LI Han, TV

he original thoughts of this documentary were kindled by my early experience T of studying abroad several years ago. When in London, every time other drivers cut in front of us, one of my friends, an old British actress would say 野the country is less civilized and generous than a hundred years ago冶. If the waiter failed to help her put on clothes when she finished dinner, she would complain that 野Englishmen are less gentle than before冶. That old lady whose mind still lingers on the old, majestic, gentle empire, aroused my cu- riosity to know how people in this city think about their history. Later, I invited her to be my interviewee in the London Episode. One day, when I prepared leaving for Paris, a French profes- sortoldmethatPariswasnolonger Hemingway爷s Paris.He said, 野your eyeswould see more than this book, and after roaming in this city, you would distinguish your Paris from Hemingway爷s Paris冶. In Paris Episode, he also became one of my interviewees. And , whose golden times has shaped a generation爷s imagination of modern cities. I made some Hong Kong friends in school, and I didn爷t realize how precious the space was in Hong Kong until I came to visit them. It is quite common that sisters and brothers squeeze in a small house. The family usually goes to tea restaurant for a larger and more leisure environment. Then I understood, behind the fairy there are untold sorrows, and later I explored to 野remove the 冶 in the Hong Kong Episode. London, Paris, Berlin, Rome, Prague... That 野Grand Tour冶 on European continent has silently shaped me before I had a preset impression of this world. I cherish those memories, pondering what elements of these cities had such an influence on me. In 2013, when I was given a chance by Zhejiang Satellite TV to launch a read- ing program, I boldly conceived of a first-person tour documentary about not only reading books, but about reading cities. Later, it came out as , encom passing all the books I read, the cities I went and the people I met. This documen tary, as concerned to me, is a 野Grand Tour冶 of visual art.

LI Han holds a MFA degree from Peking University and a MA degree from University of London, Goldsmiths. She is an award-winning television hostess, news anchor, and producer from Zhejiang TV with a comprehensive background in TV production. The shows she hosted include .

窑184窑 Five years later, the inspiration has turned into sixteen episodes. The first season of contains eight cities including London ( ), Paris ( ), Berlin ( ), ( ), ( ), Hangzhou, Hong Kong ( ), and Taipei ( ). With literature as the thread, cities as the main body, the spirit of a city is hereby unfolded from the perspective of books. The eight cities are mostly global metropolises where I lived, worked, or impressed with precious memories. For this reason, the first season is tinted with distinct per- sonal style. The second season echoes with 野Belt and Road Initiative冶. Led by literary masters like Kafka, Calvino and Pamuk, we traveled along the Silk Road in eight cities: Rome ( ), Istanbul ( ), Prague ( ), St. Petersburg ( ), Urumqi ( ), Yinchuan ( ), Fuzhou ( ) and Xi爷an ( ) to explore the spirit and culture of cities from folks爷 lives. The Silk Road connects eight ancient cities and makes dialogues between them. One may feel interested when first hearing the concept of 野A Book A City冶, but once thinking deeper, he will no doubt discover the difficulty to achieve it. Cities are profound and comprehensive while books open up another fantastic world, how can a film combine them? Literature provides us an approach to discover the personality of a city. Pamuk, Kafka, Brodsky, , Zhang Xianliang噎 We admire the literary excellency of these masters, but here we adopt their perspective or dimension, which deter- mines the time and space of our observation. For example, the Old City Square where Kafka lived in Prague in the 1990s, Bosporus Strait where Pamuk could see Istanbul in the 1970s, the Yinchuan Farm where Zhang Xianliang worked in the 1960s as an exiled intellectual. Once founded on this base, we have access to un- derstand the modern life of this city. The perspective we adopted remains the same with the writer, to observe the era and the land, and to think about it. Besides, we also adopt the theory of urban research to balance sentiments of literature and the ration of theory, in case that the tone of the film falls into shallow- ness as an ordinary travel note. During the several years of filming, we also found that some recurring themes in urban studies can arouse our deeper theoretical think- ing, such as the nostalgia of the old colonists (the old dream of London爷s empire), the decolonization and identity war of the colonial cities (Taipei), the intergenerational

窑185窑 conflicts in immigrant cities (Hong Kong residents爷 concept of home and country), the intellectual liberation and cultural prosperity brought by war (Paris), self-destruc- tion and self-reconstruction of modern cities (spatial reconstruction in Berlin), spa- tial politics and social stratification (Upper Corner and Lower Corner in Shanghai), old city renovation and sustainable community (Hutong in Beijing). Each issue is faced by cities all over the world, and many scholars strives to find a solution. Lim- ited to the genre and length of our film, we only scratch the surface of these issues without deep discussion, but we still impart solemnity to this essay-like travel note.

We considered several factors when choosing books. The first one is the theme. We have novels, like ; essays, like ; and poetry like . A novel tends to depict characters爷 destiny in length, while an essay ex- presses emotions directly on the city, yet in a scattered and unclear logic. The second is whether the writer is native or not. In the first season, we intend- edly chose several works written by foreigners on this city. For example, American writer Hemingway爷s on Paris, British writer Christopher Isher- wood爷s , American Writer Michael Myre爷s . The foreign perspective, provided with innate curiosity, adopts the tech- nique of defamiliarization and therefore smashes audience爷s stereotype of the city. These books are full of tensions due to the writer爷s conflict between two world out- looks. Conversely, we choose native writers in the episodes of Prague, Istanbul, Xi爷 an, Hong Kong, Tai Pei, Shanghai and London. They know the city perfectly well so they can provide a more minute and panoramic description. Kafka, Pamuk, Jia Pingwa, are all representative figures of local culture, and their charac- ters are created with a local temperament and of great meanings for us to discover the city culture. But the shortage of choosing a native writer might be his immense knowledge and presenting city culture so minutely. Another choice is immigrant writers, who are local but foreign, like Shen Wei in Urumqi and Zhang Xianliang in Yinchuan. Both cities are immigrant cities and both writers deal with themes of immigration, so they are the proper choice to in- teprete the city spirits. During our filming we discovered that all good writers adopt perspectives that

窑186窑 are both local and foreign. It is relatively more important that a book must have a conversation with the city, leading us to explore the soul of the city. According to Professor Li Yang at Department of Peking University, 野gener- ally we see landmarks, skyscrapers or historical relics in urban documentaries, but what comprises a city are also emotions like desire, fear, trauma, nostalgia, memory and sentimentality, though invisible to our eyes. Literature is a crucial path on which we can reach the real city. We explore the city by empathizing these emo- tions in literature.

Different from the traditional combination of a city, a book and the writer, we didn爷t focus on introducing the life experience of the writer or the content of the book. Instead, we attempt to reveal the theme and perspective of the work, and based on this, interview different characters to re-examine the city we want to pre- sent. We focus more on the dialogue between the past and today than simple intro- duction and visit of the writer. Take as an example. In London, there is a Sherlock Holmes exploration tour that takes you to visit the buildings where Sherlock Holmes has been. It is very easy for us to make this episode a tour around Holmes爷 London. But our ambitions are more than that. We use this book to explore a larger theme. What qualities of Holmes do people miss about? What legacies did the Londoners of the Empire era leave today for London? Therefore, we use Sherlock Holmes爷 pipe, hat, cane, and cape to represent four dimensions of a Londoner爷s tempera- ment; putting them together makes an image of a metropolitan hero that is embed- ded in the hearts of British people. For example, the pipe represents the elegant and intelligent British detectives. This is the uniqueness of British detectives, just like the American detective爷s denim and riding boots. The hat represents the British gentleman爷s elegance and sense of stage. Life is unbearable, but a hat is the of British pride and dignity. The cane represents the elegance of Holmes, as well as all the assistants he can rely on, the landlady, the coachman and the tramps. These informants are scattered in every corner of the city, connecting the great detectives to the mundane world. The last example is the violin, which represents the elegance and art of detectives. In London, even a detective who tackles with filthy affairs must be elegant in appearance. All these come together to form the image of a pri- vate detective and a wonderful self-portrait that Londoners give themselves.

窑187窑 Another example is Hong Kong. In its golden age, Hong Kong film and pop music influenced Chinese爷s imagination of modern urban life for generations. There is always a huge temptation in film-making to express feelings within a nos- talgic story of Wang Jiawei爷s cinematic style. However, our film has removed the romantic, heroic, and mystical imagination of otherness, but depicts the harsh reali- ty of Dong Qizhang, the author of , from the perspective of Hong Kong natives to view the identity changes in Hong Kong, a mobile terminal. The first generation might not be planning to stay longer, but in the end, they settled here for generations. In this young city, each generation has different feelings towards this city. As Dong Qizhang says, 野The older generation may have a wandering mentality. But for a new generation, young people who grow up in Hong Kong, Hong Kong is their home or the only home.冶 In the post-production process, the 野Occupy Central冶 movement took place in Hong Kong, and the identi- ty issue became very sensitive. Therefore, we had to adjust the ways of expression and gave up some of the footage. However, we still try to show the different views of Hong Kong natives, the 40s, the 60s, and the 70s. Houses witness the vicissitudes of a city, and old things reveal history. In retrospection to the life of a generation, you can know the affinity between Hong Kong and mainland that can never be cut off. Comparing with the current situation in Hong Kong, such a theme is the most courageous attempt we can make. Facing a city, we have our own analysis and judgment; facing a thorny issue, we never escape but to weather it bravely. Hutong Demolition in Beijing is another issue full of controversy. Michael Myre, the writer of , says it is a global issue of upgrad- ing and transforming of a city. Paris and Chicago have never been demolished but suffered from devastating fire, and Berlin survived the bombing attacks during the two world wars. How can a city rebuild itself upon its ruins? Every city encounters a realistic issue of upgrading itself. People come and go in old communities, but who are qualified to stay and who are exiled from their residence? Michael Myre thinks Hutong in Beijing is an epitome of 野ecological community冶 that worth the globe to learn from. Apart from the petty bourgeois nostalgia of the old days, we should situate our reflections on Beijing within the global debates on urban chal- lenge and development.

If we say literature is our thread, then the characters constitute the flesh of our sto

窑188窑 ry. A city is at last a city of people, so the temperament of a city can be found in the people who live in this city. In terms of essence and technique, is a documentary composed of character stories on the basis of documentary tech- niques. In each city, we choose four or five characters from the author爷s perspec- tive. Some of them are great writers like Pamuk and Jia Pingwa, and the others are mostly ordinary people, like rock musicians, sculptors, parkours, professors, grave guard, street performers, farm workers, corps, and the like. Our criteria for choos- ing characters is: the author, people related to the author, and interesting characters with typical temperament of the city. 1. Author, such as Pamuk, Jia Pingwa, Michael Myre and Shen Wei. The au- thor is the most authoritative interpreter of his works. More importantly, we want to know if their perception of the city has changed compared to when writing the nov- el. An author爷s vision is historical rather than still. Pamuk recalled his childhood at the age of fifty in his . Decades later, is Istanbul still the city in his book? Jia Pingwa爷s feelings for Xi爷an have also been changing, from the timidity and yearning of the early years to the anger of the later, and to the placidity at present. How would he comment on his expressions in that book? What are the unrevealed feelings about this city? We tried our best to contact and visit the writers alive. It was a tough process. For example, It took us a lot of efforts to contact Pamuk. He doesn爷t often live in Istanbul, and even in Istanbul he often refuses visitors when writing on the Big Is- land. We tried various methods and eventually contacted him through the publish- ing house three months later. He appreciated the creativity of our program and gen- erously spared two half days for our interview, talking about life in his villa on the island, and about his novels and non-fictions in the downtown office overlooking the Bosporus. Contacting Jia Pingwa is much more difficult. Born introverted, Jia Pingwa up- holds the belief that writers should concentrate on writing rather than talking before the camera, so he rejected our request for times. But we insisted on our request for half a year with faith and perseverance. When most cities were filmed and the video edited, he finally agreed on our interview request. The crews, once scattered after the filming, assembled again and flew to Xi爷an for this interview and filming. It is also true for Michael Myre, the writer in the Beijing Episode in the first season. He settled in Singapore but stayed in the United States for many years. Once we heard that he might transfer his plane in Hong Kong and stay for three hours. We were all ready to arrange an interview in the cafe near the airport, but we finally failed to make it. At last, Hong Kong photographers and I flew all the way to

窑189窑 Singapore and found a local sound recordist, a gaffer, and production assistants to complete the final interview. This interview gave the film a finishing touch, espe- cially when he used the English language shot with fluent Beijing dialect to explain the Hutong culture, which really gave us a new understanding. ii. People related to the author or the book. For example, the characters men- tioned in ; the collectors of antiques and the Drama mentioned in ; and the current residents of Hemingway爷s apart- ment in Paris. It was our fortune to photograph Hemingway爷s former residence. It is an ordi- nary residence now, except for a small sign on the wall saying that this is where Hemingway once lived, there is no indication that we have the possibility of pho- tographing inside the building. When we were shooting sceneries under the resi- dence, our producer saw a woman entering the building with a password. The door was about to close, suddenly he rushed to the door and left it open with his foot. Fortunately, this lady is the current tenant of Hemingway爷s former residence. Then we have become the first Chinese filming group to visit Hemingway爷s apartment in Paris. Only after walking on the stairs he stepped and looking at the scenery he had seen from the window, can I feel the breath of the author and understand his subtle emotions about the city. Another type of 野related冶 character is the ones in a similar living condition to the protagonist in the book. For example, modern private detectives in London, the whirling dervish dancer and miniature painter mentioned in Pamuk爷s book. Finding private detectives in London is a great challenge. The British, especially private de- tectives, are very rigorous. We contacted dozens but they refused to be pho- tographed until we met the two detectives in the film. This meeting was mysterious. They asked me and the director to talk at a hotel lobby alone, and the rest of the crew to wait outside. I talked with them for about half an hour and suddenly one of them said, 野OK, start photographing. I will take you to several places iover the next half hour.冶 The whole process was exciting and full of ups and downs. iii. Interesting people or someone with the city爷s temperament. This type of person is the hardest to chance upon but he will bring the biggest surprise. In Prague, for example, we found the legendary band the Plastic People of the Uni- verse, which is known as 野singing over a regime冶, and the rebellious sculptor David Cerny. They perfectly suit the theme of power and resistance in . However, we also hoped that local producer s will find a person to tell us about Prague爷s living conditions during the socialist period. She gave a surprise and helped me find Karel Koecher, the biggest US-Soviet double agent in the country

窑190窑 during the Cold War. Moreover, he married the daughter of Kafka爷s lover. Every- one has his own life and his own expectations and disappointments about Prague. The oldest member of the Plastic People of the Universe is eighty years old but still makes rock music; David Cerny rides a bicycle in Prague, taunts power with his grotesque sculpture; Karel felt deeply betrayed and returned to the suburbs on the thought that one was born and dead for the country, but was still regarded as a spy. They are all different, but correlatively pointing to a Kafkaesque black absurdity, just like the city. There are many of these people, including Roman parkours, opera actors, the cemetery guardian, archaeologists; corps in Urumqi, Muqam musicians; the head of Wing Chun in Fuzhou, and the lacquer artist graduated from Peking U- niversity. In front of our lens, they fully bloom their lives and let people feel the im- prints of a city on them. The intertextuality between them constitutes the view of residents on the city they live.

It is hard to unveil a vivid character within several hours. Most of the interviews were impromptu since we had little information about the interviewees. Besides, most interviews are open-questions without a specific theme. We can only chat with them and gradually unfold their life experience with- in one or two hours. This is the hardest type of an interview. Every time I was wait- ing to meet my interviewee I had to imagine his life based on the limited informa- tion I garnered. For example, Is the double agent with a Ph.D. degree in philosophy a man of self-protection? How can I design and structure the interview to engage such an intelligent man? Is Pamuk a difficult interviewee or a kind man? What top- ic can empathize with him? Interview is a mutual process where I must listen care- fully to the responses, feel their reactions, and make fast decisions on what to ask next. When filming overseas, most interviewees gave us only about two hours, dur- ing which we must finish the interview and scenery shot. Therefore, every question, every shot must be exact without any waste. We must be highly concentrated since every moment is impromptu. The others are characters chanced upon accidentally. Such characters are often exciting. For example, on our first day in London, and also the first day of the se- ries, we went to the London Museum to get familiar with the spot. It drizzled when some spider-men were cleaning the window high upon the glass wall. They remind- ed me of Holmes, so I went to talk with them. They are workers from Poland. I

窑191窑 asked, 野what do you like most about London?冶 One man said, 野The grasslands of London.冶 I immediately decided to record his story. For a person hanging in the air all the year round whose eyesight are blurred by foams on the glass wall, grassland is his dream. This simple answer tells the yearning and sorrow of a foreign worker in the city: the dream of immigrants, the barriers of language, the elevation of the city, the alienation of work, the expectation of leisure, and the meaning of land. He wants this down-to-earth feeling; can the city give him? The documentary is to cap- ture details in real life.

The defining style of urban documentary is not beautiful, but modern. Many city promotion films are as beautiful as a postcard with perfect composition and quality, but lacking urban temperament. From the beginning, we have decided to adopt a modern visual style featuring fast-paced editing, hand-held camera movement, and backlight photography. On the basis of feature documentary, we add elements of folks爷 life and local perspective to present a documentary film. Besides, on the ba- sis of documentary film, we pursue exquisite pictures to unfold humanistic culture in urban space. The requirement for photography is to capture details of the charac- ters, and to ensure high-quality image of the advertisements and movie grades. For editing, according to international standards, we adopt fast pace. The number of shots per episode is two to three times longer than other humanities programs of the same duration. For example, in London Episode of the first season, there are four hundred and fifty-two shots condensed in a 25-minute film, with an average that one shot for three seconds. The fast pace brings a vigorous, modern tone. The filming style is determined by the book style and the temperament of the city in each episode, such as gloom in Prague, depression in St. Petersburg, vigor in Rome, and the earthy scent in Yinchuan. In Prague, there exist brilliant European architecture and suppressing Socialist atmosphere. We went there in autumn when the leaves were the most yellow, hoping to film the beautiful golden Prague. How- ever, it was cloudy in the first week we arrived there; the sky and passers-by were both somber. The scenery shot, albeit not beautiful, expresses the exact tempera- ment of gloom in Prague. And in Kafka爷s Museum, the grotesque modernity was presented in black tone and Kafkaesque linear comics. Photographers adopts tech- niques like irregular composition and handheld high-speed photography to express the atmosphere of detaching depress. When it is clear, the golden leaves glamorous

窑192窑 ly set off and complement the red roof in Prague. The two aesthetic styles co-pre- sent the absurdity of Prague.

Up to now, there are over half overseas cities among the sixteen cities we pho- tographed in , which brought unprecedented challenges in shooting, editing and production. In this project, we have set up an international production team to explore a new effective process for future overseas production. In our team, there are Hong Kong and German photographers, local filming and recording teams in different countries. The final editing process was concluded by a Hong Kong team. Throughout the whole process, I have to go through count- less cultural translations, which gives our text a cross-cultural acceptance. People from different countries and regions collide with each other with different values and aesthetics, and then get the greatest common divisor and put them into the film with intersubjectivity.

The second season of was broadcast by Zhejiang Satellite TV dur- ing the 野Belt and Road冶 Summit in May 2017, and was highly praised by the audi- ence and industry peers. On May 26, 2017, National Radio and Television Admin- istration published an article titled with 野 by Zhejiang Satellite TV: Book as the Medium, City as the Carrier, and Culture as the Soul冶 on as a compliment. Up to now, the film has won many prizes, such as the 野Top Ten冶 and 野Best Sound Effect冶 in the 23rd award for Chinese documentary series, the 野Best Ten冶 in the 4th Silk Road International Film Festival and the 2017 Silk Road International Documentary Academic Awards, the 野Best Series冶 of 野Dangui Award冶 for Chinese documentary in 2016, and the 野Excellent Domestic Documen- tary冶 awarded by National Radio and Television Administration. The film also sparked heated discussion among overseas audiences. On Zhe- jiang Satellite TV爷s official Youtube channel, there is an English comment to the Xinjiang Episode, 野This film is in stark contrast to the sullenness of the Western documentary of Xinjiang that is either fanatical or depressing. I have never seen such a perfect integration between nationalism and poetic feelings.冶 From the original intention of a personal travel note to the ultimate theme of

窑193窑 the Silk Road, we have worked hard to open up a new type of documentary in the past five years. As said in the article from National Radio and Television Adminis- tration, 野This series of urban literature has a fresh narrative style, with the personal perspective of the host as thread, literary works as medium, local character爷s stories as the mainstay, to reveal the spirit of the city layer to layer. It also applies modern artistic techniques, combining the dynamic realistic documentary filmmaking, film-level image qualities, and fast-paced editing. This 耶first-person urban humani- ties documentary爷 model is a new attempt for TV documentaries.冶

The introduction to each episode of II

Rome is the starting point of our adventure along the silk Road. As the king of cities, the prototype to all European metropolis, and the bridge between ancient Greece and the Renaissance, Rome has delivered its imaginations about cities to most of Europe. The city of stone and ruins is also called the eternal city. Italo Calvino, a famous Italian writer, depicted all the cities known or unknown in his . This novel, through a conversation between Marco Polo and Kublai Khan of the Yuan Dynasty, tells about fifty-five fictional cities. How can the ancient Rome reincarnate in modern times? At a culture salon, scholars are still telling the tale of Calvino and the greatness of Rome; Fabio Serani, an opera tenor, is singing about a Roman Emperor in the Castel Sant爷Angelo, in memory of those legends in opera; In the underground aqueducts, Adriano the ar- chaeologist is telling about the glory and pillars of the ancient Roman Empire; en- couraged by the heroic powers, the Parkourist Andrea Lanciano can conquer his handicap after a car accident; Solo, a graffiti artist, rebelliously creates new arts in this old city. In British Cemetery where the son of Goethe was buried, the guard says, 野Man can live to a hundred, trees to a thousand and rocks to millions of years. Eventually only memories can help us transcend life and death and bridge heaven and hell.冶

Along the Silk Road, Istanbul is a passage that connects prosperous Asia and rich Europe. It was the biggest capital city around the medieval world, of the Roman,

窑194窑 Byzantine, Latin and Ottoman Empire. But for Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk, it is a city of ruins, of Huzun, and of end-of-empire melancholy. 野Huzun冶 is the translit eration of Turkish word 野desolation冶, a collective desolation when recalling the de- cline from the center of world to a shabby and isolated provincial city. In Pamuk爷s essay collection , the Nobel prize winner wistfully recollects the images of his childhood cottage, the tram, the Bosporus coast, the royal architecture of Ottoman Empire, unsupervised empty villas, and the dilapidat- ed rusty ships. How can a declining empire recollect its past glory? What is the connotation of Istanbul爷s Huzun? Here we arrive at Pamuk爷s summer villa in the 野Big Island冶, at his downtown study facing the Bosporus Strait, at the Museum of Innocence he built out of his novel, and reveal his remote memories of the melancholy city. Both the whirling dervish dancer Mahmut Sami Guclu and the miniature painter Gulcin Anmac are like characters walking out of Pamuk爷s novels, while the jewel busi- nessman, who travels between Europe and Asia for work everyday, is like Istanbul爷 s image nowadays: a perplexing city that is crammed between the West and East.

Prague is a major town in Eastern Europe, while Kafka, an unspoken symbol of Prague. When it comes to his name, everyone will be reminded of this city, this mysterious, absurd and somehow romantic city, immersed in the detachment en- dowed by philosophy and literature. Figures here, including Franz Kafka, Rainer Rilke, Jaroslav Hasek, and Bohumil Hrabal, are all good at Prague-style ridicule and black humor. Marketa Malisova, the director of the Franz Kafka Society, tells that she would fall in love with this talented young man if she was born decades earlier. The songs, dark and obscure, written by Kafka Band attempt to capture the spirit of Kafka with medieval elements. David Cerny, an independent sculptor who grew up in the castle with a rebellious temperament, builds the iron Kafka爷s head 野K on sun冶, rebuilds an art district called the Meet Factory and hurries about by bicycle or by flying. The double agent Karel Koecher, like Mr. K in Kafka爷s novel, has been still misunder- stood since the Cold War. Prague is a Kafkaesque city where the touch light of the writer爷s philosophical thoughts dawned upon our dark room from a remote fairyland.

Russia is a giant of ice and snow, yet St. Petersburg reveals its powerful tenderness. This city is renowned for its two names: St. Petersburg and Leningrad. The former

窑195窑 name is named after Tsar Peter the Great, who built the Westernized city from a marsh to the passage connecting Russia and the West; while the latter, after Lenin, whose Soviet Revolution started from here and completely transfigured the world. The Russian American writer who won the Nobel Prize, Joseph Brodsky tells the story about the two men and this city in the essay 野A Guide to a Renamed City冶 in his book . This episode seeks for the Brodsky爷s footprints in St. Petersburg: his old resi- dence on Liteyny Avenue where he wrote the famous essay 野A Room and Half冶, the cathedral he played, the school he studied in childhood, the factory and hospital he worked, and the Kresty Prison he was confined on the charge of social para- sitism. His lifelong friend recalls his unbent disposition and memories for the old Leningrad; his nephew says that he left homeland forever since being exiled; the lit erature professor takes students to feel Brodsky爷s sentiments in the places he wrote about; the museum lady, touched by the charming rhythm of his poems, devotes herself to the researching of Brodsky. St. Petersburg, a city after vicissitudes with names and regimes changed, as seasons do to the Neva River, turning water into ice and ice into water, majestically stands as before without saying a word.

Urumqi is originally a word of Mongolia, meaning a 野beautiful pasture冶. This ma- jor town, remote and exotic, was once the capital of the Western land along Silk Road. It is located at the center of Asia, the furthest place over 2500 kilometers away from ocean. Folks of different ethnic groups, like Han, Uighur and Hui, live harmoniously in this immigrant city on China爷s border. Shen Wei, a writer, strives to help others understand Xinjiang with his words. Tao Simeng, the original singer of 野Xinjiang is a Good Place冶, yearningly came to Xinjiang and settled her families down. Rena, a Uighur merchant at International Grand Bazaar, promotes her prod- ucts with WeChat and hopes her daughter to learn more languages. The Uighur cul- ture is condensed in Muqam, the traditional music of Xinjiang as a cultural product along the Silk Road. Noons Le Te Wajidi, the head of the Muqam Art Ensemble, tells about his musical dream and his father爷s contribution for Xinjiang爷s libera- tion; and Lao Ma, grown up in a legion, retains firm confidence on guarding the country.

Yinchuan, known as 野a remote southern city冶, is an immigrant city in Western Chi- na. As an exiled intellectual, Zhang Xianliang stayed on this suffering land and be

窑196窑 came a literary presentative of this city. He is one of the major forces of 野scar liter- ature冶 and the pioneer of literature in the 1980s. In his eyes, Ningxia is a reformed labor farm where everything soothing hunger can be called as a delicacy. It is the very place that impulses an adolescence to write a novel. He imparted characters to this northwest heath, wrote about desolation and in his later life, carved out a work of magic of Zhenbeipu Western Film Studio and the Old Street of Yinchuan. He is the epitome of the Yinchuan men. How can an immigrant city become a home? In this episode, we interviewed Zhang Xianliang爷s wife and friends on the farm to retrace the special emotion with this land of the generation. And here grow up a new generation, like Su Yang, a singer drifting in Beijing but still singing about Yinchuan, and Gao Yuan, who once studied in France but finally returned to Yinchuan to manage a vineyard. To leave or to stay, they have turned this remote place into homeland.

Fuzhou, a pivotal city in Belt and Road Initiative, is home to over three million o- verseas Chinese. As a cruicial marital passage connecting China and the world, Fuzhou embodies and innovates to form a special maritime mentality of Chinese people. They could trade here in Fujian accent with foreign businessmen or go abroad with families for a trade. Yan Fu is the spiritual representative of this sea- side city. He studied in England and was appointed as the head of Beiyang Naval Officers爷 School, and most importantly, he translated Thomas Huxley爷s , introducing new words like evolution, natural selection, survival of the fittest into China, inspiring Chinese爷 mindset at that time. In today爷s Fuzhou, Zheng Zhiyu, the founder of Yan Fu Calligraphy Museum sold his precious collection of Tianhuang stones in return for Yan Fu爷s manuscripts; Chi Zhihai, a freelance designer, paints hand-drawn maps to trace Yan Fu爷s foot- print; Xie Jian, a graduate from Peking University, returned here after running busi- ness for years to make lacquer wares in his homeland like a hermit. Zheng Zujie, the expert of Wing Chun, tells about Wing Chun爷s essence of combating a stronger opponent and the inner strength of Fuzhou people. Zhang Weimin in Manchu vil- lage carries on his ancestor爷s mission of protecting Fuzhou Navy Banner Camp and continue to guard the front gate of Maritime Silk Road. The philosophy of Fuzhou爷 s people is but as simplified in Yan Fu爷s translation, 野natural selection and survival of the fittest冶, which literally means that 野the one that survived is neither the strongest nor the smartest, but the one that adapted the best冶.

窑197窑 The old Xi爷an, one of the biggest capital cities in ancient world, is the Eastern end of Silk Road. Nowadays, Xi爷an serves as an important city in Northwest China. There is a well-known saying, 野Shenzhen has witnessed ten years of China爷s progress, Shanghai, a hundred years, Beijing, three thousand, but for the five thou sand years of China爷s history, Xi爷an is the only place. It was the capital city named Chang爷an in Tang Dynasty, a city that always lingers in Chinese爷 dream.冶 As Jia Pingwa wrote in his essay collection , 野A city should have its own soul. Xi爷an is such a big city, what is its soul?冶 What is the most striking character of Chang爷an? In the cities today, can we re-find the personality of old Xi爷an? In this episode, we sit by and discuss with Jia Pingwa about the vintage view of this city and talk with interesting people, including Wang Shishen, a Shanxi Opera perfor- mer, Ma Chunli, an antique collector袁Black Head, a rock band in Shanxi dialect and Meng Haoran, a Turkish student with a Chinese poet爷s name. These historical capitals along the Silk Road, from Rome, powerful and aggressive in the West, to Xi爷an, calm and determined in the East, have seen the vicissitude of a thousand years on this ancient road.

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