Story of China

History Series / 1 Season

Travel from the Silk Road to the Yellow Sea with host Michael Wood as he explores the history of the world’s newest superpower. A thrilling and moving epic of the world’s oldest continuous state with the landscapes, peoples, and stories that made today’s China.

Get Cascade PBS Passport to watch

The Last Communist Collective in China

2m 37s

The age of communism is over now in today's free market China, even though the Communist Party still runs the country as a one party state. Now there's just one place which is still communist in a sea of capitalism. Michael visits this strange throwback in rural Henan, where they still sing, "The East is Red" before work, and where pictures of Mao, Stalin, and Lenin still adorn the town square!

The Show Must Go On!

3m 23s

Michael joins a traditional acting troupe on their bus to a tiny village near Yangzhou. They are going there to perform a traditional drama for a local woman's 90th birthday - in the icy outdoors! We watch the actors and musicians prepare the set, put on their makeup, and get into costume as the whole village turns out despite the freezing cold and snow –with Granny in the front row!

"Why Can't Women Be Heroes Too?"

1m 44s

Michael Wood visits the monument to Qiu Jin in Shaoxing. This feminist poet and political activist founded a radical journal for women's voices and campaigned for the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty and the founding of a republic. She was executed in the middle of her home town. Local women in the street enthusiastically and movingly explain to Michael why she is still a hero today.

China's Last Empire: A Rich Age for Muslim Culture

2m 24s

In the Great Mosque in Xi'an, Michael Wood shows us inscriptions in Chinese, Arabic and Farsi, which reveal the multi-cultural world of China 300 years ago under the Qing Dynasty. In Kaifeng, he is welcomed into a women-only mosque with a female imam – a Chinese tradition that originated in the Qing dynasty. After the ceremony, it's time for laughter and 'selfies!'

The Opium Trade in China

3m 16s

Michael Wood talks to Prof. Zheng Yangwen about the crippling social effects on China of the opium trade run by the British. "Where is your conscience?" the emperor asked Queen Victoria. In the late 1830's, the Chinese decided to do something about it and ordered the destruction of all the opium held in British workhouses. There would be tragic consequences for China in the First Opium War.

The First Meeting of the Chinese Communist Party

2m 50s

Michael Wood visits the room in Shanghai where the first meeting of the Chinese Communist Party took place in 1921. Among the twelve delegates (from only fifty-seven members!) was the young Mao Zedong, the future Chairman Mao. Meanwhile, outside in Shanghai. the Jazz Age was in full swing. Michael takes tea in the fabulous Peninsula Hotel, one of the centers of Westernization in 1920's China.

Preview: The Last Empire (Episode 5)

30s

Discover the splendors of China’s last empire, the Qing. From China’s favorite novel to story-telling houses and all-female mosques, it’s an age full of surprises. Then came the fateful clash with the British in the First Opium War.

Preview: The Age of Revolution (Episode 6)

30s

Survey the three great revolutions that gave birth to today’s China. Wood visits wild mountain villages; describes the fall of the empire; visits Jazz Age Shanghai; and stays in the last communist commune—before a celebration on Chinese New Year.

Preview: The Ming (Episode 4)

30s

Hear the story of China’s most famous dynasty. Michael Wood visits the Great Wall and the Forbidden City; sails the South China Sea on a junk; visits a fabulous Chinese garden; and travels to Macao with the first Jesuit missionary to China.

Preview: Golden Age (Episode 3)

30s

Learn about China’s Renaissance under the Song Dynasty. In Kaifeng, Michael Wood hears the story of the boys who became emperors; tries a 1,000-year-old recipe; works a giant astronomical clock; and dances with the locals by Hangzhou’s West Lake.

Get a Taste of the Good Life under the Ming Dynasty

3m 29s

Michael Wood visits Suzhou, "the Venice of China." Five hundred years ago during the Ming dynasty Suzhou was the symbol of China’s "Embarrassment of Riches." Staying in the house of a Ming merchant family, Michael explores China's new world of private wealth and fashion, when porcelain, lacquer making and silk weaving reached new heights to meet consumer demand.

The Tale of the Chinese Leonardo

2m 46s

A thousand years ago, China was a world leader in science and civilization. Michael Wood explores a 45 ft-high working replica of an astronomical clock made by China's Leonardo da Vinci -- Su Song. It's a water clock driven by an endless chain drive, with small painted wooden figures marking the time – all steered with a ship's wheel!

Did the Chinese Invent Soccer?

3m 6s

The rules of the "World's Game," modern soccer, were fixed in England in the 1860's; but 1000 years ago in Song dynasty China, there were soccer clubs, rules, fans and even music and fast food at half-time! In Beijing, Michael gets up close for a crunch match in today's Chinese Premier League and compares the modern game to Song dynasty "Kickball."

Power Politics in the Ming Dynasty

2m 24s

Harvard University's Dr. Lik Hang Tsui tells the tale of the third emperor of the Ming dynasty, the ruthless Yongle who kills his nephew to take power. In a purge of his enemies, a loyal minister speaks out and receives the cruelest punishment: Death by ten degrees.

The Chinese Voyages of Exploration

2m 16s

We all know about Columbus, but what about the great Chinese ocean voyages that took place before his time? Michael Wood tells the story of the Chinese Admiral Zheng He and his voyages to the west. He asks too, why were they stopped? "Some say it would be like stopping moon exploration after Apollo 8," says Michael. "But the Chinese had a different view."

The World's First Great Cuisine

2m 28s

Think Chinese take out is a modern idea? A thousand years ago in Kaifeng, the world's biggest city, China produced the world's first great cuisine with fancy diners and fast food joints. In a restaurant in today’s Kaifeng, Michael orders lunch from a 1000 year old cookbook, and the chef brings a special dish for Michael and the team to try: Oranges stuffed with mushrooms and lotus seeds.

Christian Missionary Matteo Ricci Journeys to China

2m 56s

Michael Wood arrives in the old Portuguese colony of Macao, the Europeans' first foothold in China. The Italian Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci came here 1582, with the aim of converting the emperor and his people to Christianity. In today's cathedral in Beijing, Michael hears why Ricci is still so important to the 70 million Chinese Christians today.

Extended Preview

4m

Travel from the Silk Road to the Yellow Sea with host Michael Wood as he explores the history of the world’s newest superpower. A thrilling and moving epic of the world’s oldest continuous state with the landscapes, peoples, and stories that made today’s China.

Supported by