Programme Index

Discover 11,128,835 listings and 281,607 playable programmes from the BBC

China: As History Is My Witness

Omnibus: Part 1

Duration: 58 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 LW

Available for over a year

Omnibus edition of episodes 1-5 of China: As History is My Witness in which the BBC's former Beijing Correspondent Carrie Gracie explores 5 great lives from Chinese history and asks what they tell us about China today.

1. SIMA QIAN: China's Great Historian faces a tough choice - death or castration.

2. KUBLAI KHAN: How the man from Mongolia beat the odds and conquered the south and became China's favourite barbarian.

3. THE DUKE OF ZHOU: In a society built around ancestor worship, Carrie Gracie charts the life of the ultimate ancestor and the man who inspired Confucius.

4. DU FU & LI BAI: China's answer to Shakespeare - Chinese children still quote these two drunkard poets from the 8th Century.

5. THE SOONG SISTERS: The story of three sisters who married some of the most powerful men of the 20th Century - it is said that one sister loved money, one loved power and one loved her country.

Presenter: Carrie Gracie
Producer: Neal Razzell. Show less

About this data

This data is drawn from the data stream that informs BBC's iPlayer and Sounds. The information shows what was scheduled to be broadcast, meaning it was/is subject to change and may not be accurate. More