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r. Michael Wood is a well-known British historian and documentary maker who has produced more than a hundred documentaries on various national histories and cultures exemplified by The Story of India. They enjoy wide popularity in more than 150 countries.
I met him in February when he took his film crew to Yangzhou to shoot The Story of China documentary for the British Broadcasting Corporation （BBC）. It was a snowy day， cold and wet， but Michael said happily that the climate in Yangzhou was similar to that in his hometown of Manchester. Upon learning I was his local companion， he held my hands and said excitedly： “Yangzhou Dream”. “Du Mu”.
His strong emotion for Yangzhou really surprised me. Of all the foreign friends I had met， it was rare to find one so fascinated by the city. He explained he had first learned about it from a book Tang Poems that he had bought in Manchester， an industrial city in north England while studying there in his teens.
The poetic descriptions of Yangzhou gave him an image of a city of unparalleled prosperity that he had never imagined before.
He was deeply moved in particular by one of Du Mu’s poems—My Lament.
Forever roaming amid rivers and lakes with a bottle of wine，
Many a king and hero indulged in women of delicate waist and feather-light， so did I.
A pipe dream it had been， ten years in Yangzhou， a fool’s paradise，
Infamously unfaithful was my claim to fame in districts of red lantern lights.
Since then， Yangzhou has been a city in his dreams.
He described it as a sleepless city with Arabs， Persians and Syrians weaving in and out of crowded entertainment blocks and streets. Poets in bustling liquor stores are feverishly writing poems and verses amid an aroma of nectared wine.
Encountering his “dream city” in reality， he couldn’t help but be happy.
The first schedule shoot was Yangzhou opera. It was arranged for Michael and his crew to film the show given by Yangzhou Opera Troupe in Dinghuo， a small town in Jiangdu District. Looking at the falling snow， Michael was worried that there would not be many people in the audience as it would be performed in the open air. However， as show time drew near， the place was packed with hundreds of opera fans. Some villagers， unable to get in， climbed onto the balconies of the houses nearby.
The opera performed that day was Love Between Li Weixian and His Sister-in-law， a tragic love story happened in an ancient Chinese family. The show started. The audience was drawn so deeply into the moving story with beautiful music and excellent performance that their emotions went up and down as it unfolded. They sighed at every tragic moment. All this—the wonderful opera， the intoxicated audience， as well as the actors and actresses putting on make-up and costumes before the show—were recorded by Michael and his crew. He was surprised to see that the traditional local opera was still so appealing after hundreds of years.
I met him in February when he took his film crew to Yangzhou to shoot The Story of China documentary for the British Broadcasting Corporation （BBC）. It was a snowy day， cold and wet， but Michael said happily that the climate in Yangzhou was similar to that in his hometown of Manchester. Upon learning I was his local companion， he held my hands and said excitedly： “Yangzhou Dream”. “Du Mu”.
His strong emotion for Yangzhou really surprised me. Of all the foreign friends I had met， it was rare to find one so fascinated by the city. He explained he had first learned about it from a book Tang Poems that he had bought in Manchester， an industrial city in north England while studying there in his teens.
The poetic descriptions of Yangzhou gave him an image of a city of unparalleled prosperity that he had never imagined before.
He was deeply moved in particular by one of Du Mu’s poems—My Lament.
Forever roaming amid rivers and lakes with a bottle of wine，
Many a king and hero indulged in women of delicate waist and feather-light， so did I.
A pipe dream it had been， ten years in Yangzhou， a fool’s paradise，
Infamously unfaithful was my claim to fame in districts of red lantern lights.
Since then， Yangzhou has been a city in his dreams.
He described it as a sleepless city with Arabs， Persians and Syrians weaving in and out of crowded entertainment blocks and streets. Poets in bustling liquor stores are feverishly writing poems and verses amid an aroma of nectared wine.
Encountering his “dream city” in reality， he couldn’t help but be happy.
The first schedule shoot was Yangzhou opera. It was arranged for Michael and his crew to film the show given by Yangzhou Opera Troupe in Dinghuo， a small town in Jiangdu District. Looking at the falling snow， Michael was worried that there would not be many people in the audience as it would be performed in the open air. However， as show time drew near， the place was packed with hundreds of opera fans. Some villagers， unable to get in， climbed onto the balconies of the houses nearby.
The opera performed that day was Love Between Li Weixian and His Sister-in-law， a tragic love story happened in an ancient Chinese family. The show started. The audience was drawn so deeply into the moving story with beautiful music and excellent performance that their emotions went up and down as it unfolded. They sighed at every tragic moment. All this—the wonderful opera， the intoxicated audience， as well as the actors and actresses putting on make-up and costumes before the show—were recorded by Michael and his crew. He was surprised to see that the traditional local opera was still so appealing after hundreds of years.