| Wild China |
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| Wednesday, 28 May 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Kicking off amid the stepped rice paddies
of Guangxi Province in Southern China, the first programme sets a challenge
for the rest of the series. The water-filled paddies are a feat of engineering
and eco-effectiveness - and an ideal environment for fish. So while
the fish eat the algae and fertilise the crop, they become a source
of food too. Feats of industry are a staple of series.
Traditional fishermen use trained cormorants to catch their fish. Caves
may be home to bats and monkeys but are also home to a school for the
neighbouring kids. In episode 2, Shangri-La,
the director delights in footage of rope-zooming locals in Yunnan Province
criss-crossing the river to get to market. Wild China
is different from previous BBC nature series, focusing not just on nature
itself but on human interaction with it. Stopping short of Michael
Palin-type travelogues, it gives you the best of both worlds, delivered
through a wonderfully sparse script narrated with masterful eloquence
by Bernard Hill. Yet it's likely to be the landscapes
and wildlife that stick in the mind: the bats as small as bumble bees;
the red panda; the rare monkeys; the bamboo rats; the insects, fish,
flowers and plants. Impressive too is the sheer virtuosity of
the camerawork - panning back from small details into widescreen vistas
or following the flight of birds and hornets. Before the series closes, it'll have
ranged from the Chang Tang Reserve on the Tibetan plateau to the ethereal,
neon-lit ice sculptures of the city of Harbin. It'll have featured
deserts, evergreen forests, the glacier-strewn Himalayas. And of course,
it'll have shown us pandas, eagles, brown bears, wild yaks, white
dolphins, red-crowned cranes and saber-wielding monkeys. Wild China, says producer Phil
Chapman, took 15 months to film. Mostly, the set-ups were purely
observational, without any special techniques other than fieldwork.
But while the camera never lied, it did have to adapt: ultra-high
speed cameras recorded the strikes of the predatory Pallas' pit viper
in the Bohai Gulf; infra-red lenses followed Francois' langurs into
subterranean caves; time-lapse shots captured the light and shadows
of a Tibetan canyon. The episode titles are very western-friendly,
playing upon - or playing to - familiar motifs. So we have The
Heart of the Dragon, Shangri-La, Beyond the Great Wall, Tibet
and Land of the Panda. Perhaps surprisingly, the sixth programme,
to be screened on 15 June, is Tides of Change and focuses not
on natural landscapes but the man-made cityscapes of modern China. At a time of controversy over BBC's
coverage of all things Chinese ahead of the Olympics, Wild China
is a quiet, even noble, reflection on a wonderful landscape and a remarkable
people. Refreshingly observational and discreet, perhaps because
of Chinese TV involvement, Wild China
nevertheless bears the hallmarks of a genuine endeavour to convey the
richness, beauty and quirkiness of its subject. Glenn Watson Wild China airs on BBC2 at 8:05pm on Sunday evenings until 15 June.
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Featuring over 60 major wildlife sequences
and footage of landscapes rarely seen by the west, Wild China
is the fruit of an unprecedented co-operation between the BBC and China
Central Television in Beijing. Using revolutionary high-definition
cameras and innovative techniques, Wild China's
ambitious project is to capture the varied landscapes, peoples, fauna
and flora of China. | < Prev | Next > |
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