0:00:04 > 0:00:08The story of modern China begins here in Canton in the south.
0:00:11 > 0:00:15In the 1830s, China was still the greatest state on Earth,
0:00:15 > 0:00:18but the Europeans were growing in influence.
0:00:23 > 0:00:26In Canton, the new ideas of the West were mingling
0:00:26 > 0:00:29with the culture of old China -
0:00:29 > 0:00:34traders selling opium, missionaries preaching Christ.
0:00:37 > 0:00:40At this time, a chance meeting took place
0:00:40 > 0:00:43between an American missionary and a Chinese student,
0:00:43 > 0:00:44whose name was Hong.
0:00:47 > 0:00:50This, in the 1830s, was the dividing line between
0:00:50 > 0:00:54the European quarter and the old Chinese city of Canton.
0:00:54 > 0:00:57And here, Hong meets the American missionary,
0:00:57 > 0:00:59the Reverend Edwin Stevens,
0:00:59 > 0:01:03Yale-educated, wearing Chinese clothes -
0:01:03 > 0:01:05long-sleeved coat, his hair in a bun -
0:01:05 > 0:01:08and he's handing out Christian pamphlets illegally.
0:01:10 > 0:01:13And he stops Hong and he says to him,
0:01:13 > 0:01:18"Follow the Christian God and you will reach the highest glory."
0:01:18 > 0:01:20And he gives him one of the pamphlets
0:01:20 > 0:01:26and in it, Hong sees the story of Noah and the flood.
0:01:26 > 0:01:28And he reads his own name -
0:01:28 > 0:01:34"Hong", literally, the flood - God's instrument to punish humanity
0:01:34 > 0:01:38for failing to follow the path of righteousness.
0:01:41 > 0:01:44Believing himself to be God's Chinese son,
0:01:44 > 0:01:47Hong set out to overthrow the Qing Empire...
0:01:48 > 0:01:52..unleashing the first of three huge upheavals
0:01:52 > 0:01:54out of which modern China would emerge.
0:01:54 > 0:01:57Aargh!
0:01:57 > 0:01:59DEEP RUMBLING
0:02:29 > 0:02:34'In 1841, here in the Pearl River, the British blasted the Chinese
0:02:34 > 0:02:36'to defeat in the First Opium War.'
0:02:43 > 0:02:47The Chinese coastal forts were useless -
0:02:47 > 0:02:51their junks no match for ironclads and rocket launchers.
0:02:58 > 0:03:03The British forced the Chinese to give them trading concessions -
0:03:03 > 0:03:06treaty ports, like Canton and Shanghai.
0:03:09 > 0:03:13And here, they began to build European-style villas,
0:03:13 > 0:03:15warehouses and churches.
0:03:17 > 0:03:22So, the Qing Government gave way to the British brand
0:03:22 > 0:03:24of international politics.
0:03:24 > 0:03:29And, as you can see, the British started to make themselves at home.
0:03:38 > 0:03:42'In the strange, unsettling aftermath of the Opium War,
0:03:42 > 0:03:44'the student Hong headed to the hills.'
0:03:45 > 0:03:50He became a village teacher out in the wild countryside of the south.
0:03:53 > 0:03:55And here, the Bible texts
0:03:55 > 0:03:57began to work on his mind...
0:03:58 > 0:04:01..especially the prophet Isaiah.
0:04:01 > 0:04:03"Your country is desolate.
0:04:03 > 0:04:08"Strangers are devouring your land before your eyes.
0:04:08 > 0:04:11"Why be downtrodden any more?
0:04:11 > 0:04:13"Rise up and revolt."
0:04:15 > 0:04:20The Taiping Rebellion began deep in the mountains,
0:04:20 > 0:04:25beyond Guiping. Very isolated places that, in the 19th century,
0:04:25 > 0:04:27were only joined by walking tracks.
0:04:29 > 0:04:31Really out of the way.
0:04:34 > 0:04:37Here was fertile ground for revolution.
0:04:38 > 0:04:43Since the 1600s, China's population had nearly trebled.
0:04:43 > 0:04:47A stagnating economy brought mass poverty and unemployment,
0:04:47 > 0:04:49the rulers were oppressive.
0:04:51 > 0:04:54And Hong's preaching on social justice
0:04:54 > 0:04:56found a willing audience.
0:04:58 > 0:05:02May we go and have a look at the place where Hong stayed?
0:05:02 > 0:05:03- Before the rising.- Yeah.
0:05:03 > 0:05:06- Yeah.- Yeah.- Look at this.
0:05:06 > 0:05:08Fantastic.
0:05:09 > 0:05:12Isn't that wonderful?
0:05:12 > 0:05:14So, this was a family house, was it, once upon a time?
0:05:14 > 0:05:20THEY SPEAK OWN LANGUAGE
0:05:20 > 0:05:23- Yeah, it was used to people staying here.- Ah.
0:05:23 > 0:05:25MAN SPEAKS IN OWN LANGUAGE
0:05:25 > 0:05:28TRANSLATION:
0:05:44 > 0:05:48Hong and his disciples started to organise village meetings.
0:05:49 > 0:05:53Here in Old Wood Village, they enthused the local people
0:05:53 > 0:05:55with their revolutionary ideas.
0:05:55 > 0:05:57Hello!
0:05:58 > 0:05:59Hi!
0:06:00 > 0:06:04'Hong and his close friend, Feng, were educated men
0:06:04 > 0:06:07'and with their traditional respect for learning,
0:06:07 > 0:06:09'the illiterate villagers listened.'
0:06:11 > 0:06:12Hello.
0:06:14 > 0:06:17So, we've come to look for the Taiping.
0:06:25 > 0:06:30TRANSLATION:
0:06:50 > 0:06:53Hong had identified the Christian God
0:06:53 > 0:06:56'with the High God of ancient China and he wanted to create
0:06:56 > 0:06:59'heaven's kingdom on earth by overthrowing'
0:06:59 > 0:07:03the corrupt Qing Empire to make a golden age
0:07:03 > 0:07:05when society lived in harmony,
0:07:05 > 0:07:08when justice was for the poor too.
0:07:09 > 0:07:13For families like the Zengs, it was a powerful message.
0:07:13 > 0:07:17We get kind of mesmerised by the religious background
0:07:17 > 0:07:19to the Taiping and it is incredible, isn't it?
0:07:19 > 0:07:21God's Chinese son!
0:07:21 > 0:07:26But you mustn't forget, it's a great peasant uprising.
0:07:26 > 0:07:31This is the poor, rural, agrarian workforce who are rising up
0:07:31 > 0:07:35against their traditional enemies - the landlords and the rich.
0:07:39 > 0:07:41Through the 1840s, the movement grew
0:07:41 > 0:07:44and they gathered thousands of followers.
0:07:44 > 0:07:47The Qing Government ordered troops to put them down,
0:07:47 > 0:07:51but in such out-of-the-way places, it was too late.
0:07:53 > 0:07:57They created revolutionary cells in hundreds of villages.
0:07:59 > 0:08:01This is Rushing Water Village.
0:08:01 > 0:08:05Hong's right-hand man, Feng, stayed here till the eve of the uprising.
0:08:12 > 0:08:14'This is the site of the school where Feng
0:08:14 > 0:08:16'taught and spread the Taiping ideology.'
0:08:16 > 0:08:17Ah!
0:08:17 > 0:08:21'You could say THIS is where the great rebellion started.'
0:08:21 > 0:08:22Ah!
0:08:27 > 0:08:29The school was on this site, then? Is that right?
0:08:29 > 0:08:32- The school started here...- Yeah. - ..and amongst somewhere there
0:08:32 > 0:08:34- and then they're not really sure. - Ah.
0:08:35 > 0:08:38'Back then, today's Zeng family remember
0:08:38 > 0:08:40'their ancestors were illiterate.
0:08:40 > 0:08:43'That's why they first brought Feng in to teach them.'
0:08:49 > 0:08:52MAN SPEAKS IN OWN LANGUAGE
0:08:52 > 0:08:56TRANSLATION:
0:09:08 > 0:09:10It's hard to imagine, isn't it?
0:09:10 > 0:09:14Such earth-shaking historical events beginning
0:09:14 > 0:09:16in such out-of-the-way places.
0:09:19 > 0:09:24But by 1849, these little villages under Thistle Mountain
0:09:24 > 0:09:28were just humming with omens and visions and prophecies.
0:09:29 > 0:09:34Jesus was making regular descents down to Earth to bring Hong
0:09:34 > 0:09:37messages from heaven in his dreams.
0:09:40 > 0:09:45Angels in golden robes were giving succour to the Taiping teachers
0:09:45 > 0:09:51and God himself, in his great black dragon robe with his golden beard,
0:09:51 > 0:09:53was showing Hong, in his trances,
0:09:53 > 0:09:57the demon armies which he must overcome.
0:09:59 > 0:10:05Then in spring 1850, Hong put on the yellow robe of the empire
0:10:05 > 0:10:11and gave the command for all the Taiping worshippers of God
0:10:11 > 0:10:14to gather together and descend into the plain.
0:10:14 > 0:10:16The revolution was about to begin.
0:10:20 > 0:10:23Soon, Hong had an army of 100,000 men
0:10:23 > 0:10:27and they defeated the Qing forces in the south.
0:10:27 > 0:10:31The tale is long told by the traditional storytellers.
0:10:31 > 0:10:35TRANSLATION:
0:11:05 > 0:11:10On March 19th 1853, Nanjing fell and Hong was enthroned
0:11:10 > 0:11:14as ruler of God's heavenly kingdom in his new Jerusalem.
0:11:18 > 0:11:22'So, the Taiping had gained power, but what would they do with it?
0:11:22 > 0:11:26'It's a question faced by all China's revolutionaries.'
0:11:29 > 0:11:31There's the throne of the Heavenly King.
0:11:31 > 0:11:36Once God's kingdom here on Earth had been established in Nanjing,
0:11:36 > 0:11:39a blizzard of ideological pronouncements came
0:11:39 > 0:11:41pouring from this throne.
0:11:43 > 0:11:46They had printing presses here, they had a whole workshop
0:11:46 > 0:11:49for woodblock cutting for their publications -
0:11:49 > 0:11:52their translations of the Old and New Testament.
0:11:52 > 0:11:55They banned opium, tobacco, alcohol,
0:11:55 > 0:11:59foot binding, prostitution, gambling.
0:11:59 > 0:12:01They separated the sexes,
0:12:01 > 0:12:04there was the death penalty for sex between men.
0:12:04 > 0:12:06Most important of all,
0:12:06 > 0:12:09China was to be classless.
0:12:09 > 0:12:10Private ownership of property,
0:12:10 > 0:12:13private ownership of land were abolished.
0:12:13 > 0:12:17All land would be owned by the State and distributed by the State.
0:12:18 > 0:12:21And this would be accompanied by a purging of the language
0:12:21 > 0:12:23of its foreign elements,
0:12:23 > 0:12:28which had been brought in by the alien Manchu conquerors.
0:12:28 > 0:12:31A new world of words for a new time.
0:12:38 > 0:12:40The Taiping State spread its power across
0:12:40 > 0:12:42the rich heartland of the south.
0:12:42 > 0:12:44And here in Nanjing, the people got used to
0:12:44 > 0:12:47a new kind of fundamentalist rule,
0:12:47 > 0:12:51with new laws condemning old pleasures.
0:12:59 > 0:13:02In the backstreets, you can still find traces
0:13:02 > 0:13:05of the Taiping's 16-year rule.
0:13:05 > 0:13:07This was the house of one of their leaders.
0:13:15 > 0:13:17'This house belonged to the Li family
0:13:17 > 0:13:20'before the Taiping rebels took over the city.
0:13:20 > 0:13:22'They fled into the countryside
0:13:22 > 0:13:27'and a leading Taiping prince took this over as his own residence.'
0:13:28 > 0:13:33And he has the house painted with Taiping-themed murals.
0:13:35 > 0:13:38No representation of the human form.
0:13:38 > 0:13:39They were iconoclasts.
0:13:39 > 0:13:44They destroyed images and human representations of Daoist temples,
0:13:44 > 0:13:47Buddhist and Confucian shrines, wherever they'd gone.
0:13:47 > 0:13:51So, the images from nature of birds, horses, landscapes,
0:13:51 > 0:13:56over there, the five-storey wooden watchtower,
0:13:56 > 0:13:59were the kind that the Taiping armies constructed.
0:14:00 > 0:14:04In one of the inner halls, the Taiping prince had had
0:14:04 > 0:14:09the Chinese symbol for long life painted on the wall.
0:14:11 > 0:14:15But long life, the Taiping leaders would not achieve.
0:14:20 > 0:14:23So, China now had rival dynasties -
0:14:23 > 0:14:25the Qing in the north in Beijing
0:14:25 > 0:14:28and the Taiping in the south.
0:14:28 > 0:14:30But for the British and the other foreigners,
0:14:30 > 0:14:32their stake in China
0:14:32 > 0:14:33was too big to jeopardise,
0:14:33 > 0:14:35so they lent the Chinese Government
0:14:35 > 0:14:39advisors and the latest weaponry to help crush the rebels.
0:14:40 > 0:14:44Eventually, the Qing massed a million men against them,
0:14:44 > 0:14:49and in 1864, nearly 16 years after they left Thistle Mountain,
0:14:49 > 0:14:52the Taiping were forced back behind the walls of Nanjing.
0:14:56 > 0:14:59TRANSLATION:
0:15:01 > 0:15:06Soon the rebels inside the city were decimated by disease and starvation.
0:15:06 > 0:15:08And then Hong himself fell ill and died.
0:15:39 > 0:15:41WIND WHISTLES, METAL CLANKS
0:15:44 > 0:15:48By the end, over 20 million people had died of famine,
0:15:48 > 0:15:50disease and fighting.
0:15:53 > 0:15:56The Qing thought they'd weathered the storm.
0:15:56 > 0:16:00The war-shattered city of Nanjing was rebuilt
0:16:00 > 0:16:02and at that point, the Qing could still see themselves
0:16:02 > 0:16:04as the centre of the world.
0:16:06 > 0:16:09But the Taiping Rebellion was a dire warning.
0:16:13 > 0:16:15Just before he was executed,
0:16:15 > 0:16:19one of the Taiping leaders gave this advice to the Chinese government -
0:16:20 > 0:16:25"Buy from the foreigners their very best cannon
0:16:25 > 0:16:28"and get the very best Chinese craftsmen
0:16:28 > 0:16:30"to replicate them exactly...
0:16:31 > 0:16:34"..and get them to teach other craftsmen,
0:16:34 > 0:16:38"so the one will teach ten and the ten will teach 100
0:16:38 > 0:16:42"until all China knows how to make them,
0:16:42 > 0:16:45"because if you will fight the foreign devils,
0:16:45 > 0:16:50"you will need the best cannon and to be very well-prepared.
0:16:50 > 0:16:54"For a war with the foreigners will certainly take place."
0:17:01 > 0:17:05Towards the end of the Taiping, in a Second Opium War,
0:17:05 > 0:17:08the British and the French had forced more concessions
0:17:08 > 0:17:10from the Chinese -
0:17:10 > 0:17:11more treaty ports,
0:17:11 > 0:17:13eventually over 80 of them.
0:17:21 > 0:17:24With their banks and villas, parts of Chinese cities began to look
0:17:24 > 0:17:29like corners of Europe now and the infrastructure came with them -
0:17:29 > 0:17:32the telegraph and banking, railways and trams.
0:17:33 > 0:17:36Swelled by merchants fleeing the Taiping,
0:17:36 > 0:17:40Shanghai was launched on its path to become the world's greatest city.
0:17:43 > 0:17:47Behind me, the old headquarters of the HSBC -
0:17:47 > 0:17:51the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation.
0:17:51 > 0:17:53Today, one of the richest banks in the world,
0:17:53 > 0:17:57but founded here in China by a British trader in 1865.
0:18:01 > 0:18:04So China had begun to open up.
0:18:04 > 0:18:06But in that lay a profound threat
0:18:06 > 0:18:08to the way China had seen the world for so long.
0:18:12 > 0:18:15Remember this is very striking in Asia, the architecture.
0:18:15 > 0:18:19It's almost like inserting a completely alien
0:18:19 > 0:18:23structural civilisation on Asian territory.
0:18:23 > 0:18:25So it has a remarkable impact,
0:18:25 > 0:18:27in that sense, on people's psyche.
0:18:32 > 0:18:35But in the countryside, it was a very different story.
0:18:38 > 0:18:40It is important to emphasis,
0:18:40 > 0:18:44actually, vast parts of China is not Shanghai.
0:18:44 > 0:18:47This is the part of China that's the dominant part of China.
0:18:47 > 0:18:52That is very important in explaining the rise of political forces.
0:18:52 > 0:18:54Sparked by drought and famine,
0:18:54 > 0:18:57more peasant risings were flaring across the land.
0:18:58 > 0:19:01And then in 1895...
0:19:01 > 0:19:03LOUD BANG
0:19:03 > 0:19:06..China was humiliated in a disastrous war with Japan.
0:19:09 > 0:19:12And now the colonial powers gathered like vultures.
0:19:13 > 0:19:16The Russians, Japanese and Germans in the north,
0:19:16 > 0:19:18the French and British in the south.
0:19:20 > 0:19:24And in 1899, came the second great explosion -
0:19:24 > 0:19:25the Boxer Rising.
0:19:25 > 0:19:28MEN SHOUT, MACHINE GUN RATTLES
0:19:29 > 0:19:33The Boxers swept on Beijing with a strange mix of martial arts
0:19:33 > 0:19:36and mysticism, calling for the killing of foreigners
0:19:36 > 0:19:38and the wiping out of foreign influence.
0:19:40 > 0:19:42The court fled the capital
0:19:42 > 0:19:44and in the European quarter in Beijing,
0:19:44 > 0:19:48the colonials were trapped in a 55-day siege.
0:19:50 > 0:19:55A relief army of 20,000 men drawn from the eight foreign powers
0:19:55 > 0:19:56marched from the coast.
0:19:58 > 0:20:01HE SHOUTS IN HIS OWN LANGUAGE
0:20:04 > 0:20:07And they took revenge in a rampage of looting and killing.
0:20:18 > 0:20:20The Boxers were crushed mercilessly
0:20:20 > 0:20:24and huge financial reparations imposed on China.
0:20:25 > 0:20:29The Boxer Rebellion was a horrendous disaster for China
0:20:29 > 0:20:31and for the people of Beijing,
0:20:31 > 0:20:34who'd never seen looting and massacres and killings
0:20:34 > 0:20:35like this for centuries.
0:20:37 > 0:20:39To make matters worse,
0:20:39 > 0:20:42the foreigners also demanded that this area of Beijing,
0:20:42 > 0:20:45the Legation Quarter, should be turned over to them.
0:20:45 > 0:20:49They would wall it and administer it themselves.
0:20:49 > 0:20:53This was the French post office here, built in 1901.
0:21:00 > 0:21:02In central Beijing,
0:21:02 > 0:21:06you can still trace the European quarter on the ground.
0:21:09 > 0:21:11If you look at the map of Beijing,
0:21:11 > 0:21:13you can see what that meant in practice.
0:21:13 > 0:21:16This is the Legation Quarter here.
0:21:16 > 0:21:20It's, like, a mile long, nearly half a mile wide.
0:21:20 > 0:21:23As big as the Forbidden City, it's incredible, isn't it?
0:21:23 > 0:21:25And right next to it.
0:21:27 > 0:21:31It is another Forbidden City - the Chinese aren't allowed in it.
0:21:33 > 0:21:37No wonder Chinese people were outraged.
0:21:39 > 0:21:41The indemnity imposed on the Qing government
0:21:41 > 0:21:45was the equivalent today of 60 billion.
0:21:59 > 0:22:01What the Chinese people felt about it all
0:22:01 > 0:22:03can be seen through an incredible source -
0:22:03 > 0:22:08the 200-volume diary of an ordinary man in a small town.
0:22:08 > 0:22:11His name...Liu Dapeng.
0:22:13 > 0:22:15Today, back at his old home,
0:22:15 > 0:22:17his family, friends and neighbours have gathered
0:22:17 > 0:22:20to celebrate an unlikely local hero.
0:22:24 > 0:22:28A Chinese everyman who gave voice to the feelings of the people.
0:22:47 > 0:22:50A provincial degree holder who never held office,
0:22:50 > 0:22:54a teacher, farmer and mine manager,
0:22:54 > 0:22:55Liu was loyal to the emperor
0:22:55 > 0:22:58and a pillar of the traditional Confucian morality.
0:23:01 > 0:23:04Not the sort to support fanatics,
0:23:04 > 0:23:06but as his writings show
0:23:06 > 0:23:09he understood the root causes of the Boxer rising.
0:23:25 > 0:23:28And for Liu and his neighbours,
0:23:28 > 0:23:31the very existence of the empire was now at stake.
0:23:34 > 0:23:37He wrote in his diary, "I fear that revolts will break out
0:23:37 > 0:23:39"all over the provinces of the empire.
0:23:39 > 0:23:43"When the people have no security, they will rise up -
0:23:43 > 0:23:47"it's natural and inevitable, but where will it end?"
0:23:51 > 0:23:53Revolution was in the air.
0:23:56 > 0:23:58And among women, too.
0:24:02 > 0:24:05Now recast as a kung fu heroine,
0:24:05 > 0:24:09the feminist poet Qiu Jin joined the republican movement in exile
0:24:09 > 0:24:12and founded a radical journal for women's voices.
0:24:14 > 0:24:15Brilliant and courageous,
0:24:15 > 0:24:20she was the tragic star of the failed revolution of 1907.
0:24:20 > 0:24:2215th July 1907,
0:24:22 > 0:24:25four days before the planned armed uprising
0:24:25 > 0:24:27that would overthrow the dynasty,
0:24:27 > 0:24:30Qui Jin was executed by beheading
0:24:30 > 0:24:33here in the middle of her hometown - Shaoxing.
0:24:33 > 0:24:35That monument marks the spot.
0:24:58 > 0:25:00She was 31.
0:25:00 > 0:25:04And at that moment, the empire itself entered its death throes.
0:25:13 > 0:25:14The next year, 1908,
0:25:14 > 0:25:18a two-year-old boy came to the Dragon Throne.
0:25:18 > 0:25:21And he was the last emperor.
0:25:26 > 0:25:29Caught between its Confucian past and a western future,
0:25:29 > 0:25:31the empire was doomed.
0:25:31 > 0:25:34RHYTHMIC, MARTIAL DRUMMING
0:25:34 > 0:25:37MAN SHOUTS ORDERS
0:25:41 > 0:25:43On October 10th 1911,
0:25:43 > 0:25:47a coalition of the army, bankers and the urban bourgeoisie
0:25:47 > 0:25:49declared China a republic.
0:25:49 > 0:25:53In early 1912, the boy emperor was forced to abdicate.
0:25:53 > 0:25:56MAN SHOUTS ORDERS
0:26:02 > 0:26:05It was 2,000 years since the first emperor,
0:26:05 > 0:26:093,000 since the Zhou proclaimed the Mandate of Heaven
0:26:09 > 0:26:13and now that vast universe of ritual and symbol was gone.
0:26:26 > 0:26:30But what would the Chinese people put in its place?
0:26:35 > 0:26:37China's first elected president
0:26:37 > 0:26:40was the Hawaiian-educated Sun Yat-sen,
0:26:40 > 0:26:42who had led the republican movement in exile
0:26:42 > 0:26:46and long dreamed of a free, democratic China.
0:27:14 > 0:27:17But from the start, Sun had to deal with the old powers -
0:27:17 > 0:27:21the army, the warlords and the foreigners.
0:27:21 > 0:27:26And in its brief life, the republic never knew peace.
0:27:30 > 0:27:34In the First World War, China joined the Allies
0:27:34 > 0:27:39and provided nearly 150,000 labourers on the Western Front.
0:27:46 > 0:27:48But at the end of the war, they were in for a shock.
0:27:50 > 0:27:53When the Treaty of Versailles was signed,
0:27:53 > 0:27:56China's youth were shocked to find that the territory
0:27:56 > 0:27:59that had originally been given to Germany as a colony
0:27:59 > 0:28:01in the late 19th century up in Shandong Province
0:28:01 > 0:28:03wasn't going to be handed back to China.
0:28:03 > 0:28:07Instead, it would become part of a Japanese territory
0:28:07 > 0:28:09and this was regarded as outrageous.
0:28:09 > 0:28:11ANGRY SHOUTING AND CHANTING
0:28:13 > 0:28:16On May 4th 1919,
0:28:16 > 0:28:19using their new-found rights to freedom of speech,
0:28:19 > 0:28:23a huge student demonstration was organised in the capital.
0:28:23 > 0:28:27The student protest that hot Sunday here in Beijing
0:28:27 > 0:28:29has come to be seen as a powerful symbol
0:28:29 > 0:28:33of the Chinese people's struggle for liberation in the 20th century.
0:28:37 > 0:28:40There were 3,000 students and they gathered right here
0:28:40 > 0:28:43in front of the gates of Peking University,
0:28:43 > 0:28:46the old library, the Red Building, as they called it.
0:28:46 > 0:28:50They had banners made out of bamboo and cloth
0:28:50 > 0:28:52and they wanted the world to know.
0:28:52 > 0:28:54They'd even prepared English-language statements,
0:28:54 > 0:28:57which they hoped to hand in to the embassies
0:28:57 > 0:29:00of the colonial occupying powers.
0:29:00 > 0:29:05The Chinese people's struggle was about to open to the world.
0:29:12 > 0:29:16The May 4th demonstration here in Tiananmen Square
0:29:16 > 0:29:18was a key moment for modern China.
0:29:22 > 0:29:24In a culture that gave such respect to the old,
0:29:24 > 0:29:27the young had spoken.
0:29:29 > 0:29:32And their ideas spread like wildfire.
0:29:38 > 0:29:41Writers and journalists now called for
0:29:41 > 0:29:45a wholesale renewal of Chinese society and politics.
0:29:46 > 0:29:48They wanted to sweep away the old
0:29:48 > 0:29:50and create a new culture
0:29:50 > 0:29:53based on Western democracy and science.
0:29:53 > 0:29:57A key voice was modern China's greatest writer - Lu Xun.
0:29:58 > 0:30:01Lu Xun was born in 1881.
0:30:01 > 0:30:05So by the time of May 4th Movement came about he was pushing 40,
0:30:05 > 0:30:07long past the idealism of youth.
0:30:10 > 0:30:12He trained as a doctor.
0:30:12 > 0:30:14And although he became a writer,
0:30:14 > 0:30:18through his whole life he kept that bedside manner
0:30:18 > 0:30:23of a world-weary, ironical but humane physician.
0:30:23 > 0:30:26But a pessimist - not one to let hope run away with him
0:30:26 > 0:30:28with all the defeats of the time.
0:30:30 > 0:30:32And in 1920s China,
0:30:32 > 0:30:35after the humiliation of the Treaty of Versailles,
0:30:35 > 0:30:37that was the voice.
0:30:58 > 0:31:01"The republic has failed us," he wrote.
0:31:01 > 0:31:02"We've been cheated.
0:31:02 > 0:31:05"We were slaves before and now we're ruled by slaves.
0:31:05 > 0:31:08"We must renew the spirit of China."
0:31:40 > 0:31:44"Hope is like a path in the countryside," he wrote.
0:31:44 > 0:31:46"At first there is no path,
0:31:46 > 0:31:50"but if enough people walk in the same direction, the path appears."
0:31:57 > 0:32:00But which path would China take?
0:32:02 > 0:32:06The May 4th Movement had electrified
0:32:06 > 0:32:08the political and cultural debate in China,
0:32:08 > 0:32:11a flood of ideas from which there would be no going back.
0:32:11 > 0:32:15And among those ideas was a Western political philosophy,
0:32:15 > 0:32:18a communist philosophy - Marxism.
0:32:21 > 0:32:25And the first meeting of a Chinese communist party
0:32:25 > 0:32:30was held here in this room, around this table, in July 1921.
0:32:30 > 0:32:33There were 12 people present.
0:32:33 > 0:32:36Among them the Hunan peasant's son Mao Zedong.
0:32:38 > 0:32:41They were attracted by its anti-feudal,
0:32:41 > 0:32:44anti-imperialist message
0:32:44 > 0:32:47and also by its claim to be scientific.
0:32:47 > 0:32:51That it held the key not only to history, but to the future.
0:32:53 > 0:32:59The 12 people sitting here were the representatives of just 57 members.
0:32:59 > 0:33:04At that point the party had no significance at all.
0:33:06 > 0:33:10# When it's night-time in dear old Shanghai
0:33:10 > 0:33:13# And I'm dancing, sweetheart, with you... #
0:33:13 > 0:33:18Just round the corner, the Jazz Age was in full swing.
0:33:18 > 0:33:20China's politics were in chaos,
0:33:20 > 0:33:24but the '20s were a dynamic time - for some.
0:33:24 > 0:33:26The economy was growing in cities like Shanghai.
0:33:28 > 0:33:31A young Briton who came out here in 1919 from Lancashire
0:33:31 > 0:33:33after the First World War,
0:33:33 > 0:33:36with no jobs at home, joined the police and said,
0:33:36 > 0:33:38"It's the best city I've ever seen.
0:33:38 > 0:33:41"The most cosmopolitan place in the world
0:33:41 > 0:33:46"and in time it will leave every English city 100 years behind."
0:33:46 > 0:33:49# In my arms, dear
0:33:49 > 0:33:51# Away from harm, dear... #
0:33:51 > 0:33:54But westernisation was not just about material life,
0:33:54 > 0:33:59it was about China learning to be modern.
0:34:01 > 0:34:05These treaty and concession ports like Shanghai and Hong Kong,
0:34:05 > 0:34:10with their Western hotels, Western banks
0:34:10 > 0:34:11and department stores,
0:34:11 > 0:34:16they were pointers to the future for the new Republic of China.
0:34:16 > 0:34:18And adverts from the time
0:34:18 > 0:34:21show us that people were strongly encouraged
0:34:21 > 0:34:24to do what the radicals in the May 4th Movement
0:34:24 > 0:34:26and the New Culture Movement had been saying -
0:34:26 > 0:34:28"Do away with the old.
0:34:28 > 0:34:31"From now on, let's wear Western suits
0:34:31 > 0:34:35"with a collar and tie and a fedora."
0:34:35 > 0:34:41So all this was a million miles away from the vast rural hinterland
0:34:41 > 0:34:46in which most of China's nearly 500 million people lived in the 1920s.
0:34:48 > 0:34:51But even there...history was on the move.
0:34:54 > 0:34:58In the late '20s, ravaged by floods and famines and armed conflict,
0:34:58 > 0:35:01peasants were selling their children,
0:35:01 > 0:35:04dying in their thousands of disease and starvation.
0:35:08 > 0:35:12And in these desperate times arose a man of destiny -
0:35:12 > 0:35:15Mao Zedong.
0:35:16 > 0:35:21Mao was born in 1893, the son of a well-off peasant in Hunan.
0:35:21 > 0:35:22'He left high school at 25,
0:35:22 > 0:35:25'having trained as a primary-school teacher.'
0:35:25 > 0:35:26Sensitive.
0:35:26 > 0:35:29He was haunted by childhood memories
0:35:29 > 0:35:32of the killing of famine-stricken protesters in his home town.
0:35:32 > 0:35:35And then he discovered communism.
0:35:35 > 0:35:36And then look at this...
0:35:36 > 0:35:38These are the early struggles,
0:35:38 > 0:35:41the early mobilisation of the peasants.
0:35:42 > 0:35:46His voracious reading had first led him to European socialism
0:35:46 > 0:35:49and then to violent revolution.
0:35:49 > 0:35:53He began as a guerrilla leader in a failed communist rising
0:35:53 > 0:35:54in his native Hunan
0:35:54 > 0:35:59and then in setting up independent communist enclaves - Soviets -
0:35:59 > 0:36:01deep in the countryside.
0:36:04 > 0:36:07With that, the nationalist government,
0:36:07 > 0:36:09now under Prime Minister Chiang Kai-shek,
0:36:09 > 0:36:12decided to wipe out the communists.
0:36:12 > 0:36:16Thousands were killed, including Mao's wife and sister.
0:36:18 > 0:36:23In 1934, the survivors embarked on what became known as the Long March,
0:36:23 > 0:36:27a 6,000-mile trek to northwest China.
0:36:27 > 0:36:31Only 8,000, about a tenth of them, survived.
0:36:31 > 0:36:34And they made their base at Yan'an.
0:36:37 > 0:36:40A nowhere place in a bleak countryside,
0:36:40 > 0:36:43it must have seemed at that point that the communist movement in China
0:36:43 > 0:36:44had reached a dead end.
0:36:46 > 0:36:50But then, in 1937,
0:36:50 > 0:36:52the Japanese launched a full-scale invasion of China.
0:36:53 > 0:36:57- MAN ON NEWSREEL:- The Japanese now seek total conquest,
0:36:57 > 0:36:59not just another chunk of territory.
0:37:05 > 0:37:08A century since Britain first blasted China open,
0:37:08 > 0:37:12a generation since the bloodshed of the Boxers,
0:37:12 > 0:37:15babies have grown to manhood without a year of peace.
0:37:15 > 0:37:20For 25 years, China has lived with warlords, guns and terror.
0:37:20 > 0:37:23But now it must drink deeper of the cup of bitterness.
0:37:26 > 0:37:29That December, in a six-week reign of terror,
0:37:29 > 0:37:31the Japanese army massacred
0:37:31 > 0:37:35more than a quarter of a million people in Nanjing.
0:37:37 > 0:37:40How old were you when the Japanese invaded China?
0:37:40 > 0:37:43SHE REPLIES IN HER OWN LANGUAGE
0:37:43 > 0:37:4614? 14 years old, yeah.
0:37:48 > 0:37:54And when the Japanese actually attacked the city in December 1937,
0:37:54 > 0:37:55what did you see?
0:37:55 > 0:37:58Did you hear stories from people escaping?
0:38:55 > 0:38:59Out of such horrors a national resistance was born.
0:39:02 > 0:39:05Far away in Yan'an, from a defeated guerrilla army,
0:39:05 > 0:39:07the communists now found themselves
0:39:07 > 0:39:09part of a liberation struggle.
0:39:10 > 0:39:14Mao himself had gained power over the party
0:39:14 > 0:39:17and emerged as a formidable and ruthless revolutionary.
0:39:21 > 0:39:23A United Front was formed,
0:39:23 > 0:39:26with the nationalists under Chiang Kai-shek
0:39:26 > 0:39:29and the communists under Mao,
0:39:29 > 0:39:32fighting the common enemy - the Japanese.
0:39:57 > 0:40:01At that time, Mao lived here in the caves outside Yan'an.
0:40:01 > 0:40:05He was even visited by Western journalists.
0:40:09 > 0:40:11Among those who came to see him then
0:40:11 > 0:40:15was the philosopher and social reformer Liang Shuming,
0:40:15 > 0:40:19no lover of Marxism or of Western capitalism,
0:40:19 > 0:40:21but a Chinese patriot.
0:40:21 > 0:40:22Very different men,
0:40:22 > 0:40:26Liang the traditional scholar in his long gown, sipping tea
0:40:26 > 0:40:28and Mao the son of a Hunan peasant,
0:40:28 > 0:40:31laughing, scratching himself,
0:40:31 > 0:40:35chain-smoking hand-rolled cigarettes
0:40:35 > 0:40:39and knocking back glass after glass of the local white whisky.
0:40:39 > 0:40:43Marx and Confucius debating the future of China.
0:40:43 > 0:40:47And Liang's portrait of Mao is very attractive.
0:40:47 > 0:40:51He says, "He was relaxed and warm and natural.
0:40:51 > 0:40:56"Extremely vulgar, but completely unaffected
0:40:56 > 0:40:58"and a very sharp mind.
0:40:58 > 0:41:01"Head and shoulders above everybody else."
0:41:01 > 0:41:03But for all their differences,
0:41:03 > 0:41:07they were agreed on the two key problems facing China.
0:41:07 > 0:41:10Number one, the rural question,
0:41:10 > 0:41:13the terrible poverty of the mass of the population of the country.
0:41:13 > 0:41:18And number two, national liberation from the Japanese invasion.
0:41:18 > 0:41:20As Mao said to Liang,
0:41:20 > 0:41:23"The war has changed everything."
0:41:27 > 0:41:31This is a conflict that killed 14 million, possibly more,
0:41:31 > 0:41:34civilians and military in China during the war itself.
0:41:34 > 0:41:36- 14 million?- 14 million.
0:41:38 > 0:41:4180-100 million Chinese
0:41:41 > 0:41:45may well have become refugees in their own country.
0:41:45 > 0:41:47So in terms of changing the direction
0:41:47 > 0:41:49of China's politics and society,
0:41:49 > 0:41:52the wartime period is immensely important.
0:41:54 > 0:41:57When the Japanese surrendered in 1945,
0:41:57 > 0:41:59the National Front fell apart.
0:41:59 > 0:42:01And the nationalists and the communists
0:42:01 > 0:42:03now fought a bitter civil war.
0:42:07 > 0:42:09Backed by the West, and especially the US,
0:42:09 > 0:42:12the nationalists had the manpower and equipment.
0:42:12 > 0:42:14The communists were outgunned.
0:42:14 > 0:42:16But after 12 years in Yan'an,
0:42:16 > 0:42:20their land reforms had gathered mass support across the countryside,
0:42:20 > 0:42:25boosted by propaganda promising a golden age of social justice.
0:42:28 > 0:42:31In one year the Red Army swept down the length of China
0:42:31 > 0:42:35and after heavy fighting the nationalists fled to Taiwan.
0:42:35 > 0:42:38The People's Republic was founded.
0:42:47 > 0:42:51On 1st October 1949, in Beijing,
0:42:51 > 0:42:54Mao announced the birth of a new China.
0:42:56 > 0:42:58MAO SPEAKS IN HIS OWN LANGUAGE
0:43:05 > 0:43:09There's the Tiananmen Gate, where Mao Zedong made that famous speech.
0:43:09 > 0:43:12It was only 38 years after the fall of the empire.
0:43:12 > 0:43:15And after all the sufferings of the Chinese people
0:43:15 > 0:43:18through the Japanese war and the Second World War and the civil war,
0:43:18 > 0:43:21there was widespread optimism
0:43:21 > 0:43:23that there might be a completely fresh, new start.
0:43:23 > 0:43:27After all, revolution had been a fact of life in the Chinese story,
0:43:27 > 0:43:32almost a natural part of the recurring cycles of Chinese history.
0:43:33 > 0:43:37But the surprising suddenness with which, in the end,
0:43:37 > 0:43:40the communists were able to take power
0:43:40 > 0:43:44only added to the enormous burden that they'd inherited.
0:43:50 > 0:43:53Mao was, above all, a revolutionary.
0:43:54 > 0:43:58He believed that the new world could be born through destruction
0:43:58 > 0:44:00and that loss of life was no object
0:44:00 > 0:44:03in achieving the goal of China's socialist utopia.
0:44:08 > 0:44:10He forged a repressive state.
0:44:10 > 0:44:14Words and thoughts were strictly controlled,
0:44:14 > 0:44:16class war was waged.
0:44:17 > 0:44:21In early-1950s China, Stalin was a god.
0:44:32 > 0:44:34The letters above the arch say,
0:44:34 > 0:44:37"The thoughts of Chairman Mao will shine forever."
0:44:37 > 0:44:39This is Nanjie village in Hunan,
0:44:39 > 0:44:42a tiny pocket of Chairman Mao's socialism
0:44:42 > 0:44:46in the great ocean of modern Chinese capitalism.
0:44:50 > 0:44:54Today, Nanjie is the last communist collective in China.
0:44:54 > 0:44:57It's still run as a workers' cooperative
0:44:57 > 0:45:02and here you can get a distant feel of Mao's brave new world.
0:45:03 > 0:45:06It was to be based on new values,
0:45:06 > 0:45:10doing away with centuries of stifling Confucian tradition.
0:45:10 > 0:45:14China was to be organised into collective farms and work brigades.
0:45:14 > 0:45:18"Our economy will overtake Britain in a few years," Mao said.
0:45:21 > 0:45:22All of it was directed
0:45:22 > 0:45:26by the rigid and secretive Chinese Communist Party,
0:45:26 > 0:45:29with Stalin's advisers controlling the people's lives
0:45:29 > 0:45:31from cradle to grave.
0:45:33 > 0:45:36But there were real achievements, especially in public health,
0:45:36 > 0:45:39in education and literacy.
0:45:39 > 0:45:43There was also a great improvement in the role and status of women.
0:45:43 > 0:45:46All of this has helped shape today's China.
0:46:02 > 0:46:06MAN SINGS IN HIS OWN LANGUAGE
0:46:07 > 0:46:10THEY SING IN THEIR OWN LANGUAGE
0:46:14 > 0:46:16Though out of step with the rest of China today,
0:46:16 > 0:46:19the mayor still believes in Mao's vision.
0:46:35 > 0:46:40But Maoism went against the very grain of Chinese civilisation.
0:46:40 > 0:46:42Its economic ideas were calamitous.
0:46:42 > 0:46:46The collectivisation of farming massively disrupted society.
0:46:49 > 0:46:53Mao responded to the failures with the Great Leap Forward,
0:46:53 > 0:46:56a disastrous drive to industrialise the countryside.
0:46:57 > 0:47:00That led to the Great Famine.
0:47:00 > 0:47:02Between 1959 and 1961,
0:47:02 > 0:47:05it's now thought well over 30 million people died.
0:47:10 > 0:47:11By the end of the '50s,
0:47:11 > 0:47:15the imposition of Maoism on the Chinese people had clearly failed.
0:47:16 > 0:47:19And Mao was sidelined as leader of the Party.
0:47:19 > 0:47:22But he wouldn't let go.
0:47:23 > 0:47:27In 1964, aged 70, he regained control
0:47:27 > 0:47:30and launched the Cultural Revolution.
0:47:32 > 0:47:36Frustrated by the Chinese people's loyalty to their culture,
0:47:36 > 0:47:39Mao urged millions of young people, Red Guards,
0:47:39 > 0:47:44to smash old customs, old ideas, Confucian values.
0:47:50 > 0:47:52Your name is?
0:47:52 > 0:47:54REPLIES IN OWN LANGUAGE
0:47:54 > 0:47:55OK, my name is Michael.
0:47:55 > 0:47:58Every Chinese family suffered.
0:47:58 > 0:48:01The Baos, originally from Tangyue in Anhui,
0:48:01 > 0:48:03who we've followed through this story,
0:48:03 > 0:48:04were just one.
0:48:08 > 0:48:10Loyal village officers in the Ming Dynasty,
0:48:10 > 0:48:13philanthropic salt merchants in the Qing,
0:48:13 > 0:48:16they now faced terror and abuse.
0:48:16 > 0:48:19But also the destruction of their treasured past.
0:48:21 > 0:48:23So how many generations here?
0:48:23 > 0:48:25- WOMAN:- Six generations of Ming Dynasty...
0:48:25 > 0:48:26Six generations Ming.
0:48:26 > 0:48:29Seven generations Qing.
0:48:29 > 0:48:30So Mr Bao is 30th
0:48:30 > 0:48:33and the little boy is 32nd generation.
0:48:35 > 0:48:37During the Taiping Rebellion,
0:48:37 > 0:48:39the family had risked their lives
0:48:39 > 0:48:43to save this 18th-century painting of their ancestors.
0:48:43 > 0:48:46And now they went through it all again.
0:49:12 > 0:49:15And as Mr Bao told the tale,
0:49:15 > 0:49:17it was as if, once more,
0:49:17 > 0:49:19the voice of the Chinese people was speaking.
0:49:20 > 0:49:24Their love of their history and attachment to their old culture.
0:50:11 > 0:50:15Mao died in 1976 aged 83,
0:50:15 > 0:50:19corrupted by power and his messianic personality cult.
0:50:24 > 0:50:26Today, he's still a hero for many.
0:50:26 > 0:50:29Mao memorabilia are everywhere -
0:50:29 > 0:50:32photos, magazines and posters
0:50:32 > 0:50:34and, of course, The Little Red Book.
0:50:36 > 0:50:40The man who many here still think, for all his mistakes,
0:50:40 > 0:50:43made China great again.
0:50:43 > 0:50:45It's said that in his last days
0:50:45 > 0:50:48he was obsessively reading Sima Guang.
0:50:48 > 0:50:52Many lessons for rulers of all times in Chinese history
0:50:52 > 0:50:56in that famous historian's work, with its message to the Emperor
0:50:56 > 0:50:59that "here's the history of China unfolding before you
0:50:59 > 0:51:02"and you will see that, over the epochs,
0:51:02 > 0:51:04"there has been chaos and destruction
0:51:04 > 0:51:08"and violence and disorder for most of that period.
0:51:08 > 0:51:11"And that the periods of good order and harmony
0:51:11 > 0:51:13"have been short in the history of China.
0:51:13 > 0:51:17"And this tells you the achievement of harmony in government
0:51:17 > 0:51:19"is a very difficult thing
0:51:19 > 0:51:22"that needs to be very carefully tended once you've got there."
0:51:25 > 0:51:27There were those who said, of course,
0:51:27 > 0:51:28that had he died in 1956,
0:51:28 > 0:51:30his achievements would have been remembered
0:51:30 > 0:51:33as one of the great rulers of China.
0:51:34 > 0:51:38But on what happened afterwards even the Party admitted,
0:51:38 > 0:51:43"Comrade Mao mistook right for wrong and the people for the enemy.
0:51:43 > 0:51:46"And therein lies his tragedy."
0:51:53 > 0:51:56Mao thought his revolution was unfinished.
0:51:56 > 0:52:00But after his death the Party turned its back on Marxism.
0:52:00 > 0:52:03For help to rebuild China, his successor, Deng Xiaoping,
0:52:03 > 0:52:05went to America.
0:52:05 > 0:52:10- REPORTER:- The eyes of Texas were on Deng Xiaoping today.
0:52:10 > 0:52:11We learned some new things about Deng.
0:52:11 > 0:52:14He likes astronauts, cowboys and basketball,
0:52:14 > 0:52:18and perhaps a new image for communist China's leading man.
0:52:18 > 0:52:22For Deng Xiaoping not only went West, but went Western.
0:52:24 > 0:52:28Deng's great "opening up" would turn China into a capitalist society
0:52:28 > 0:52:31and brought the greatest lifting out of poverty in human history.
0:52:33 > 0:52:36And just as in the May 4th Movement in 1919,
0:52:36 > 0:52:38new freedoms swiftly beckoned.
0:52:40 > 0:52:42- REPORTER:- For the first time, in huge numbers,
0:52:42 > 0:52:45the ordinary men and women of Beijing, the old and the young,
0:52:45 > 0:52:49professors and taxi drivers, have joined the student protest.
0:52:50 > 0:52:54In 1989, another great demonstration in Tiananmen Square
0:52:54 > 0:52:56also called for change.
0:52:56 > 0:53:00But the Party feared the loss of its own monopoly on power.
0:53:00 > 0:53:02The protesters were brutally crushed,
0:53:02 > 0:53:05their protest dropped from history.
0:53:08 > 0:53:14Over the next 25 years, China simply grew richer and richer.
0:53:15 > 0:53:19If a historian had been trying to predict what China would look like
0:53:19 > 0:53:21in the early 21st century,
0:53:21 > 0:53:24she would almost certainly have got it entirely wrong.
0:53:24 > 0:53:26They would never have guessed that China would be
0:53:26 > 0:53:28one of the most thriving capitalist societies
0:53:28 > 0:53:30in the history of the world.
0:53:30 > 0:53:32Although one that's still under authoritarian rule.
0:53:36 > 0:53:41I think China embarked on what I call "the long march for modernity"
0:53:41 > 0:53:43since the Opium Wars.
0:53:43 > 0:53:45Because its elite
0:53:45 > 0:53:48realised it had to change.
0:53:48 > 0:53:52It had to catch up with the West, it has to modernise.
0:53:54 > 0:53:57So that "march" is still going on.
0:53:59 > 0:54:03And that means embracing history, too.
0:54:03 > 0:54:05Good and bad.
0:54:05 > 0:54:07For to be open about history, after all,
0:54:07 > 0:54:12is a foundation of a better present and a better future.
0:54:15 > 0:54:17Here in the city of Wuxi,
0:54:17 > 0:54:21the Qin family have gathered for their annual reunion,
0:54:21 > 0:54:23to celebrate their history,
0:54:23 > 0:54:26the incredible durability of the Chinese family
0:54:26 > 0:54:29and its place in the story of the nation.
0:54:29 > 0:54:32I think it's remarkable that all of us here today
0:54:32 > 0:54:38trace our ancestry through this remarkable poet in the Sung Dynasty,
0:54:38 > 0:54:42who was born almost 1,000 years ago.
0:54:42 > 0:54:46And today, the descendants can be found all over China.
0:54:46 > 0:54:48I'm very happy to be here...
0:54:48 > 0:54:50Like all Chinese families,
0:54:50 > 0:54:53the Qins have weathered the storms of the 20th century.
0:54:53 > 0:54:57They've had rightists and leftists, journalists and calligraphers
0:54:57 > 0:54:59and even a hero of the Long March,
0:54:59 > 0:55:01whose daughters are here today to remember him.
0:55:20 > 0:55:24The wounds of the last century are fading now.
0:55:24 > 0:55:28The Chinese people, the real heroes and heroines of our story,
0:55:28 > 0:55:31are savouring life to the full again.
0:55:35 > 0:55:40It's the festival of the Chinese New Year, everybody's favourite holiday,
0:55:40 > 0:55:43when all families try to get back together
0:55:43 > 0:55:46and the whole country grinds to a halt for two weeks.
0:55:46 > 0:55:49SHE SCREAMS AND LAUGHS
0:55:50 > 0:55:53It's a time of auspiciousness and fun.
0:55:53 > 0:55:55A time for letting go.
0:55:58 > 0:55:59And at the heart of it all
0:55:59 > 0:56:03are the old Chinese beliefs about good fortune and prosperity...
0:56:06 > 0:56:10..the old rituals of cooking and eating together.
0:56:15 > 0:56:21In every home, as the saying goes, the four generations under one roof.
0:56:25 > 0:56:27Just like the rest of us,
0:56:27 > 0:56:30the people of China are concerned about the future,
0:56:30 > 0:56:33about the environment, the effects of materialism,
0:56:33 > 0:56:34about freedom itself.
0:56:36 > 0:56:40But they're united, as always, by their common culture and history,
0:56:40 > 0:56:43by the things they've valued for so long.
0:57:01 > 0:57:04The story of China is part of the history
0:57:04 > 0:57:07of all the peoples of our small planet.
0:57:07 > 0:57:09And the next chapter, in many ways,
0:57:09 > 0:57:13will be more momentous than any that have gone before.
0:57:15 > 0:57:17Here at the Altar of Heaven in Beijing,
0:57:17 > 0:57:19just over 100 years ago,
0:57:19 > 0:57:24the last emperors of China performed the ancient rituals
0:57:24 > 0:57:27to maintain harmony between humanity,
0:57:27 > 0:57:29the Earth and the cosmos.
0:57:29 > 0:57:32Fitting, in this place, isn't it?
0:57:32 > 0:57:36You almost feel as is you're suspended between heaven and Earth.
0:57:40 > 0:57:45And now that ancient idea is all the more meaningful and urgent
0:57:45 > 0:57:48to China and to the world.
0:57:55 > 0:57:59The Chinese government has set its goal over the next 30 years
0:57:59 > 0:58:04to become a prosperous and democratic socialist society.
0:58:05 > 0:58:09In that, the rest of the world can only wish them well.
0:58:09 > 0:58:14For after the 4,000-year epic of Chinese civilisation,
0:58:14 > 0:58:16with all its triumphs and tragedies
0:58:16 > 0:58:21and its almost boundless invention and creativity,
0:58:21 > 0:58:25the world needs a prosperous and peaceful China
0:58:25 > 0:58:26like never before.