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As a reporter,
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I've traveled the Middle East for many years.
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It's an area that is always fascinated me.
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But in my work, I've mainly covered its war zones,
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its crises and its tragedies.
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This journey, which takes me down the Silk Road,
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in the footsteps of Marco Polo
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gives me the opportunity of exploring
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the great historical and cultural significance
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of this part of the world.
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Its ancient melting pots of peoples and civilizations
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that have contributed so much to our own.
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(upbeat music)
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Gansu Province is situated on the principal routes
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of the ancient Silk Road,
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where it passes between the grasslands of Mongolia,
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and the vast Tibetan plateau
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before arriving in China itself, that of the hand.
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(gentle music)
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In the center of this province
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stands the Zhangjiajie National Geopark,
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known for its geological formations, sandstone masses
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and colorful stripes.
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It attracts tourists from all over the people's republic.
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(gentle music)
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Aside from having the largest population in the world,
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China is also one of the largest countries,
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covering 9.5 million square kilometers,
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15 times the size of France.
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Historically, the Chinese have always considered themselves
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as being the center of the world,
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which explains the name they give their country,
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the Middle Empire.
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Access to this Empire has to be earned.
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From the Wei Yuan territories of central Asia,
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the caravans needed to travel a good 1,000 kilometers
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due east to arrive in latter day China.
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(dramatic music)
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This stretch of the Silk Road
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is nicknamed the Hexi Corridor.
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Following this trail from Dunhuang
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is a bit like taking a journey of initiation
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from the world of barbarians, that is to say, the West,
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to the Chinese Empire.
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(dramatic music)
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(goats bleeting)
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(gentle music)
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Several times of the course of its history,
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China has closed its doors.
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Sheltered behind the Great Wall,
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the Middle Empire preferred to live introspectively.
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Then, the following century, China would once again
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open up to the world, and to new ideas.
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Centuries of expansion, centuries of contraction,
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this swinging movement has regulated China's history
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for the last 4,000 years.
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(dramatic music)
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[Narrator Voiceover] Over hundreds,
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not to say thousands of years,
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the Middle Empire remained voluntarily isolated
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from the world.
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But this period is well and truly over.
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When you see this, you realize that the Chinese
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are intent upon the dialogue between cultures.
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Faced with a monument, and homage to Roman legionaries,
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it's really quite impressive.
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(dramatic music)
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A Roman legionary greeting a Chinese soldier
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with karateca salute.
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This encounter could appear incongruous,
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but it synthesizes 2,000 years of history
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along the Silk Road.
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(gentle music)
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(speaks in foreign language)
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The explanation behind the statue in fact,
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goes back to the beginnings of the caravan trail
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when the Romans discovered silk
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following one of the worst defeats of their history.
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During the first century BCE, Crassus, son of Triumvir,
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was jealous of the glory acquired by his colleagues,
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Julius Caesar and Pompeii,
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so he decided to invade Asia Minor,
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but he was crushed by the calvary of the Parthian Empire.
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This was the Battle of Carrhae in the year 53 BCE.
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The Parthians exiled those they had beaten
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to the other end of the Empire,
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where the captive Roman soldiers
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took part in a second battle, this time against the Chinese.
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Once again defeated,
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the Chinese deported them even further east.
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As legend has it, they ended up here in Liqian.
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As proof, there are villages here whose eyes and hair
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are considerable lighter than most Chinese people.
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They consider themselves to be the last descendants
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of the lost legions of Crassus,
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and refer to each other as blonds.
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[Narrator Voiceover] Is it difficult to grow up blond
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as a small child in China,
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or were you like any other children in the village?
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When we were small,
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when we were school children,
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we attracted a lot of attention.
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Sometimes our classmates gave us nicknames.
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They'd call you blue eyes, or even the foreigner.
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Yeah, really, they would call you the foreigner or English.
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We were always made fun of.
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Oh, the blondie, they'd say, as if it were an illness.
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The other children teased us.
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When they got annoyed, they would say,
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How come you look like a monkey with blond fur?
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No one really wanted to play with us which made us angry.
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That's what it was like.
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(laughing)
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Recent DNA tests have confirmed the presence
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of Caucasian genes in Liqian,
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but nothing proves that this is inherited
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from the Crassus legions.
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It could just as well be related
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to a population from Siberia,
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or simply the mixture of peoples drawn to the Silk Road.
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[Narrator Voiceover] In the old village of Liqian,
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what was the proportion of people
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born with light colored eyes and fair hair?
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In the old village of Liqian,
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there are slightly more than 350 inhabitants,
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of whom about 50 to 60% have Caucasian traits.
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Like, for example, an aquiline nose,
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blond hair or fair skin.
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There are more than 100 people with these traits.
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[Narrator Voiceover] And if you had the choice,
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if you could choose for your children or grandchildren,
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would you like them to be born blond
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like the old inhabitants of Liqian
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or dark haired, like the other 1.3 billion Chinese?
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I'd prefer them
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to be born like the Chinese, and not blond.
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(laughing)
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But there's not a lot to be said for it.
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(laughing)
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[Narrator Voiceover] And what do you think?
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Today, for those of us
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with European features, be it a long nose,
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very fair skin or blond hair,
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we're above all Chinese.
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History is history.
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Today, we have our feet firmly on the ground.
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We are Chinese.
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As far as the appearance of our children
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and grandchildren is concerned,
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the important thing is that they're happy in the village
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and our society, that they're keen to see our village
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and ourselves develop well.
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It matters little what they look like.
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(laughing)
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Today, the authorities are keen
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to further the notion of these supposed ancestors.
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The sons of the sky who deified their emperors,
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paid homage to another emperor who became a deity, Augustus.
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(gentle music)
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They've gone as far as building a pagoda
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in the form of a Roman temple
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to pay homage to these ancestors.
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What's more, construction work has already begun
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for a vast fun park and a cinema studio.
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(gentle music)
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In the Buddhist doctrine,
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everything is an eternal recommencement.
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And in Liqian, the conquering soul of the legionaries
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seems to have found its reincarnation
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in today's inhabitants.
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[Narrator Voiceover] Oh, they're crazy, these Romans,
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while these Chinese, to build on the edge of the Gobi Desert
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a legionary castrum,
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a cinema studio to film historical epics, and what's more,
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this enormous Buddhist temple
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in the form of an ancient Roman temple.
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So whether you agree with the theory
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of the lost legions of Crassus or not,
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it's none the less an impressive demonstration
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of dialogue between cultures,
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and the message is clear,
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modern China is open to the world.
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(dramatic music)
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(gentle music)
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To the south of Liqian
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is the capital of the province of Gansu, Lanzhou.
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The city stretches along 30 kilometers of the Yellow River,
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or Huang He, a vital artery of northern China.
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Historically, it was crossed on rafts,
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made of inflated sheepskin sacks,
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some of which are still in service.
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[Narrator Voiceover] It's funny to find yourself
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on one of the oldest forms of transport,
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dating back to the depths of prehistory,
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in the middle of an ultra modern city
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of five million inhabitants with an aerial lift,
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bridges, and skyscrapers everywhere.
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(birds chirping)
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(group singing)
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Here, there's no doubt about it,
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we are well and truly in China.
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Mandarin is spoken by everyone, and sometimes sung
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as with these retired people
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who meet up in the public parks to practice.
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Marco Polo spent more than a year in Lanzhou,
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employed as an Imperial official.
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He wrote a description of the famous Dujiangyan system
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which was used to irrigate the outskirts of the city.
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(gentle music)
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(snapping)
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(upbeat music)
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[Narrator Voiceover] One thing
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which is striking in Lanzhou,
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apart from prosperity and the enormity of the city
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is the smell.
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The city is extremely polluted, and you can smell it.
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This is indeed one of the great challenges
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that China is faced with.
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Equating the economic boom with ecological necessities.
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(dramatic music)
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As an industrial city,
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Lanzhou uses coal extensively,
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which explains the air pollution,
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made worse by the sunken relief along the river.
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In the higher parts, away from the modern city,
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can be found numerous temples, including this one,
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dedicated to the Taoist doctrine.
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It's called The Three Stars, in homage to prosperity,
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longevity and good fortune.
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(gentle music)
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The way of Tao is one of the three great pillars
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of Chinese thinking.
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It draws upon the teachings of Laozi,
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a sage of the sixth century BCE,
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time which Chinese historians call
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the Spring and Autumn period.
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It's to Laozi that's attributed
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the Book of the Way and of Virtue,
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at the heart of the Taoist doctrine,
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notably structured by mystic quietism,
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and the search for equilibrium
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between the opposing principles of yin and yang.
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A philosophy, a life ethic, and a religion,
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Taoism irrigates numerous aspects of daily life,
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particularly including Chinese medicine
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and architectural feng shui.
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Perhaps one of the most striking aspects of modern China,
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when you visit a city such as Lanzhou,
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is the eternal coherence of this 4000 year old civilization.
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Yesterday, the European Colonial intrusion,
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followed by communism, now a day sprinkled with capitalism.
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In China, modes of government change,
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but the essential remains.
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(exciting music)
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We still have to investigate
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one of the most famous aspects of culture in Lanzhou,
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which is celebrated throughout China,
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it's pasta.
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(speaks in foreign language)
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Contrary to popular belief,
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the Chinese don't only eat rice.
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In northern China, the culinary mainstay is wheat,
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or rather wheat pasta.
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(dramatic music)
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(speaks in foreign language)
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(speaks in foreign language)
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(speaking in foreign language)
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[Narrator Voiceover] A bowl of noodles.
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A bowl of beef noodles?
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00:12:42,200 --> 00:12:43,790
How much?
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00:12:43,790 --> 00:12:45,810
Seven, you want the bowl of noodles.
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00:12:45,810 --> 00:12:47,320
Oh, that and that.
273
00:12:47,320 --> 00:12:48,570
Okay, I'll take a ticket.
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Here's your ticket.
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You go over there.
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[Narrator Voiceover] Thank you.
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(dramatic music)
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Hello, bowl of noodles.
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00:13:02,923 --> 00:13:04,840
Okay.
280
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(speaking in foreign language)
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Okay, thank you.
282
00:13:17,168 --> 00:13:20,930
And if you think I understood that...
283
00:13:20,930 --> 00:13:23,680
(dramatic music)
284
00:13:30,396 --> 00:13:32,979
(upbeat music)
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00:13:44,922 --> 00:13:49,922
[Narrator Voiceover] What do you put in the magic potion?
286
00:13:50,000 --> 00:13:53,080
In this potion, we put Szechuan pepper,
287
00:13:53,080 --> 00:13:57,303
brown cardamom, slices of fresh ginger, and we stir it.
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00:13:58,320 --> 00:14:01,240
In China, we refer to these ingredients as medicaments.
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We let these medicaments simmer to make a broth.
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00:14:04,480 --> 00:14:06,250
It's more pure and natural.
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00:14:06,250 --> 00:14:08,510
These are Chinese medicaments.
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00:14:08,510 --> 00:14:10,550
Ah, they make you strong.
293
00:14:10,550 --> 00:14:11,740
Yeah.
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00:14:11,740 --> 00:14:12,573
Like obelisks.
295
00:14:13,714 --> 00:14:16,297
(gentle music)
296
00:14:18,760 --> 00:14:19,593
What do you think about the fact
297
00:14:19,593 --> 00:14:20,613
that one of the emperor's officials
298
00:14:20,613 --> 00:14:22,937
who was based here as a collector of salt tax
299
00:14:22,937 --> 00:14:25,320
stole the recipe and took it to Venice?
300
00:14:25,320 --> 00:14:28,134
I'm talking about Marco Polo, of course.
301
00:14:28,134 --> 00:14:30,814
I don't think it's very serious.
302
00:14:30,814 --> 00:14:33,960
The noodles culture knows no frontiers.
303
00:14:33,960 --> 00:14:35,460
We're rather pleased about it.
304
00:14:36,750 --> 00:14:39,060
Chinese noodles have their particularity,
305
00:14:39,060 --> 00:14:40,980
French noodles have theirs.
306
00:14:40,980 --> 00:14:44,073
Italian noodles all have their particularity.
307
00:14:45,000 --> 00:14:48,503
We're rather happy to be able to share this culture.
308
00:14:50,341 --> 00:14:52,924
(upbeat music)
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00:14:54,320 --> 00:14:56,310
A wealthy entrepreneur, Mr. Marzhun
310
00:14:56,310 --> 00:14:57,720
has built up a fast food chain
311
00:14:57,720 --> 00:14:59,510
based on noodles throughout China,
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00:14:59,510 --> 00:15:01,300
and even in various Chinese neighborhoods
313
00:15:01,300 --> 00:15:02,950
in several North American cities.
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00:15:07,847 --> 00:15:09,080
[Narrator Voiceover] More than 400 restaurants
315
00:15:09,080 --> 00:15:10,020
opened in four years.
316
00:15:10,020 --> 00:15:11,210
That seems extraordinary.
317
00:15:11,210 --> 00:15:13,210
How do you explain such a business boom?
318
00:15:16,221 --> 00:15:18,410
At the beginning,
319
00:15:18,410 --> 00:15:21,730
Dongfang Gong was handed down to us by our ancestors
320
00:15:21,730 --> 00:15:23,023
over three generations.
321
00:15:26,550 --> 00:15:29,630
The brand itself was created 17 years ago,
322
00:15:29,630 --> 00:15:31,410
but the know how from our ancestors
323
00:15:31,410 --> 00:15:33,533
dates back over 100 years.
324
00:15:37,070 --> 00:15:38,510
Over the first 13 years,
325
00:15:38,510 --> 00:15:42,010
we took the time to accumulate knowledge, gain experience,
326
00:15:42,010 --> 00:15:44,173
but also administrative skills.
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00:15:45,290 --> 00:15:46,810
Then we dedicated four years
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00:15:46,810 --> 00:15:49,253
to developing the 410 restaurants.
329
00:15:51,060 --> 00:15:52,930
Today, people work longer hours,
330
00:15:52,930 --> 00:15:55,640
and they don't really have the time to cook at home,
331
00:15:55,640 --> 00:15:57,280
so they don't have much choice.
332
00:15:57,280 --> 00:15:58,113
They eat out.
333
00:16:01,020 --> 00:16:04,353
But this situation is very profitable for fast food chains.
334
00:16:05,440 --> 00:16:06,273
Between you and me,
335
00:16:06,273 --> 00:16:08,130
are the Chinese strong at financial matters?
336
00:16:08,130 --> 00:16:09,230
Do they like business.
337
00:16:11,089 --> 00:16:13,460
The Chinese have been in the habit of trading
338
00:16:13,460 --> 00:16:14,663
since antiquity.
339
00:16:15,920 --> 00:16:18,690
China was once an agricultural country.
340
00:16:18,690 --> 00:16:20,800
Neighbors would exchange their different produce
341
00:16:20,800 --> 00:16:22,460
between themselves.
342
00:16:22,460 --> 00:16:25,700
Bartering is humanity's oldest way of doing business.
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00:16:25,700 --> 00:16:27,250
That's what trade is all about.
344
00:16:29,150 --> 00:16:31,530
The Chinese particularly enjoyed doing trade.
345
00:16:31,530 --> 00:16:34,460
They like developing, widening their activities.
346
00:16:34,460 --> 00:16:36,380
Today, in the four corners of the earth,
347
00:16:36,380 --> 00:16:38,603
there are Chinese doing business.
348
00:16:39,822 --> 00:16:42,405
(gentle music)
349
00:16:48,813 --> 00:16:49,700
[Narrator Voiceover] Over the course of my journey,
350
00:16:49,700 --> 00:16:52,650
I've been perfecting my technique by observing the Chinese.
351
00:16:52,650 --> 00:16:55,110
You need to suck in very, very strongly to cool it down,
352
00:16:55,110 --> 00:16:58,010
and then, and it's not easy drinking soup with chopsticks.
353
00:16:59,674 --> 00:17:01,924
(slurping)
354
00:17:04,030 --> 00:17:07,660
Well, there's progress to be made, but I'm getting there.
355
00:17:07,660 --> 00:17:08,683
I'm getting there.
356
00:17:10,904 --> 00:17:13,487
(upbeat music)
357
00:17:15,059 --> 00:17:17,726
(horns honking)
358
00:17:21,090 --> 00:17:22,243
So how does this work?
359
00:17:23,240 --> 00:17:24,390
Here we go.
360
00:17:24,390 --> 00:17:26,363
Even bus stations seem futuristic.
361
00:17:27,221 --> 00:17:30,370
Ah, there aren't many people, I thought it would be crowded.
362
00:17:30,370 --> 00:17:32,970
It's funny, you pay a sort of machine, and it opens.
363
00:17:39,080 --> 00:17:39,940
To fight pollution,
364
00:17:39,940 --> 00:17:41,300
the authorities are constructing
365
00:17:41,300 --> 00:17:43,410
an entire public transport network.
366
00:17:43,410 --> 00:17:45,910
Tramways, underground, bikes, and of course,
367
00:17:45,910 --> 00:17:48,440
the omnipresent electric scooter.
368
00:17:48,440 --> 00:17:51,243
China is trying everything to kick its petrol addiction.
369
00:17:52,360 --> 00:17:55,210
In Lanzhou, it's once again the buses leading the market.
370
00:17:57,040 --> 00:17:58,760
At the time when the Silk Road began,
371
00:17:58,760 --> 00:18:01,540
chroniclers nicknamed this the Golden City.
372
00:18:01,540 --> 00:18:03,220
The Han Dynasty built a whole section
373
00:18:03,220 --> 00:18:05,619
of the Great Wall of China just to protect it.
374
00:18:05,619 --> 00:18:08,202
(gentle music)
375
00:18:10,170 --> 00:18:12,270
The rock star, Yu Kun lives in one
376
00:18:12,270 --> 00:18:13,630
of the numerous modern neighborhoods
377
00:18:13,630 --> 00:18:14,980
of this mushrooming city,
378
00:18:14,980 --> 00:18:17,220
where apartments are built at the drop of a hat,
379
00:18:17,220 --> 00:18:18,820
like in the rest of the country.
380
00:18:20,040 --> 00:18:21,340
As an artist and singer,
381
00:18:21,340 --> 00:18:23,950
Yu Kun has much greater freedom of expression
382
00:18:23,950 --> 00:18:25,560
than most Chinese.
383
00:18:25,560 --> 00:18:29,779
His rock group Deko I sells hundreds of thousands of CD's.
384
00:18:29,779 --> 00:18:32,050
But its hits are mainly downloaded
385
00:18:32,050 --> 00:18:34,303
and pirated tens of millions of times.
386
00:18:35,482 --> 00:18:38,065
(guitar music)
387
00:18:43,007 --> 00:18:44,150
[Narrator Voiceover] So, you come from Liqian,
388
00:18:44,150 --> 00:18:46,260
the village who's inhabitants may have descended
389
00:18:46,260 --> 00:18:48,929
from the lost Roman legions of Crassus.
390
00:18:48,929 --> 00:18:51,433
Do these origins influence your music?
391
00:18:55,260 --> 00:18:58,230
Yes, they influence it a lot.
392
00:18:58,230 --> 00:18:59,270
Since I grew up here,
393
00:18:59,270 --> 00:19:01,770
I take an interest in the history of the place.
394
00:19:01,770 --> 00:19:04,490
People ask me, how come you're not like the rest?
395
00:19:04,490 --> 00:19:07,033
How is it you have a brown beard and curly hair?
396
00:19:08,020 --> 00:19:10,740
So it's interested me since childhood.
397
00:19:10,740 --> 00:19:12,870
And more and more with my musical discovery,
398
00:19:12,870 --> 00:19:16,233
I feel that I have a part of this history in my blood.
399
00:19:19,030 --> 00:19:20,393
I find it mysterious.
400
00:19:21,289 --> 00:19:22,970
I'm interested in the mysterious culture
401
00:19:22,970 --> 00:19:24,253
of the place of my birth.
402
00:19:25,480 --> 00:19:28,950
So I continue to learn, to think, to look and to listen.
403
00:19:28,950 --> 00:19:32,163
I get inspiration when I'm out walking.
404
00:19:33,937 --> 00:19:37,770
(singing in foreign language)
405
00:19:44,399 --> 00:19:46,982
(upbeat music)
406
00:20:01,794 --> 00:20:03,300
[Narrator Voiceover] What made you become a musician?
407
00:20:03,300 --> 00:20:04,953
How do you become one in China?
408
00:20:06,342 --> 00:20:09,353
I was in journalism at university.
409
00:20:10,690 --> 00:20:13,343
But after graduating, I became a journalist.
410
00:20:14,766 --> 00:20:19,023
At university, I used to make music with friends.
411
00:20:21,670 --> 00:20:23,520
So, as I say, I graduated
412
00:20:23,520 --> 00:20:25,580
and started working as a journalist,
413
00:20:25,580 --> 00:20:26,700
but I ended up thinking
414
00:20:26,700 --> 00:20:29,100
that I should find a job which suited me better.
415
00:20:34,000 --> 00:20:36,590
My work allowed me to give my opinion about the world,
416
00:20:36,590 --> 00:20:39,917
about society, but you know, when you work as a journalist,
417
00:20:39,917 --> 00:20:42,560
it's not always good.
418
00:20:42,560 --> 00:20:44,350
You don't always tell the truth.
419
00:20:44,350 --> 00:20:47,062
So I decided to make music in order to express myself.
420
00:20:47,062 --> 00:20:49,645
(upbeat music)
421
00:20:52,991 --> 00:20:56,824
(singing in foreign language)
422
00:21:04,480 --> 00:21:06,070
And before the modern Silk Road,
423
00:21:06,070 --> 00:21:08,050
which internet is to an extent,
424
00:21:08,050 --> 00:21:09,810
how could a kid growing up in a village
425
00:21:09,810 --> 00:21:12,030
in the depths of China have access to music
426
00:21:12,030 --> 00:21:13,653
by the Doors or ACDC?
427
00:21:15,377 --> 00:21:18,547
In our generation of young Chinese,
428
00:21:18,547 --> 00:21:21,119
we discovered rock through audio cassettes.
429
00:21:21,119 --> 00:21:26,119
When they became worn out and were thrown away in the west,
430
00:21:26,190 --> 00:21:29,221
they got past customs, and were copied in China.
431
00:21:29,221 --> 00:21:32,473
The most damage ones were stuck back together.
432
00:21:34,220 --> 00:21:35,766
Our entire knowledge of western music
433
00:21:35,766 --> 00:21:37,503
comes from audio cassettes.
434
00:21:38,370 --> 00:21:40,040
That was the first stage.
435
00:21:40,040 --> 00:21:42,305
The second stage, as internet developed,
436
00:21:42,305 --> 00:21:44,723
consisted of downloading music online.
437
00:21:45,786 --> 00:21:47,843
In China, music is pirated.
438
00:21:48,783 --> 00:21:50,069
(laughing)
439
00:21:50,069 --> 00:21:52,652
(upbeat music)
440
00:22:12,553 --> 00:22:15,136
(gentle music)
441
00:22:21,740 --> 00:22:24,140
The Chinese generally have no qualms about knocking down
442
00:22:24,140 --> 00:22:26,940
all traces of the past when they build something bigger.
443
00:22:27,990 --> 00:22:29,440
But in the province of Gansu,
444
00:22:29,440 --> 00:22:31,490
the authorities wanted to conserve what they call
445
00:22:31,490 --> 00:22:33,370
a reminder village.
446
00:22:33,370 --> 00:22:36,670
The small town of Qingcheng was therefore left intact,
447
00:22:36,670 --> 00:22:38,820
and was even restored to show future generations
448
00:22:38,820 --> 00:22:40,583
how their ancestors lived.
449
00:22:41,450 --> 00:22:44,280
These people playing Xingqi, Chinese chess,
450
00:22:44,280 --> 00:22:45,570
are genuine villagers,
451
00:22:45,570 --> 00:22:47,470
who live in a sort of open air museum.
452
00:22:48,790 --> 00:22:50,870
Time passes slowly in Qingcheng,
453
00:22:50,870 --> 00:22:52,250
which has become the conservatory
454
00:22:52,250 --> 00:22:55,224
of the Confucian traditions of eternal China.
455
00:22:55,224 --> 00:22:57,807
(gentle music)
456
00:23:04,150 --> 00:23:06,450
The village works along the lines of a cooperative,
457
00:23:06,450 --> 00:23:08,220
in which work and leisure are distributed
458
00:23:08,220 --> 00:23:09,420
amongst the inhabitants.
459
00:23:12,014 --> 00:23:14,264
(laughing)
460
00:23:16,225 --> 00:23:18,950
[Narrator Voiceover] Well done.
461
00:23:18,950 --> 00:23:21,200
(grunting)
462
00:23:26,410 --> 00:23:28,590
There's not only ping pong in Qingcheng,
463
00:23:28,590 --> 00:23:29,990
the village notably possesses
464
00:23:29,990 --> 00:23:31,575
a very ancient Confucian academy,
465
00:23:31,575 --> 00:23:33,720
which is both a temple and a school,
466
00:23:33,720 --> 00:23:37,333
teaching the thinking of the sage Kung Xi, or Master Kung.
467
00:23:38,430 --> 00:23:40,620
Equally called the School of the Learned,
468
00:23:40,620 --> 00:23:43,170
Confucianism is undoubtedly the central thinking,
469
00:23:43,170 --> 00:23:45,659
which partially shapes Chinese culture and society.
470
00:23:45,659 --> 00:23:49,290
Notably through respect for the established order,
471
00:23:49,290 --> 00:23:51,403
filial piety and the search for harmony.
472
00:23:52,344 --> 00:23:55,420
(gentle music)
473
00:23:55,420 --> 00:23:57,550
Although the China of the cultural revolution
474
00:23:57,550 --> 00:24:00,865
on the Mao Zedong criticism Confucius, the present regime,
475
00:24:00,865 --> 00:24:04,280
while still officially communist, goes out of its way
476
00:24:04,280 --> 00:24:06,440
to promote the Confucian heritage,
477
00:24:06,440 --> 00:24:08,060
seen as a stabilizing factor
478
00:24:08,060 --> 00:24:11,252
in a country with 1.3 billion inhabitants.
479
00:24:11,252 --> 00:24:15,169
(speaking in foreign language)
480
00:24:24,790 --> 00:24:26,530
Another cultural heritage promoted
481
00:24:26,530 --> 00:24:30,050
in the village of Qingcheng is the famous Chinese opera.
482
00:24:30,050 --> 00:24:31,820
Born here in northern China,
483
00:24:31,820 --> 00:24:34,840
Xiqu alternates dialogue and song.
484
00:24:34,840 --> 00:24:37,350
These actresses are performing for villagers
485
00:24:37,350 --> 00:24:39,800
parts of the most famous piece in the repertoire.
486
00:24:40,990 --> 00:24:43,963
The Xixiang Ji, or the Story of the Western Wing.
487
00:24:45,890 --> 00:24:49,320
This masterpiece is by Wang Shifu, the great opera author,
488
00:24:49,320 --> 00:24:51,650
and propagator of the Confucian message.
489
00:24:51,650 --> 00:24:55,483
(singing in foreign language)
490
00:25:10,076 --> 00:25:11,820
The piece tells the story of thwarted love
491
00:25:11,820 --> 00:25:14,370
between a young orphan girl and a Mandarin,
492
00:25:14,370 --> 00:25:15,940
that's to say, a highly placed official
493
00:25:15,940 --> 00:25:17,820
in the emperor's service.
494
00:25:17,820 --> 00:25:21,265
This story unfolds 1500 years ago, under the Tang Dynasty,
495
00:25:21,265 --> 00:25:24,660
one of the most prosperous periods for the Silk Road.
496
00:25:24,660 --> 00:25:27,850
A period of which everyone in China still remembers today,
497
00:25:27,850 --> 00:25:29,213
15 centuries later.
498
00:25:34,398 --> 00:25:36,981
(gentle music)
37670
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