Chinese Characters

Original version

BBC Radio 4 FM

BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

BBC Radio 4

Radio 4

Radio 4 (FM)

chinese-characters-podcast

Documentaries

Factual: Life Stories

Factual: History

Series of essays exploring Chinese history through the life stories of key personalities.

BBC Radio 4 LW

Chinese Characters: River Elegy: River and Ocean

River Elegy: River and Ocean

BBC Radio 4 - Chinese Characters, River Elegy: River and Ocean

River Elegy was a pioneering TV documentary series, one of the most watched in history.

In 1988, one of the most important TV shows in history was shown. It started a national debate about modernisation and democracy, then was banned after Tiananmen Square in 1989.

In 1988, one of the most important television programmes in history was shown. Titled River Elegy, it was watched by perhaps 100 million Chinese viewers. Despite its stirring music and dramatic imagery, it wasn't a drama, or documentary - but an argument onscreen that China had been inward-looking and backward for too long, and had to turn to the west for renewal. It rejected the legacy of Mao's Cultural Revolution and daringly embraced the idea of learning from the empire across the "blue ocean" - the US. After Tiananmen Square in 1989, the show was banned and its makers went into exile. Yet it remains one of the rare examples of a broadcast that started a national conversation about modernisation and democracy - a dialogue abruptly cut off but perhaps not yet ended.
Presenter: Rana Mitter
Producer: Ben Crighton
Researcher: Elizabeth Smith Rosser.

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Chinese Characters

River Elegy: River and Ocean

Genres

Brand

BBC Radio 4 FM

About BBC Radio 4