Nov 28-30.

Coproduced by China Media Group and Japan's national broadcaster NHK, the production now has three episodes that feature Lijiang city in Yunnan province, Gulangyu Island in Fujian province and Hangzhou, which are UNESCO World Heritage sites. Two other episodes will be added to the series in the future.

The production adopts a creative style, showing the sites through conversations between two people in each episode.

"We wanted to explore a new style of expression, making our work less serious, and have a common touch," says Liu Hongyan, general director of the production.

Liu says her team took a different approach by adding fictional elements to the series about the sites.

"We put most of our effort into writing the dialogue for people (on screen)," she says.

The second episode takes viewers on a journey to Gulangyu, which is known as Kulangsu in the local dialect, while showing the story of two tourists on the island－a young man who's working in Beijing and his younger sister who wants to follow his path of seeking a better life in big cities. The beautiful scenery and local people's attachment to the island remind them of their own hometown.

"During our preparations before filming, we refined the theme of hometown, based on Gulangyu," Liu says.

"We found that two major groups living on the island, the local people and those who migrated there, both had affection for the place. It's literally the hometown for local people, and a second hometown for the migrants."

Then they combined this theme with young people's struggles in big cities, an important topic of the times, and created the story. "In this way, besides showing the city, we also show the reality that many young people face when making choices about where to settle down: to struggle in big cities or go back to hometowns," she says.

The production is also part of the team's effort to seek out common emotions, she adds.

In each episode, Liu and her team focus on ordinary relationships between two people, like husband and wife, brother and sister, or mother and son.

"They all have some problems, but they see the stories of others during their journeys, and solve some of their problems. Many people face similar problems, so the series may strike a chord with them," Liu explains.

Famous voice performers were invited to dub for the work, including Yang Tianxiang, Chen Yiwen and ethnic Mongolian singer Ayunga.

The series offers various angles to view the heritage sites: from the sky, water surface and even the eyes of animals.

"Since the places we show are well-known, they may not be fresh in the eyes of some people. We want to give the audience new impressions of the places they may be familiar with, so we show them from diverse angles, and combine them with the stories," says Liu.

The series is a work of successful cooperation.

Satoshi Kitagawa, a Japanese director of the series, says: "Crew members from both countries had in-depth communication during script-writing and filming, respecting each other's opinions and suggestions, and finally made a better work. That is the effect of coproduction."

Liu says: "Japanese crew members could also discover some unfamiliar parts of Chinese cultural heritage, like guqin, a traditional Chinese zither-like instrument, and show them in the work."