Recording transformations

A growing number of sliver-screen documentaries tackle such themes as education, traditional music and entrepreneurialism.

"Quality Chinese documentaries have broad social impacts," Zhang says.

"And diverse formats also reflect the country's social complexity and richness. Regrettably, these highlights didn't translate into box-office revenue."

Zhang attributes the letdown to the economic pressures many producers faced and a generally gloomy picture in terms of cinemas screening documentaries globally.

He points out that only two English-language documentaries worldwide earned over $20 million in 2019－the Academy Award-winning Free Solo and They Shall Not Grow Old, about the World War I. Both were shown in Chinese cinemas last year.

Zhang's team has produced the annual report since 2009. This year's report's results were first released by livestream on Sunday because of COVID-19.

The entire Chinese-English print report will be published in May.

Zhang points out many TV documentaries created for the 70th anniversary of New China's founding provide key evaluations of the county's historical development.

Some may qualify as "globally exceptional" in their respective genres, he believes.

For instance, The Journey of Chinese Plants, which follows the botanical evolution of China that influences the rest of the world, may demonstrate a major step for Chinese nature documentaries, which are often considered a short board of Chinese productions compared with humanity-based themes. It's rated 8.8 points on Douban.

And Life Matters, which captures medical patients' physical and psychological resilience, has also won acclaim.

Still, "life usually isn't easy for TV-documentary makers" today, as online platforms rise.

The report shows China's 10 most popular TV documentaries in 2019 had zero crossovers with the top 10 online productions.

"The gap between TV audiences' and online viewers' tastes is growing," Zhang says.