On Monday I was in Beijing for the recording of an episode of the new Dutch TV program, “TV China”. Interesting was that the studio was on an army base, so I could not just take a taxi to get there. I was picked up by a car with darkened windows so I could get in and out of the studio without being spotted as a foreigner! The studio itself was the same as most film studios I have seen so far, just a big dark room filled with camera’s, sound equipment and huge amounts of cables. The set was quite nice though, with huge pictures of the Forbidden City as background and using classical Chinese furniture. I can tell you that Chinese furniture looks nice, but if you sit on a wooden chair that is a bit too low at a wooden table that is just too high it gets quite uncomfortable after a while!

The format of the program is that short clips of Chinese TV programs (and in my case also Tudou clips) are shown, and that the presenter (Chinese/Dutch author Julie O’Yang) talks with the guests about these clips. I enjoyed doing the program, and we talked for more than 2 hours about all aspects of Chinese society, with an emphasis on youth and youth culture. The final program will be only 45 minutes, so two thirds of the material will not end up in the final cut.

The “China TV” program was produced for VPRO Television in the Netherlands and directed by Pieter Fleury. The program consists of 5 episodes that will be broadcast in The Netherlands from August 11th until August 15th, 2008 (during the Olympics).