Still heading in the right direction

I really am a newbie, just 25 years old, and having completed a degree in anthropology in England less than two years ago.

So I was extremely fortunate to be given the opportunity to direct this documentary as part of a great China Daily team. When I was assigned to the project, I was initially hesitant about how we should approach it, but my determination to do a good job grew stronger as I realized the importance of the story we were about to tell－one spanning a vast country, 1.4 billion people and 40 years.

For the documentary, we interviewed more than 50 people from all walks of life, including those who in the early days helped lay the path for reform and openingup; people who returned home to reunite with their families after spending years overseas; and a father and son who gave their all to set up and run a family business. For me, they reflected the determination of China and its people, its subsequent economic rise and the practical ways in which this has transformed people's lives.

People often ask me, "What on earth is anthropology anyway?" The answer is neat and simple: anthropologists try to help large numbers of people understand small groups of people.

A responsible anthropologist will not pass judgment on what ways of living are "right" or "wrong", "good" or "bad", but by thoroughly exploring what lies behind those ways of living, informs people about the social structures, history and even power relations that underpin them.

In this film project I was keen to tell the story of these people－whether they were father and son, employers and employees, or some other social class－through an anthropological eye.

For ultimately, of course, we all belong to one social class: humanity. When we study and understand the world of others, we understand the biases of our own cultures, indeed our own biases and illusions.

I believe that this may have been the kind of thing the English poet John Donne had in mind in 1624 when he wrote:

No man is an island,
Entire of itself;
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less,
As well as if a promontory were: As well as any manner of thy friend's
Or of thine own were:
Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind.