Although a full decade has passed since Hong Kong was reunified
with the motherland, many mainlanders are still curious about the
city.
For instance, many of them wonder about the lives of the
commuters who moved from Hong Kong to Shenzhen after the 24-hour
customs clearance policy was adopted in 2003. Others want to know
how Hong Kong's film industry is exploring the mainland market. Or,
they are curious about how popular mandarin actually is in the
city. And still others wonder what Hong Kong's horseracing culture
is really like and how British people who stayed after the
reunification feel about the changes they've seen.
A 10-part TV documentary entitled New Hong Kong Story
(Xin Xianggang Gushi) about the realities of Hong Kong's last
decade is intended to shed light on these questions and more.
The documentary, which will run on CCTV's main news channel at
9:30 PM every night until June 29, took director Tian Chuan and his
crew about a year to film.
They spent six months in Hong Kong, where they interviewed 150
people from various walks of life to show what the last decade's
changes have meant for them.
The series' narrative style sets it apart from other TV
documentaries about the city, Tian says. Each of the 40-minute
episodes features the stories of three or four people who give
first-hand accounts of the changes they've experienced in their
lives over the past decade.
"Hong Kong people are the best candidates to tell what they have
experienced over the past 10 years," Tian says. "We will not speak
for them with the voiceover."
Among the 150 interviewees are many elites, such as Chairman and
Chief Executive of the Bank of East Asia David Li Kwok-po, film
director Stanley Tong and internationally acclaimed cinematographer
Christopher Doyle.
But Tian denies that they are over-representing the elite class
in the show. The first episode deals with two inspectors - one in
Shenzhen port and another in Hong Kong. Conversation between these
two officials centers around how they built a friendship by
drinking wine. Other episodes feature ordinary people and tackle
serious issues such as the city's tolerance for various cultures
and local people's search for identity.
"We don't make it a point to divide the interviewees into the
categories of 'elite' or 'ordinary' in the series," Tian says. "We
tell stories of people's lives - all kinds of people."
Every episode is followed with a two-minute segment featuring
interesting local customs and recreational activities common in the
city. These snapshots show the Goldfinch Restaurant, where some
scenes of In the Mood for Love and 2046 were
shot, popular local desserts, eagles flying the city's skies and
old opera houses.
"We hope that when audiences finish the series, they will
remember some of the vivid stories or even some of the details,"
Tian says. "Because history is made up of one person's personal
stories combined with another person's personal stories."
(China Daily June 23, 2007)