Han Fei
As a reflection of the times, numerous documentary series about the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) have emerged this year, celebrating the BRI’s 10th anniversary.
Among them, a large-scale documentary series titled The Call of the Silk Road, consisting of 15 episodes, including 14 country-specific episodes and a 60-minute summary episode titled “Sharing the Future,” has been launched.
Using a perspective filled with humanistic care, the series captures the stories of 14 countries across Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America – Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Greece, Cambodia, Tanzania, Malaysia, Uzbekistan, Brazil, the UAE, Egypt, Pakistan, Senegal, Hungary and Iran – as well as the lives and destinies of people of these countries changed by the BRI.
The program, presented in multiple languages such as Chinese, Arabic, Russian, and Spanish, is being broadcast worldwide, reaching a potential overseas audience of over 400 million viewers.
The Call of the Silk Road tells the stories of the BRI with a narrative focused on development. It aggregates vivid examples on a country-by-country basis, adhering to a “people-centered” philosophy, focusing on ordinary individuals, and embodying the idea of a “community with a shared future for mankind.”
Over the past decade, the BRI has blossomed into a globally acclaimed public good and a collaborative platform for international cooperation. This success is inseparable from collaboration between countries and cooperation among people. The narrative of the series focuses on the core theme of “the modernization of the Silk Road,” often unfolding within the framework of “challenge-solution.”
The documentary does not shy away from addressing developmental issues such as the digital divide and ecological conservation. It even responds to stigmatizing labels like “debt trap.”
It adopts a constructive approach to storytelling, showcasing initiatives like the construction of Indonesia’s digital Silk Road and Egypt’s new capital’s CBD. It incorporates Chinese solutions and wisdom in a flexible manner. The documentary embeds the spirit of inclusiveness and win-win cooperation, allowing the audience to experience the true essence of the Silk Road spirit.
The series unfolds on a country-by-country basis for the first 14 episodes. The BRI involves numerous countries and regions with diverse economic development, social cultures, religious beliefs, and local customs.
By implementing a strategy of localized and differentiated storytelling, the series roots itself in each country to discover stories, respectfully show their cultural beliefs, address their concerns, and focus on shared values among diverse cultures. The aim is to find common ground in the narrative of the BRI, allowing for precise communication and reaching the audience accurately, thereby eliciting empathy.
How has China’s proposal of the BRI changed the lives of hundreds of millions of ordinary people worldwide? Over the past decade, what roles have the people along the Belt and Road played?
This series focuses on ordinary individuals, who form the main content of the film. There are stories of a female truck driver raising a child on her own, a unicorn entrepreneur learning from Chinese experiences, a port worker cultivating world champions and generations of farmers growing grapes.
These stories of ordinary people are drawn from local contexts and seamlessly integrated into the era’s tide of jointly building the Belt and Road, resonating with each other.
The documentary uses the word “call” to convey the idea that the joint construction of the BRI is a harmonious collaboration, representing a shared destiny.
The concluding episode portrays the common aspirations of people in the countries, conveying a belief in a shared future.
In addition to the main series, this series also produced five short videos under the theme “Together.” These videos, featuring stories of a Chinese-Indonesian coffee entrepreneur, a Senegalese wrestler, an Egyptian photographer, a Greek world champion father-daughter duo, and a Cambodian lion-fighting girl, were broadcast on multiple international media outlets, including CNN.
The diverse formats of micro, short, and long videos, and even the active exploration of the “shooting and broadcasting” model, align with the current trends in media dissemination in the era of integrated media.
In the final analysis, the BRI, from inception to implementation, has evolved into a collaborative journey toward shared development and mutual prosperity. Consequently, the core narrative of the BRI is inherently a development narrative. Spanning the vast expanses of Asia, Europe, and Africa, the visual construction of the Belt and Road narrative can be achieved by crafting authentic and diverse country-specific documentaries. These documentaries, rich in local flavor and shared values, embrace both differences and commonalities, respecting diversity while showcasing distinctive features, ultimately seeking a shared understanding.
The development and progress fostered by the BRI are fundamentally rooted in people. The dreams, hopes, struggles, and achievements of individuals along the Silk Road are brought to life in the documentary series.
Each individual story, a note in the grand symphony, resonates with the overearching theme of shared future, creating a harmonious melody that echoes across the Silk Road.
[The author is an associate professor with the Communication University of China. [email protected]]
