FROM the Sanxingdui ruins, one of the greatest discoveries of the ancient Shu Culture, to the Nanhai No.1 shipwreck from the Song Dynasty (960-1279), a milestone discovery for Chinese underwater archaeology, numerous findings have been telling us more about China’s past and the history of humanity. Now a 12-episode documentary, “The Mystery of China,” is being aired on Henan Satellite TV and livestreamed on Youku to tell the stories of six of these cultural treasures.

Hosted by movie and TV star Chen Kun, the show not only introduces archaeology sites, but also interviews cultural scholars and archaeologists to help audience members gain a better and deeper understanding of these cultural treasures.

According to Li Bing, the show’s producer, “who we are” and “where we come from” are the key questions on the route to “finding our genes.” “We hope to record the glorious moments of our 5,000-year-long history. That is our intention behind the show,” said Li.

The show crew visited some of China’s most well-known cultural sites like the Mogao Grottoes and the Emperor Qinshihuang’s Mausoleum Site Museum, approaching them from different angles. How to introduce these cultural sites in the best way was something that the production team had troubles with.

“China’s history is so long that if we follow a chronological order, we would have to start with the Xia (2070-1600 B.C.), Shang (1600-1046 B.C.) and Zhou (1046-256 B.C.) dynasties or earlier,” said Li.

“That is not the way we learn history. Thousands of objects for the imperial family of the Tang Dynasty (618-907) were unearthed in 1970 in a small village in Northwest China’s Shaanxi Province. Who buried them and why they did so … there are so many questions to be answered. Telling these stories is something we hope to do to allow audience members to discover more about these shining cultural symbols,” he added.

“Content about history and culture has always been a core area that we hope to focus our efforts on. For the large number of audience members who are interested in this type of content, we will continue to invest heavily in this direction to produce more high-quality content,” said Han Yun, manager of the documentary channel at Youku.(Global Times)