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Thursday, August 22, 2019, 12:41
Seeing change up close
By Xu Fan
Thursday, August 22, 2019, 12:41 By Xu Fan

Scenes in the documentary Homestay China featuring three American hosts. Chris Bashinelli, a TV host from New York, picks tea leaves with a villager in Niujiaoshan, Hunan province. (PHOTO / CHINA DAILY)

Chris Bashinelli, a television host from New York, recently caught a glimpse of life in rural China through a Chinese documentary.

Every episode starts with a voice-over stating that China has lifted more than 700 million people in rural areas out of poverty since 1978, and is targeting the remaining poor families in an effort to wipe out extreme poverty by 2020

During his journey to Niujiaoshan, a village of more than 1,300 people in the mountainous region of Hunan province in Central China, he was "assigned" to pick leaves from tea plants. Joining him there were the mostly female villagers, where the best pickers among them often earn up to 500 yuan (US$70.9) a day. Bashinelli received 10 yuan after an exhausting day of work. But despite the somewhat frustratingly low payment, he had a wonderful stay in the village, which is a tourist attraction and home to more than 300 ethnic Miao families.

Taking part in a series of activities from attending a local wedding to learning about Miao jewelry, Bashinelli, 32, had the chance to see how people in rural China are striving for a better life.

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His tour featured in one episode of Homestay China, a three-part documentary that has been running on Chinese streaming platform Youku since July 1. Translated into 43 languages, the program has also been broadcast on the National Geographic Channel since July 13. The documentary's trailers have been released on several overseas streaming platforms such as You-Tube, and were watched more than 500,000 times across Asia, North America, Europe and Africa, according to the producers.

Scenes in the documentary Homestay China featuring three American hosts. Kimi Werner, a skilled diver and artist born in Hawaii, receives a gift-boiled eggs wrapped in straw-during her visit to a boarding school in Zhaitou village nestled in the hills of Guizhou province. (PHOTO / CHINA DAILY)

Produced by the China Intercontinental Communication Center, a government-backed agency, and the two broadcasting platforms, the documentary invited three US TV hosts-Bashinelli, Kimi Werner and Dennis Nieh-to travel to nine far-flung villages across eight Chinese provinces, including Shanxi and Fujian. Their trips ranged from a visit to a herder's tent on the grasslands of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region to an ethnic Nu village in Yunnan province to a primary school in rural Guizhou province. The documentary was made to mark the 70th anniversary this year of the founding of the People's Republic of China.

Every episode starts with a voice-over stating that China has lifted more than 700 million people in rural areas out of poverty since 1978, and is targeting the remaining poor families in an effort to wipe out extreme poverty by 2020.

"China has made remarkable progress in fighting poverty, but there are only a few documentaries that have featured the theme. So we wanted to make one that reflects the country's latest efforts," says Wang Yuanyuan, the executive producer of the documentary.

But it proved a major challenge to translate government policy initiatives on poverty alleviation into human interest stories that could cater to the international audience. So, the crew reached out to the three US TV hosts, in the hope that following their journeys on camera would appeal to Western viewers.

"Werner was born in Hawaii. She is a skilled diver, fisher, cook and an artist. She loves nature and knows how to make friends with those that live close to nature," says Wang, who is also head of the film and TV division of the China Intercontinental Communication Center, as she introduces the US TV hosts in the documentary.

Scenes in the documentary Homestay China featuring three American hosts. Dennis Nieh, a Chinese American, sells peppers with a local in a market in Chongqing. (PHOTO / CHINA DAILY)

"Bashinelli is an explorer and actor, who is interested in different cultures and lifestyles," Wang adds.

"Nieh, a Chinese American, told us that this was his first visit to the land of his forefathers, and that he felt proud to see the transformation of his ancestral hometown," Wang continues.

In the third episode of the documentary, Nieh is shown during his homestay in rural Chongqing, where his mother's family originated from. While having dinner with the local host family, the spicy flavor of chili peppers reminded him of his childhood when his mother cooked for him back home in the United States.

"My mum and my grandma would always tell me stories about what it was like back in the day when they were living here, and it's always been a little difficult (for me) to imagine, but this time coming here and seeing really made me realize this is where all those stories came from," Nieh says in the documentary.

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Zhang Yanli, secretary-general of Doc China, an industry alliance of the country's top documentary production companies, says Homestay China employs a fresh angle to explore rural China, which is an effective way for Chinese documentaries to travel abroad.

Contact the writer at xufan@chinadaily.com.cn

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