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 movie "Built on Clay" tells a story of an artist who makes clay sculptures. He lives in Lanzhou, which stands by China's mother river, Yellow River. The river's color comes from the sediments of clay that appear all along the shores and mountains of the city.

Different from many artists who make Buddha and movie stars sculptures, he focuses on ordinary people and tries to present different characters of people through his clay sculptures. In order to make good sculptures, he thinks one must have imagination, aesthetic vision and good observation ability.

He taught 47 people how to make clay sculptures for free for years, but none of his students have been successful. According to him, the reason is that some were looking for instant success after studying for only one or two years and others just lacked talent. For him, mastering clay is a whole life accomplishment, it’s not merely a skill to earn a living, but a passion and memory of childhood to maintain.

Northwest China has a distinctive culture and scenery, Yellow River, loess, dry weather... If you want to know more about the people and culture of the region, the movie directed by Vanessa Quintero and produced by Yang Zekai is a must see for you to watch. 

(The opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Panview or CCTV.com. )

Panview offers a new window of understanding the world as well as China through the views, opinions, and analysis of experts. We also welcome outside submissions, so feel free to send in your own editorials to "globalopinion@vip.cntv.cn" for consideration.