This year is the centennial of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC), and propaganda activities such as film, television and pop culture are in full swing. Officials have also enlisted foreigners in an effort to “tell China’s story”. The “100 Years of the Party – Foreigners Tell Stories” film series interviewed 100 foreigners from around the world, including artists, scholars, scientists, entrepreneurs, sports stars and entrepreneurs, to tell their stories and experiences of Shanghai. The film will be shown for 100 days from the 8th. Shanghai officials invited 100 expatriates to film a propaganda film on the centenary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, with the first episode featuring Academy Award-winning director Malcolm Clarke on the 8th. He was allowed to enter Wuhan last year to film the documentary after the city was closed due to the epidemic.
The Chinese Communist Party sought foreigners to promote the centennial of the Party, and the Oscar-winning director also participated. The Central News Agency reported today that Shanghai officials invited 100 foreigners to shoot a propaganda film on the centenary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, with the first episode featuring Academy Award-winning director Malcolm Clarke. He was allowed to enter Wuhan last year after the city was closed due to the epidemic to film a documentary on the fight against the epidemic. The Shanghai Municipal Government Information Office and the Xinmin Evening News cooperated to produce the film series “A Century of Great Party – Foreigners Tell Stories”, and the first episode of the film features Malcolm Clarke, who met with the media at a Chinese and foreign press gathering on the 8th.
Wuhan was closed in 2020 due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Covance said his team was in the city to shoot a film called “Viral” (Chinese title to be determined), which documents the outbreak. According to Covance, “We were the only foreign filming team in Wuhan at the time.”
Kovans told the Central News Agency that at the time, he thought the world would not believe China’s reporting on the origins of the virus and other epidemic conditions, so he spoke with the Chinese government and allowed himself to enter Wuhan with a team of members from the United States, Canada and Macedonia to film the documentary. To his surprise, officials agreed. Covance said he entered Wuhan on the third day after the city was closed and spent a total of 55 days there, while his team members stayed for 70 days and interviewed many key witnesses to the epidemic. He claims the production offers a glimpse of how China mobilized medical personnel and construction workers to respond quickly to the crisis.
As for the documentary’s release, is he worried about criticism that he is “glorifying China”? Covance said he looks forward to those challenges and debates “because they’re not on the ground and what I’m saying and what I’m filming is the truth.”
According to Covance, the West’s “biased” misconceptions about China are quite “dangerous” and he wants to tell the West the story of what is actually happening in China from a foreigner’s perspective. Covance believes that his understanding of Western concerns and interests, and the strong emotions of his work, will make these stories more accessible to Western audiences.
In the first episode of “The Great Party of the Century – Foreigners Tell the Story,” Covance asserts that the “rise of China” or “China renaissance” is the biggest and most sustained event of the 21st century. China’s rise” or “China’s renaissance” is the biggest and ongoing news story of the 21st century, and that no country has grown as much as China has in a short period of time.
In her speech at the conference, Zhou Huilin, head of the propaganda department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Shanghai Municipal Committee, said she hoped foreign media would “continue to adhere to an objective and impartial stance” in their reporting, so that the international community could understand the CPC, China and Shanghai.
According to the Central News Agency, Covance, who was born in Britain, said at the conference that Shanghai has been his focus since 2013. His work has won two Academy Awards for documentary films.
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