Farmers in Xiaogang Village, Anhui Province, demanded a large package of dried food to fill their stomachs. With 18 red handprints holding billions of hands, they created a miracle of filling the “Chinese bowl” with Chinese food; Farmers in Shouguang, Shandong Province took the lead in creating a winter friendly vegetable gang, triggering the “vegetable basket” project and bidding farewell to the history of only cabbage and radish in northern China in winter; Jiangsu Yizheng people boldly took out loans to introduce the world’s largest chemical fiber production equipment, ending the era when Chinese people needed tickets to wear clothes
The large-scale television documentary “Let’s Walk Through One by One to Pay tribute to the 40th Anniversary of Reform and Opening up” broadcasted by CCTV has opened up the collective memory of the Chinese people for 40 years. The entire film tells 107 stories in 18 episodes, reviewing the 40 year journey of reform and opening up.
Along with each story, there are over 40 classic old songs that have been repeatedly sung over the past 40 years, such as “On the Field of Hope” that reflect rural stories, “Love to Win” that reflect private enterprise stories, and “Our Life is Full of Sunshine” that reflect people’s livelihood stories. Listening to and reading them, they evoke memories of the past and resonate strongly with the audience.
This documentary connects great journeys with real stories and highlights true feelings with small incisions. Food stamps, cloth stamps, oil stamps, meat stamps… each small ticket truthfully records the difficulties of life during the shortage period, making people feel familiar and unfamiliar today. There is also an unforgettable experience shared by a self-employed person who had five children at home when he was a child: “We have to borrow the money for the last few days of our lives every month to make it through to the end of the month. Schools wear yellow tops and blue pants, but buying yellow tops and blue pants requires cloth tickets, and we don’t have the conditions. My mother bought white cloth, boiled water with dye on the stove, and boiled yellow before boiling blue, I don’t know how many people would smile. Later on, life became better, but in order to buy a washing machine or refrigerator, I had to ask people everywhere to find tickets and even queue up overnight. The scenes of rush buying in the 1970s and 1980s are deeply remembered by the old employees of Beijing department stores.
Little things and details allow the audience to find their past shadows and experience the tangible sense of gain brought about by reform and opening up.
It is reported that in order to make this documentary a success, the journalist and editor have made efforts to enhance their footwork, eyesight, brain power, and writing skills, measuring the process of China’s reform and opening up with their feet, and praising the confidence of the Chinese people with true emotions. During the five months of filming the documentary, reporters and editors from China Central Radio and Television Corporation traveled to 31 provinces, regions, and cities, filmed over 1300 hours of 4K high-definition documentary materials, interviewed 183 witnesses, participants, and witnesses of the reform and opening up, and searched for resonance points between the people, the Party, and the country over the past 40 years. The entire film is neat and full of tension, with a relaxed editing rhythm and exquisite production, striving for excellence, making “We Walk Together” a landmark work that will celebrate the theme of the 40 years of reform and opening up to the climax.