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Story of China

The Family: The Basis of Chinese Civilization

At the town of Wuxi in the lower Yangtze valley, Michael Wood joins the Qin family as they celebrate the annual festival for the ancestors, a ritual that goes back thousands of years. Banned under the communists such rituals are coming back everywhere in today’s China, as once more the family regains its central place in Chinese culture.

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The Age of Revolution
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55:18
The great Taiping Rebellion, the fall of the Empire and the rise of Mao.
The Last Empire
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Michael Wood tells the dramatic tale of China's last empire, the Qing.
The Ming
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The time of the Great Wall , the Forbidden City and treasure ships sent on ocean voyages.
Golden Age
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Michael Wood tells the tale of China's Renaissance.
Silk Roads and China Ships
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Michael Wood conjures up China's first great international age, the Tang Dynasty.
Ancestors
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55:18
Michael Wood returns to the beginnings of Chinese history to find clues to today's China.
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