French documentary introduces the Miao stockade village
- By Zhang Xin
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E-mail China Today, July 5, 2016
On April 12, 2016, Meeting at Unknown Places: Guizhou was first broadcast on France 2 and became the highest-rated of all the programs shown on that night. The documentary gave 5.23 million French viewers a glimpse of the old, mysterious, rustic, and beautiful scenes of the Miao stockade village in Guizhou. The Miao are one of the 56 ethnic groups in China and mainly live in the southwest province of Guizhou. The stockade village is where the Miao people have lived for thousands of years.
Meeting at Unknown Places presents local customs and practices of countries all over the world to Francophone viewers. The series was launched in 2006, and this particular episode was the first one filmed in China.
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Life is harmonious in the remote Miao stockade village. Photos courtesy of Meeting at Unknown Places. |
China Mandatory
Preparation for the stockade village episode began more than two years ago. Its head writer, Franck Desplanques, said, "In the globalized world we live in today, we couldn't miss out China."
In each episode of the program, the anchor, Frédéric Lopez, invites a celebrity guest to accompany him to an unknown place and live with the locals. They talk about the philosophies adopted by the people living in remote and difficult circumstances, inspiring modern viewers to think about the world in a different way. The design of the program is original: Guests have no idea of their destination before boarding the plane, so the feelings they reveal in the "unknown place" they arrive at are authentic. The production group of Meeting at Unknown Places: Guizhou had a connecting flight in Shanghai, got on a transfer bus in Guiyang, capital of Guizhou, and then walked for two hours before they finally arrived at their destination, the Yangkai Miao stockade village of Rongjiang County in Guizhou.
The guest of this episode was the French movie star Colovis Cornillac. It was his first time in China. When he found out he was going to the Middle Kingdom, Cornillac, who claimed to be the type of person who "did not easily reveal his emotions" jumped for joy! "I've always dreamed of going to China!" he said.
After a short stop-over in Shanghai, Frédéric Lopez and Colovis Cornillac took a hilly road "to the middle of nowhere" to await their hosts. Three villagers, Long Laoniu and his wife Zhu Laopu, and their relative Meng Laohao, appeared with warm smiles. Cornillac's initial anxiety disappeared in an instant. As they walked to their destination, Cornillac and the viewers' hearts were captured by the beautiful mountainous sceneries. The production group spared no expense, filming swooping aerial scenes and creating a strong contrast between the magnificent natural sights of Guizhou and the bustling metropolis of Shanghai, thus presenting a picture of the pluralistic and real China.
For the next two weeks, Lopez and Cornillac lived together with this Miao family – the husband Long Laoniu is shrewd and realistic, his wife Zhu Laopu enthusiastic and kind, and the hard-working and humorous Meng Laohao is a relative who lodges at their house. The documentary was filmed at the beginning of September 2015, which is the busy farming season for locals, who work from dawn to dusk. The guests also threw themselves into the farm work on the mountains with the hosts. They caught fish in the river, chopped pig feed and brewed rice wine together.
The communication between the host family and the French guests was slow to develop. At the beginning, they only extended simple greetings. Gradually, they let down their defenses and opened their hearts to each other. By the end they had gained an in-depth picture of each other's life stories.
When Cornillac was asked about his job, he said that his job was of no use here, and that he was only "trying to make people think." The lodger Meng Laohao didn't know Cornillac was an actor, and responded, "You cannot say it's useless; it's very important to make people think."
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