Major program to celebrate key Party milestone

For the centennial marking the founding of the Communist Party of China, a major TV documentary will review the glorious path which revolutionary predecessors walked.

The 100-episode production with China Media Group, Shanhe Suiyue, roughly meaning "the country and the years", was broadcast through Channel One of China Central Television on May 18. The documentary will cover four seasons and each episode is 25 minutes long. The first season will end on Friday.

According to Shen Haixiong, head of the China Media Group, this is one of the longest documentaries on the history of the CPC, and highlights more figures of historical significance than any previous programs on the theme. It was more than two years in production.

From stories of the early leaders of the Communist movement in China to a distinguished list of names who contributed to the revolution and numerous key files and events marking the growth of the Party, chapters of history are connected through individual perspectives and the roles they played in the destiny of the country.

It also goes beyond the revolutionary years and expands the narration to a much wider time span to cover the socialist construction after the founding of New China in 1949, reform and opening-up, and the new era.

"We thereby want to show a 'psychological genealogy' of Chinese Communists from different dimensions," Zhuang Dianjun, director of the documentary department of China Media Group, says. "Through the documentary, we can see why the CPC remains robust even after 100 years and how it continues to thrive."

For Xia Meng, director of the documentary, Shanhe Suiyue enables the audience to resonate with history.

"Many issues that are close to people's lives today are chosen for the documentary," he says. "The audiences can thus have a direct understanding of how people have made achievements following the Party's leadership.

"Speaking of the China Dream, it's not a dream of a country," he says. "People have individual dreams concerning their own industries and interests. Only when people's individual dreams are realized, can the China Dream be realized."

The documentary shows China's effort to alleviate poverty and improve people's livelihoods, a continuing saga of the CPC's commitment. Iconic figures from various industries like Zhong Nanshan, a prominent respiratory expert on the front line fighting COVID-19, and Ren Zhengfei, founder of Huawei Technologies, further proved such strength in a modern context.

"Through the documentary, we'd like to encourage more people in the younger generation to keep working hard," Xia says. "They can contribute their effort for the new trip of our country's progress forward."

Wang Kaihao contributed to this story.