Miniseries explores China’s rich history

British historian and filmmaker Michael Wood, who has produced several series on PBS, credits his interest in history to his family.

“I was a kid in the 1950s and the Second World War seemed like a long time ago, but it was very, very close. As I look back on it now, I realize my mum was caught in the Blitz in Manchester. My dad was in a naval hospital on D-Day … my Uncle Bill was at Dunkirk and the march to Berlin and D-Day. My Uncle Sid’s ship was torpedoed and sunk in the Mediterranean.

“And when you’re a little kid, you hear stories of your parents and grandparents talking — because history is storytelling in the end — so I maybe trace it back to family first. Then great teachers.”

Wood, whose series have illuminated the Dark Ages, retraced the steps of Alexander the Great and reconnoitered the Trojan War, is approaching his biggest challenge yet. “The

Story of China,” beginning tonight on PBS, will try to decipher the world’s oldest continuous state.

China, he said, is a dynamic and modern nation that still clings to its ancient past.

“They want the party still to be in charge,” he said. “They want growth still to continue because that will keep the people happy. But they also are making a huge emphasis on the greatness and distinctiveness of Chinese culture.”

The whole point of the three-year project is to understand the real China — not the one that many assume exists, Wood said.

“When you look at China today, it’s really important to understand things such as the way the Chinese see their civilization, as heirs to a great civilization,” he said.