Promotional material for Our Times Photo: Courtesy of Youku

'Our Times': Development of the Greater Bay Area makes dreams come true

With the further development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, more and more young Chinese who are eager to achieve their dreams are choosing to come to the region. To explore this trend, the recent TV series Our Times dedicated four episodes to this lively and vibrant land.

The story starts in a special district named Qianhai in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong Province.  Qianhai was established as a test bed for comprehensively deepening the country's reform and opening-up 12 years ago, years before the concept of the Greater Bay Area was introduced.

The director of four episodes, Liu Xuesong, chose to set his short story in Qianhai, which he sees as a representation of "hope."

"It was hard to tell a complete story of how a young man went from nothing to become a success in just four episodes," Liu told media.

So he focused the story on one person, Ye Zhou, a young Hongkonger who went to Qianhai to find opportunities to start his own business.

The episodes tell a story of the mutual support between Ye and Xiang Hai, the business director of the Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Youth Innovation and Entrepreneur Hub (referred to as E Hub).

The story is based on the real life establishment of the E Hub in Qianhai, which was opened in December 2014 as another new milestone for closer Guangdong-Hong Kong cooperation.

In order to depict the times as close to reality as possible, the film crew spent nearly four months in the E Hub carrying out interviews, writing up a detailed report nearly 50,000 words long.

Including the story of Qianhai, the TV series Our Times is comprised of a total of 11 separate stories depicting different people from all walks of life. 

For example, its first story explores the creation of the hit dance performance Night Banquet in the Palace of the Tang Dynasty, which once stunned audiences throughout China when it appeared at the Henan Spring Festival Gala in February 2021.

Our Times is also focusing on stories about medical workers during the COVID-19 pandemic and sport coaches teaching children from mountainous areas.

The series has been airing since October 10 on TV stations as well as video platform YouTube in 200 countries and regions around the world.

Global Times