Traveling back to 1977

Chapter 901: Wait for the next chapter
If you were to ask what my country's first "tourism promotional video" was, it would undoubtedly be "The Silk Road".

Last year, in 1979, CCTV decided to take a big step. They historically introduced an external partner, the Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK), to co-produce a documentary to explore the Silk Road, showcase silk weaving art, and depict the lives of the people along the Silk Road, blending the past and present, inheriting the past and looking to the future.

This documentary also achieved two firsts: the first time that a television program was filmed in collaboration with foreign partners, and the first television series.

The collaboration with Little Book TV has also brought new concepts and methods to the domestic television industry, especially to the production of documentaries.

The film's opening ceremony was on August 25th, but shooting actually began as early as August 8th.

I won't go into details about the filming process, the locations in England, France, Germany, Italy, and the Soviet Union, its artistic achievements, or its political significance.

Let's get to the result.

Filming was completed on September 1, 1980, and CCTV then produced a 15-episode series, "The Silk Road," based on the footage.

NHK电视台则边拍边剪，首先制作了包括序篇在内的14集系列片，并从5月1日开始播放序篇、5月7日开始首播。

That wasn't all. NHK then used surplus footage to compile a 24-episode series, categorized by nature, ethnic groups, and cultural relics along the Silk Road, and broadcast it continuously.

It's like getting two fish at once.

This unprecedented campaign to officially promote a documentary greatly sparked the interest of the Japanese public in the Silk Road.

Therefore, a visible "Silk Road craze" quickly emerged in the small country.

Then, naturally, the first tourism boom in my country after the reform and opening up arrived smoothly.

This influence even lasted for decades. When many elderly people with notebooks travel to China again, they will still include places like Xi'an and Dunhuang as must-see attractions, just to relive their old memories.

Therefore, it was the perfect opportunity for Chen Fan to shoot a "tourism promotional video" and use it as a successful case study to reason with his superiors.

Today is May 6th, so the prologue has already aired. In another month or two, we'll be able to see the results.

When the time comes, the notebooks will be brought to China in large quantities, and Chen Fan will then submit the planning proposal. Who will have any objections or concerns then?

Success is just around the corner, what are you waiting for, my friend?!

Hurry up and take the picture!

Then the problem is coming.

What kind of promotional video can boost tourism development in the Yunhu area, even in Jiangnan Province, or even nationwide?

Without a doubt, as important towns along the Yangtze River, both the provincial capital and Yunhu are the perfect candidates for another truly pinnacle documentary in China: "Talking About the Yangtze River".

Actually, the success of "Talking about the Yangtze River" is somewhat related to "The Silk Road".

There are two reasons.

When "Talking about the Yangtze River" was about to be broadcast, the chief writer, Chen Hanyuan, was also the director of the CCTV editorial office. He had a little bit of say in the broadcast of the program.

When "The Silk Road" was broadcast, domestic television programs were still in a very casual state.

"Casual" means that I will release the program schedule as planned, but the broadcast time is uncertain.

Except for a very few special programs.

Yes, this refers to the CCTV News broadcast.

Other programs are usually broadcast in sequence only after the previous program has finished.

As for when the previous program will end, that time is uncontrollable; it ends when it finishes airing.

Even between two programs, the TV station would unconsciously leave a black screen with no signal, lasting from a few seconds to several minutes.

Viewers knew that the movie was changing when they saw the black screen and the continuous "beep..." sound.

It's comparable to showing a movie.

This has led to the arbitrary nature of television program broadcasts.

So when "The Silk Road" was being broadcast, they would announce a certain time, but when viewers turned on their TVs at that time, they would find that the previous program, or even the program before that, was still playing. So they had to wait for the rebroadcast.

As a result, "The Silk Road" became a huge hit in print but only received lukewarm reception in China, leaving many Chinese television professionals feeling ashamed.

So when "Talking about the Yangtze River" was airing, Boss Chen made a statement: it must be broadcast on time. No matter what the previous program was about, it had to be cut off when the time came and "Talking about the Yangtze River" had to be broadcast on time.

With just this one small change, from then on, television programs in our country had to be broadcast on a timer, the duration of a program had to be fixed, there could be no intervals between program changes, and so on.

The broadcast of "Talking about the Yangtze River" has changed the landscape of television in my country.

And when it aired on time, the audience did not disappoint the TV station, with the viewership rating reaching a staggering 40%.

Although it's unclear how this viewership rating was calculated or how accurate it is, a 40% viewership rating has indeed held the record for documentary viewership for decades, far surpassing even the most popular "A Bite of China".

There is a second reason why "Talking about the Yangtze River" became a hit.

That is, this film does not preach at all from beginning to end; it simply shows the customs and traditions of the residents on both sides of the Yangtze River.

This change is unprecedented in the history of domestic television programs!
In the past, no matter what kind of program it was, whether it was a TV series, news, educational film, etc., it was inseparable from righteous and solemn preaching.

Little did they know that this approach had already aroused deep resentment among many ordinary people.

Suddenly, a film appeared that was so entertaining without any preaching, immediately piquing the audience's interest.

Just like how people born in the 80s watched "Shanghai Bund" and "Huo Yuanjia," one TV set could attract dozens of people, all vying to watch a scenic documentary.

So the question arises again: in the social context of that time, which bigwig dared to do such a thing?
The answer is: Masashi Sada, the stuntman and a superstar singer of the 1980s.

In September 1980, Masashi Sada held a solo concert at the Beijing Exhibition Center, and the following year he went to Shanghai to perform, becoming the first Japanese singer to hold a concert in China.

During his performance in Shanghai, he unexpectedly learned that CCTV was planning to film a documentary about the Yangtze River.

Later, some sources claimed that CCTV deliberately leaked the information to him in order to find a financial backer.

Regardless of who contacted whom first, after confirming the authenticity of the information, Masashi Sada did not hesitate to bring his father along and go to CCTV to express his desire to cooperate.

When someone offers to contribute money, CCTV is naturally happy to oblige.

Whether by choice or by force, they were looking for a big investor anyway, so they immediately said, "You provide the money, I'll provide the effort, and together we'll grow bigger and stronger and create new glories."

The two parties quickly reached an agreement and signed a cooperation contract with CCTV under the name of Masashi Sada's father's company.

At the time, Masashi Sada indicated he could invest 10 billion yen, but after careful calculation, CCTV stated that 8 million yen would suffice. With both parties showing interest, the collaboration quickly entered a substantive phase.

The filming plan was very clear: starting from Shanghai, tracing back to the source of the Yangtze River, and finally arriving at the source of the Yangtze River to conclude the filming.

The copyright is shared by both parties: the domestic copyright belongs to CCTV, and the smaller copyright belongs to Sada Company. Everyone has a bright future.

Then filming began.

At this point, Masashi Sada became unhappy.

He yelled at the Yangtze River, "How can you film such a beautiful scene with television film?"
It must be replaced!
CCTV thought, since it's you who's paying, whoever pays gets to decide, and they're not losing anything, so they decided to switch.

Masashi Sada first persuaded the small-scale television station to bring in the most advanced equipment and use film reels. He then boarded a helicopter summoned by CCTV, indicating that aerial photography should be used to showcase the magnificence of the Yangtze River at every location.

They photographed the estuary of the Huangpu River, the rows of red-roofed Shikumen houses in Shanghai, the Bund filled with ships, the "Tenth Department Store" on Nanjing Road, elderly men and women practicing tai chi with their shopping baskets by the Huangpu River, young couples cuddling together across from the elderly couple, and an auntie holding prayer beads while attending church...

Masashi Sada photographs everything, from natural scenery to scenes of people's daily lives.

As expected, the inevitable happened.

I just left Shanghai, and I'm still in Wuxi, and I've already spent all of my 8 million yen!

8 million yen, and they only filmed two locations, and it's all gone?

CCTV took one look and realized, "How much money would they have to throw in to make the whole film?"

I didn't spend this much money making the entire "Silk Road" movie.

As expected, inexperienced people are unreliable; this young singer is definitely a huge pitfall.

Without saying a word, he immediately grabbed the bucket and ran away.

Masashi Sada was, after all, a young man, and young people have a fierce spirit. CCTV had left, but he was not willing to leave.

I still have the approval documents for filming. Even without Zhang the butcher, I can still slaughter pigs myself. What's there to be afraid of?
He immediately declared, "If you guys aren't going to film, then I'll film it myself!"

However, after this experience, he learned the importance of controlling costs, dismissed all unnecessary members, and finally decided to host the event himself, taking only one photographer with him.

Yes, some say there's also an assistant.

Anyway, it was just two or three people, and they set off again.

They filmed the lives of people living on the water in Wuxi, planted rice seedlings with farmers, watched an old man herd cattle, and even fished with a local young man.

(Fishing in Wuxi)

In Jingdezhen, I watched uncles treading in the mud and quality inspectors smashing defective ceramics; in Wuhan, I filmed young soldiers patrolling along the Yangtze River Bridge; in Yueyang, I took a Changsha-branded bus to see Dongting Lake and even wrote Du Fu's seven-character quatrain "Ascending Yueyang Tower" to accompany the Yueyang Tower.

Seeing the ancient Western Han Dynasty corpse at the Jingzhou Museum, visiting the few remaining old Taoist temples...

There are also large waterwheels in the fields, fishing with 30-meter-long fishing rods on the riverbank, and dragon boat racing with local residents...

(A 30-meter-long fishing rod)
As a Japanese writer, Masashi Sada did not shy away from the history of the War of Resistance against Japan. He made a special trip to the Zhonghua Gate in Nanjing to reflect on his experiences, exchanged ideas with Japanese students studying abroad in Wuhan, and interviewed many elderly people who had suffered humiliation at the Battle of Shipaimen in Yichang.

The spirited young man, undaunted by hardship or fatigue, traversed the Three Gorges and passed through Chongqing, traveling all the way up the Yangtze River, finally stopping at the Golden Summit of Mount Emei.

Because he couldn't get the approval, he ultimately didn't reach the source of the Yangtze River.

The filming, which lasted for more than a year, not only exhausted all of his and his father's assets, but also left them with a huge debt of 28 billion yen, including principal and interest.

Masashi Sada took the footage back to his hometown and edited it into a documentary film of more than two hours. After its release, it only grossed a few hundred million yen at the box office, so he and his father declared bankruptcy at the same time.

He didn't announce that he had paid off this debt until 2010. Due to the long time that had passed, he also paid an additional 7 million yen in interest, bringing the total amount he paid back to 35 billion yen.

Masashi Sada, who was not yet 30 at the time, sacrificed most of his life to create a documentary that he was proud of for the rest of his life.

After he finished making the film, CCTV took back all the footage he had shot, reshot a few more scenes, and edited them into a 25-episode TV documentary series, "Talking about the Yangtze River," with each episode lasting 20 minutes.

Perhaps Masashi Sada's material simply couldn't fill the preachy content, perhaps the editor-in-chief, David Yu, and the chief writer, Chen Hanyuan, were inspired, or perhaps they saw that past documentaries made by television professionals were too unrealistic and hoped to make some breakthroughs in this documentary.

Ultimately, they did not add any didactic content to the film. Instead, they used the original material as a basis, presented it in an episodic format, and set up two "hosts" to narrate the documentary.

However, without "educational significance," it wouldn't have been acceptable in that era.

Movies and television are propaganda vehicles, so how can they not have educational value?

At this point, Chen Hanyuan repeatedly emphasized, "This is a patriotic geography textbook, but no one is allowed to use the words 'patriotism' or 'patriotism' in their writing. Instead, the goal is to make the audience naturally feel a love for their motherland after watching it. ... So, I still insist that making a program is the same as writing an article; the purpose is the same: to have something to say. It's not for yourself, but for others. Whether others like to listen or not depends on how well you speak."

The leader thought it made sense and decided to do it that way.

Thus, a documentary that aired on time and was not didactic set a milestone in the history of Chinese television.

However, this film also had its regrets. Although it was eventually made into videotapes and placed in video stores around the world, it was never broadcast on any foreign television station.

Because the narrative structure of this filming did not meet the standards for foreign documentary filming, it was ultimately rejected even by the small television station.

However, now that Chen Fan has arrived, they won't have such worries anymore.

First of all, Masashi Sada should just stick to being a singer and not get involved in documentaries.

As for the regrettable issue of CCTV not being able to screen the film overseas, that issue would naturally not exist if Chen Fan were to direct it instead.

It's not that he wanted to change the narrative structure of this documentary. Putting everything else aside, Masashi Sada, an amateur director who didn't understand any documentary filmmaking rules, used his enthusiasm and sincerity to capture the most important thing in a humanistic film: the "human touch."

Whether it's natural scenery or bustling city streets, everything is an integral part of the Chinese land. Through his lens, people, landscapes, and cities are all integrated, perfectly embodying the characteristics of the Yangtze River as the mother river of China.

In this regard, Chen Fan has no intention of changing anything; on the contrary, he wants to carry it forward and promote it.

Don't forget, his real purpose is to turn this scenic documentary into a promotional video for Chinese tourism on the international stage. Without something interesting, how can he dispel the concerns of foreign tourists and make them interested in traveling here?
Therefore, the structure and techniques of a documentary are not important.

At worst, I can just call this a travel TV show instead of a documentary.
After filming was completed, the rights were directly granted free of charge to Aunt Zhao Wanru, who was setting up a broadcast television network in the United States, for broadcast on American television.

Don't even mention whether you can get a free license.

Perhaps his superiors will even praise Chen Fan for "putting righteousness before family" by using his relative's TV station to promote domestic tourism.

In addition, filming this TV documentary is also a great opportunity for Chen Fan to "get revenge".

As for how to retaliate, stay tuned for the next installment.

(End of this chapter)