Renowned filmmaker Christopher Doyle narrates this uniquely vivid picture of Chinese history through film, compiled with exclusive access to the British Film Institute China collection. These never-seen-before films provide new insights into China’s momentous changes, from the first ever Chinese film in the Qing dynasty through to the Communist era.

The very first films of China present a surprising variety of daily life during the last decade of the Qing Dynasty in the 1900s. Post 1911, the films capture the great sweep of life in the Chinese Republic; foreign troops parading through Shanghai; the rise of Chiang Kai-shek; the birth of the Chinese Communist Party; the death of Dr Sun Yat-Sen.

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