China's changes through reform on documentary

Between the 1980s and early '90s, many residents of Shanghai lived in small homes, with members of some families all eating and sleeping in rooms less than 10 square meters each.

In a span of five years, photographer Zhou Ming visited more than 1,000 such families, capturing both their predicament and desire to strive for a bit more comfort.

Zhou's footprints are shown in a 20-episode documentary series, titled Witness the Changing China 1949-2019, which was recently released on Chinese streaming platform Youku.

To mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the series' production crew interviewed nearly 200 people and dives into a wide range of fields to examine China's transformation. Shooting began in 2017, and it took the crew over a year to travel across the country to search for historical footage and people willing to share their stories, the producers say.

Using a string of numbers, the documentary shows the audience a promising future.

For instance, the average living space for a person in China has risen from less than 4 square meters in the 1980s to around 40 square meters now. And now the daily average of the country's exports and imports are worth some $12 billion. More than 100 million packages are delivered and over 70,000 cars are produced every day.

"The path that China has walked through over the past seven decades is unique and different from any in the world. It compels us to think what should the country do to maintain the momentum," says Wu Xiaobo, a finance writer, on the screen.

At the beginning of each episode, he gives a synopsis. Wu acts as an anchor for the documentary, which is adapted from two of his best-selling books about the rise of China.

The series also provides a nostalgic touch when it revisits the early years after China started the process of reform and opening-up in late 1978.

In one episode, Li Fan and Du Yingxin－a couple living in Beijing－recall their wedding ceremony held at a KFC outlet in the city's Qianmen area, the debut store of the American fast food chain in China that opened in 1987. Back then, Kentucky fried children was a "foreign delicacy", which is why some guests at the wedding were curious about the food, according to the couple.

Stories about the earliest foreign enterprises to come to China also include Coca-Cola's return and Japanese TV brand Furi's joint venture launched with a domestic partner.

In an effort to re-create the pivotal moments in history, the show features the birth of China's first share on its stock market, the establishment of the country's first joint venture automobile factory, the unprecedented impact of the internet and the ensuing tide of startups.

"We asked the crew to interview people who were involved in these events as much as possible, and to reflect the big era through interesting personal stories," says Zhang Wei, director of the documentary center of Youku, a subsidiary of the Alibaba Group.