The six-episode large-scale humanities and history documentary "Needham and Ancient Chinese Science and Technology" was broadcast on the CCTV Science and Education Channel of CCTV at 10:00 p.m. every night from November 20.
Produced by the "Exploration and Discovery" column of CCTV Science and Education Channel, each episode is 42 minutes long, divided into six themes: "To China", "Mr. Wind", "Highland of Civilization", "Magical Creation", "Writing China", and "People Go to Take Pictures", telling the experience of Joseph Needham, a scientist and historian of science and technology at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, who came to China from the 1940s to 1980s and wrote the great work of the history of science "History of Science and Technology in China", showing his cross-cultural perspective and thinking and interpretation of Ancient Chinese scientific and technological civilization.
Needham has made extremely important contributions to the study of the history of Chinese science and technology and cultural history, known as "the old friend of the Chinese people", and the "History of Science and Technology in China" compiled by him is the first grand work to comprehensively introduce the development process of Science and Technology in China with systematic and detailed materials, and is considered to be one of the major academic achievements completed in the 20th century.
It is understood that in order to more comprehensively study Needham's life experience and tell Chinese stories well, the film crew traced Needham's footprints in China, and went to Britain, Hong Kong, and other places to obtain a large number of rare photo materials, read thousands of needham's diary, notes, and materials before his death, reconstruct Needham's ideological process of understanding China and writing the "History of Chinese Science and Technology", ensure academic authority and accuracy, and restore as true and comprehensively as possible the China that Needham saw, the history he heard, and the civilization he read.
The film crew interviewed a number of heavyweight academicians and tenured professors in the fields of sinology, biology, and science and technology history at Cambridge University; visited and presented to chinese audiences for the first time the offices used by many masters such as Joseph Needham and Hawking.
The documentary "Needham and Ancient Chinese Science and Technology" sets the content framework from the perspective of the shooting of the biography, uses a large number of details and stories, comprehensively sorts out the trajectory of Needham's life, and creates an image of a scholar full of sense of justice, full of adventure and innovation, vigorous vitality and the spirit of great scientific internationalism. At the same time, this film borrows the eyes of Needham, stands at the height of history and human nature, traces the footprints of a group of Western international friends represented by Joseph Needham in China, peeks at the iron bones and outstanding wisdom of Chinese intellectuals during the war, and explores the glory and splendor of China's ancient scientific and technological culture.
It is worth mentioning that the program team obtained more than a thousand old photos taken by Needham that have never been made public on television, which truly record the mental state of people from all walks of life in China during the most difficult years of the War of Resistance Against Japan. Through the innovative activation of photographs, the program makes the solidified black-and-white images become "sliding doors" connecting the two time and space.
Text/Beijing Youth Daily reporter Xiao Yang
Editor/Bow Lifang