A well-documented process
scholarship to study at the Russian Federation State Institute of Cinematography in Moscow in the late 1980s.
After graduating, he went to Sweden, becoming the first Chinese actor recruited by the Swedish National Theatre. In 2000, he chose to return to China, which, since then, has seen an unprecedented expansion of its film and television industries.
In the documentary, Zhao returns to Sweden when he is invited by the country’s tourist authority to shoot a promotional flick.
It’s the first time he has returned to Sweden in 18 years, and in the program, Zhao recalls his early struggles and how he overcame the language barrier to rise from a no-dialogue cameo to become the leading actor of the Swedish theater’s adaptation of a Spanish classic.
Zhao has applied the performing skills he learned overseas, starring in dozens of domestic movies and TV dramas, establishing his fame as an excellent actor.
Citing a report which states that 52 million Chinese people have gone abroad to study in foreign schools, and around 32 million of them — or 62 percent — have returned home, director Li says Zhao’s case epitomizes the trend that more and more people are returning to China to boost its development by implementing what they have studied abroad.
“China’s reform and opening-up has not only hugely transformed the country, but has also had a big impact on the world,” adds Han, the chief director.
Classified into six categories — one for each episode — the documentary examines the changes in urban and rural areas, the nostalgia of overseas Chinese, the diversification of culture, the dreams of those who have pioneered the nation’s emerging industries and foreigners whose lives have been impacted by China’s transformation.
Some of those who recount their experiences include Stephon Marbury, the former NBA star who revived his career by playing in China; David G. Evans, an Oxford PhD graduate who toured China in 1987 and has worked as a professor at Beijing University of Chemical Technology since 1996.
The documentary also turns the lens on ordinary people who continue to work toward achieving their dreams, such as Lei Haiwei, a delivery man who became the champion of a nationwide poetry competition, and Wang Shi’an, a lemon-planting farmer in southwestern China’s Sichuan province.
“The past 40 years are a unique chapter in the history of China. Some people have realized their dreams and some are still in their pursuit of them. We hope the documentary can record what has happened, and is currently happening, in our fast-transforming country,” concludes Han.