CRI听力:Chinese Documentary Steps into New Era

Reporter: It is perhaps inevitable that someone would mention A Bite of China, or She Jian Shang De Zhong Guo (舌尖上的中国) in Chinese, when talking about the new trends in Chinese documentary development.

The culinary documentary A Bite of China, produced by China Central Television, first aired in 2012. Du Haibin, a veteran documentary director who rose to fame immediately on graduation from the Beijing Film Academy for his first award-winning piece Along the Railway, thinks highly of the role played by A Bite of China.

"A Bite of China, which borrowed a lot from the west's advanced production practices, has become a phenomenon. All in all, A Bite of China induces the documentary format to step into the Public Era in Chinese society".

In April last year, a second season of A Bite of China, also consisting of seven episodes, was aired. It surpassed both TV variety shows and TV dramas in terms of influence and audience ratings.

According to "cntv.cn", a video website run by CCTV, both the first and second seasons of A Bite of China are estimated to have earned revenue exceeding 500 million yuan.

Cao Zheng is the general manager of a Beijing-based company that provides co-production investment in documentary programs. And the huge success in A Bite of China has led Cao Zheng to conclude that Chinese documentary is undergoing a transformation from a cultural product into an industry that is gradually taking shape.

"Documentary used to be a cultural product and was not made for the market. Today, the development of documentary must be closely associated with market opportunities and only at this point, the importance for a documentary to possess a certain level of brand value will arise."

According to the China Documentary Development Report 2015, which was released at this year's Beijing International Film Festival, newly launched satellite broadcasters such as the Beijing and Shanghai documentary channels, along with CCTV 9, will primarily stimulate the growth of local productions that have been looking for broadcast platforms.

Statistics from this report show that a total of 75,800 hours of documentaries were broadcast in 2014, 5,800 hours more than the total broadcast amount in 2013.

But few of these documentaries have the chance to be shown in Chinese cinemas. And No Zuo No Die, or Wo-Jiu-Shi-Wo in Chinese, (我就是我), directed by Last Train Home director Fan Lixin and made from recordings of backstage scenes of a popular reality TV show, grossed only 6.7 million yuan at the box office.

Zhang Tongdao is the director of Beijing Normal University's documentary center, and head of the team which produced the report.

"We haven't produced a documentary to suit the market. The approaches in documentary production and methods of promotion are not market-based at all. Certainly, Chinese audiences are not mentally ready to go to cinemas to watch a documentary film."

The report also says that a total of 1.9 billion yuan was invested in making Chinese documentaries in 2014, and over one-fifth of the investment came from private companies.

With the involvement of private investment funds in documentary film-making, veteran-director Du Haibin thinks the Chinese documentary industry will embrace new opportunities.

"The documentary has become more widely known in Chinese society thanks to both A Bite of China and other interesting documentaries made by independent filmmakers. Also, with the involvement of private cultural companies, the domestic documentary is embracing a new round of development. I believe that Chinese audiences will not curtail their desire for knowledge having only seen A Bite of China. They may aspire to see more top-quality documentary films."

Chinese documentaries grossed a total of three billion yuan, around 483 million US dollars in 2014. And two public-private investment funds - each worth 100 million yuan - were created.

All these figures are provided in the report and reflect the market's growing confidence in the future of documentary film-making in China.

For Studio Plus, I'm Xu Fei