Full coverage: ‘看中國’外國青年影像計劃專題

By CCTV.com Panview

Editor's foreword: "Looking China" International Youth Film Project is co-organized by the Academy for International Communication of Chinese Culture (AICCC), Beijing Normal University and Huilin Foundation. The program focuses on the young participants’ personal experiences of Chinese culture and encourages them to discover and tell Chinese stories from their own perspectives.

As of the year 2017, students from all over the world were invited to participate in the project. They were stationed in 12 municipality, provinces and autonomous regions here in China. Every filmmaker has worked out a 10-minute short film about Chinese culture around the topic of "Craftsmanship·Inheritance·Innovation.”

The short film, 'Only Persistence,' made by student director Daniel Svoren and produced by Peter Liu and Jerry John - features an up-and-coming Chinese superstar ping pong player, Fan Hao, and how he has devoted his life to perform at champion status in the game.

The movie begins with ping pong players practicing their skills, which is adapted slow motion cinematography and with traditional Chinese music in the backdrop that leads to added suspense. Viewers go on to learn that there's a 'Table Tennis College,' where aspiring ping pong stars undergo rigorous training, while many students come from primary schools.

We may feel sympathy for the children who face intensive training courses, while coaches serve as strict disciplinarians, but Fan Hao informs viewers that it was the game of ping pong that has reformed him so that he could overcome many challenges and stress in life.

And we should all learn from the important life lesson that to achieve success we must have "only persistence."

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