In the vast world of countless beings, Zhou You loved watching documentaries—especially nature, animals, food, society, and travel. He enjoyed both domestic and international ones, but his favorites were domestic social documentaries. He wanted to understand the world better. Since graduating, he realized that many things in society differed greatly from what he had been taught growing up. For example:
- Hard work leads to rewards. - Do good deeds without asking about the future. - Listen to your boss, work hard, and avoid conflicts with colleagues. - Buy a house on your own; relying on your parents is unethical. - You reap what you sow.
Once in society, he discovered that reality has no logic. It’s more surreal, harder to grasp, with tangled interests so complex that you can’t see through them when caught up. So Zhou You often watched documentaries to uncover the truth of society and understand its operating rules.
Reading ten thousand books, traveling ten thousand miles, and observing all kinds of people—this had always been Zhou You’s dream. Documentaries largely satisfied his past self, but due to the social environment and the current state of documentaries, realistic ones were rare. Most were superficial or policy-driven propaganda pieces. Occasionally, he’d find a good one.
Now, with some spare money and the prospect of more in the future, Zhou You wanted to contribute a little to this industry. Not that he expected nothing in return—just enough to ease his conscience, since he had freeloaded on so many documentaries before.
In poverty, one cultivates virtue; in success, one helps the world. He couldn’t help the whole world, but he hoped to offer a small boost to the independent documentary industry.
Domestic documentary directors, based on their work status, roughly fell into three types: institutional directors, market-oriented directors, and freelance directors. By creative status, they were project directors or independent directors. Internationally, documentary types were classified as poetic, expository, participatory, observational, reflexive, and performative. Domestically, they were categorized as film, history, science and education, and humanities.
Documentary directors had it better after the establishment of CCTV’s documentary channel and the success of *A Bite of China*. These two factors combined improved their treatment and lives considerably.
Regardless of type, directors usually started by working for a unit or being hired for a specific documentary project. In such projects, funding was secured in advance, and the director worked with the producer or co-producer to finalize the shooting script. Current documentary types included current affairs, history, biography, stage, and special topics, but shooting methods involved reenactments.
In the past, only institutional directors and a few documentary directors didn’t worry about funding. Gradually, some independent directors entered the market with participatory and observational documentaries, winning over foreign audiences with unique perspectives. They sold these at good prices to overseas buyers, earning decent profits. But they had to continuously gather material from the grassroots, influenced by foreign market tastes, and keep filming the lower classes to secure funding.
Large-scale domestic documentaries were once dominated by film or historical documentaries. Local TV stations had many documentary directors. In the 1980s and 1990s, they used local funds to shoot local historical documentaries. With no pressure within the system, content mostly focused on local history.
After *A Bite of China* became a hit, human-interest documentaries about food kept many busy for years. Both inside and outside the system, countless such documentaries were made following its model—well-crafted, well-funded, and with decent broadcast results.
But the biggest profits came from exhibition hall documentaries tied to local tourism. These used cutting-edge concepts and technologies aggressively, but their audience was limited to exhibition visitors, so their reach was narrow and unnoticed by most.
Domestic nature documentaries were relatively weak. This field required immense dedication, professional skills, huge time investments, and massive funding. For years, China relied on purchasing foreign content. Recently, some began exploring nature documentaries, but the input-output ratio was severely imbalanced. Most participants were TV stations, lacking the massive funding, distribution channels, and shooting experience of the BBC. This gap still needed filling, but the BBC had already thought of every conceivable topic. What the BBC thought of but didn’t film, others couldn’t either.
Poetic documentaries had a small domestic audience, required high content expression skills, and demanded significant funding. Few filmed them.
Many were drawn to documentaries by directors like Xu Tong, Zhou Hao, and Chen Weijun. But such independent documentaries fetched low prices in the domestic market, relying mainly on foreign markets driven by curiosity. These documentaries required long-term filming and strong communication skills, making them tough for young directors new to society.
Nowadays, many film companies were cautious about documentary production, mostly adopting project-based approaches. Young directors mainly collaborated with companies. Unless driven by a strong desire for social expression, few chose the path of independent documentaries—it was too hard and too grueling.
From his past viewing, Zhou You roughly knew the notable independent documentary directors:
- Xu Tong, with代表作 like *Fortune Teller*, *Wheat Harvest*, and *Old Tang*, known as the "Vagabond Trilogy." - Zhou Hao, with works like *The Chinese Mayor*, *Emergency Room*, *Days*, *Police Station 2*, *Police Station*, *The Secretary*, *Long Ge*, *Senior Year*, *Houjie*, and *Datong*. Among them, *Senior Year* was the most famous and widely circulated, while *The Secretary* and *Datong* were classic and rare—likely hard to replicate in the future. - Chen Weijun, with *Better to Live Than to Die*, *The Door of Life*, *The Door of Life*, *The Way Out*, *The Chinese Dream*, *Why Poverty?*, *Sunrise Sunset*, *The World’s Largest Chinese Restaurant*, *Please Vote for Me*, and *City Dream*. *Better to Live Than to Die* took Zhou You several viewings to finish because it was painful to watch. It vividly captured the hardship of life—how a small change in the times could become a mountain on an individual’s shoulders. - Zheng Qiong, with *The Way Out*—same title as Chen Weijun’s, but different in content, more like *Up* series. It followed people from various Chinese social classes over a long span, offering deeper insights. - Wang Bing, with *Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks*, a microcosm of reform.
Many other independent documentary directors existed, but limited by the spread of their works and family responsibilities, many projects fizzled out.
Documentaries are film or TV art forms that use real life as creative material, real people and events as subjects, and process them artistically to reveal truth, sparking thought. Their core is authenticity. Documentaries are the photo album of a nation and a country, and witnesses to the times.
Please recommend this work.
Thanks to Yun Qi and Tian Yu Wei for sticking with me.