1、大家论坛影视英语 http:/ NARRATOR: Protected by the Great Wall in the north, and fed by the Yellow and Yangtze rivers, Chinas eastern heartland is the centre of a flourishing civilisation which spans more than 5,000 years. To outsiders this is a mysterious land. It contains dazzling man-made structures. And
2、its home to some of Chinas rarest and most charismatic creatures. (ROARING) The people who live here, the Han Chinese, comprise the largest ethnic group in the world, and their language, Mandarin, is the worlds oldest and most widely spoken language. (SPEAKING CHINESE) In the last 50 years China has
3、 seen massive development, bringing many environmental problems. But the relationship of the Chinese to their environment and its creatures is in fact deep, complex and extraordinary. In this programme we will look for clues to this ancient relationship and what it means for the future of China. Our
4、 journey starts at the very heart of China, Beijing. Chinas capital is a vast metropolis, home to 15 million people. This bustling modern city seems an unlikely place for traditional beliefs and customs. But beneath the contemporary veneer, its possible to see glimpses of a far older China. Every mo
5、rning, people head to the parks around the Forbidden City, to continue a custom which is centuries old. Many Chinese keep birds as companions, specifically a type of laughing thrush from southern China. But they know that cooped up indoors, birds may become depressed. So they try to brighten their d
6、ay by meeting other birds. (BIRDS TWITTERING) This surprising scene in the heart of modern Beijing is a clue to Chinas oldest spiritual ambition, the harmonious co-existence of man and nature. (WHISTLING) (BIRDS CHIRPING) But from the 1950s onwards, this ancient belief was to be severely challenged.
7、 After a century of humiliation and intervention by foreign powers, Chairman Mao sought to rebuild Chinas dignity. Mao believed strongly in self-reliance, achieved through using all of natures resources. Maos first concern was to feed the Chinese people by turning as much land as possible over to gr
8、ain production, destroying non-cereal crops and uprooting fruit trees in the process. A campaign to eliminate crop-raiding sparrows backfired when insect-eating birds were also targeted, causing an increase in insect pests. Efforts to make China self-reliant in steel resulted in 10% of the countrys
9、forests being felled to feed the furnaces. This had a profound impact on Chinas environment, with effects, in some cases, lasting until the present day. Maos policy towards the countryside has been described in the phrase, Man must conquer nature. Quite different from the ancient concept of harmonio
10、us co-existence with nature. As modern China engages with the outside world, which of these attitudes seems likely to prevail? To find the answers, well travel to the far reaches of the heartland to see how its traditional cultures and unique creatures are faring today. Beijing has always depended o
11、n the North China Plain, a rich farmland twice the size of the UK. The fertility of this plain derives from further west, from the Loess Plateau. The mineral-rich soil of the Loess Plateau is incredibly fertile. People have lived here for thousands of years, hollowing their homes out of the soft soi
12、l. (WOMAN SPEAKING CHINESE) The caves might lack the glamour of Beijing, but people can survive here. Warm, secure, but best of all, well fed. (WOMAN LAUGHING) As a result of centuries of farming, the landscape has become scarred with thousands of water-worn gullies. But this spectacular erosion has
13、 had an unexpected benefit. The streams which drain the gullies carry the fertile yellow soil into the plateaus major river, known to the Han people as the Mother of Chinese civilisation. This is the Yellow River. Each year the Yellow River carries billions of tons of sediment from the Loess Plateau
14、 eastwards to the crop fields of the Chinese heartland. Historically, the Chinese relationship with the river has been uneasy. Sediment, building up on the riverbed, has caused the Yellow River to burst its banks periodically, unleashing devastating floods, resulting in millions of deaths. But when
15、tamed with dykes and channels, the rivers bounty is legendary. Even today, half of Chinas wheat comes from the Yellow River floodplain. For thousands of years, the sediment-rich Yellow River has underpinned the prosperity of the Chinese heartland. But increased demand for water by people and industr
16、y now threaten to run the river dry. And the source of its fertility, the Loess Plateau, is also under threat. Loosened by cultivation, its soft soil is blowing away. The North China Plain is choked with dust storms that even loom over Beijing, so much so that the Chinese government has made improvi
17、ng the citys air quality a priority in the run up to the Beijing Olympics. Heartland Chinas life-support system is in trouble. Yet in a few places its still possible to find landscapes that appear to have remained untouched. At the southern edge of the North China Plain lie the Qinling Mountains. At
18、 1,500 kilometres long, they run like a backbone through the middle of China. Deep within the mountains is a maze of remote valleys and forests, home to strange and wonderful creatures. (MONKEYS CALLING) These are golden snub-nosed monkeys, a species unique to China. Seldom seen, they are frequently
19、 heard. Their strange child-like calls and extraordinary appearance may have inspired the local tales of a Yeti-like wild man of the mountains. As winter temperatures drop to minus 10 degrees Celsius, their dense fur keeps them warm. Mutual grooming not only keeps their precious fur in good conditio
20、n, but also helps to reinforce bonds within the troop. In summer, the monkeys go around in huge bands, but at this lean time of the year they split up into smaller foraging parties. In the dead of winter, the monkeys are forced to rummage around the rocks for a few meagre morsels of lichen and moss.
21、 As the world surrounding their mountain home has filled up with towns and crop lands, the snub-nosed monkeys habitat has changed dramatically. Today there are just 10,000 left in existence. (SAWING) To the people who live in the Qinling Mountains, the forest and its wildlife are a resource to be us
22、ed, the basis of their livelihood. These people share the forest with an even more elusive inhabitant. Its probably Chinas most famous animal, but very few have ever seen it. Unlike the monkeys, this creature has a very specific diet, bamboo. Its a wild giant panda. Secretive, and sensitive to noise
23、, the giant panda is often gone before anyone can get close to it. The panda has long been known in China. It was mentioned in dictionaries more than 2,000 years ago and the Imperial Garden is said to have housed one. In the dense bamboo of the forest one panda rarely sees another, instead they comm
24、unicate by subtle scent signals. At a metre-and-a-half long and 135 kilos, the giant panda is a member of the bear family. But its bear-like digestive system is built for eating meat, not this tough, fibrous stuff. And to make matters worse, the bamboo leaves are frozen solid. But the panda has devi
25、sed a cunning way of breaking the ice off. It rubs the bamboo over its snout. Unlike other bears, the panda cant fatten itself up and hibernate through the winter. Bamboo is so low in energy that the panda must spend most of the day eating. Once it has exhausted one area, it must move on to the next
26、. The pandas paw is surprisingly un-bear-like, too. Its flexible, with an enlarged wrist bone which allows it to grasp and manoeuvre the bamboo with a dexterity and precision that a monkey would be proud of. Twisting the bamboo leaves into a cigar shape makes them easier to munch. Hungry pandas once
27、 roamed across vast tracts of bamboo-rich forest that covered much of Chinas heartland. But since the 1950s, logging has fragmented the Qinling Mountain forests. Its remaining wild pandas are now confined within isolated reserves. In the last 50 years, Chinas heartland has been subjected to desertif
28、ication, drying rivers and deforestation, affecting not only people, but wildlife, too. The relationship between the Chinese people and their environment appears to be out of balance. But if we dig a little bit deeper, there are some surprising and intimate connections even today. Clues to the natur
29、e of these links can be found in everyday life, even in the centre of Chinas capital city. In the parks of Beijing, Mandarin ducks keep a close watch over their young. Believed by the Chinese to pair for life, they have been seen for centuries as a symbol of love and fidelity. Images of these birds
30、are believed to improve personal relationships. As a result, Beijings Mandarin ducks are highly protected. The alleyways of the capitals ancient hutongs are home to a very different kind of creature. Each day Zhou Guoguang tends his brood of pigeons, his chance to escape the pressures of city life f
31、or an hour or two. Up here on the rooftops, Zhou is confident his charges will be safe. But in the streets below lurk dangerous spirits that scavenge and steal. Deeper into the hutongs, the influence of modern Beijing recedes. These alleys are full of ancient beliefs. (SPEAKING CHINESE) (BICYCLE BEL
32、L RINGING) As night falls, spirits emerge from their hiding-places. The yellow weasel. Some people believe that offending this crafty predator can bring bad luck, so they turn a blind eye to the weasels night-time marauding. Old beliefs, coupled with a rising awareness of conservation, are helping t
33、he yellow weasel survive in the middle of Beijing, despite killing the odd pigeon. In the south of China, the relationship with nature appears more brutal. Cantonese cuisine is famous for its diversity, summed up in the saying, We will eat anything on four legs, except a table. And though the govern
34、ment has banned the consumption of wildlife in China and most of the meat here comes from captive-bred animals, a significant amount is taken illegally from the wild. This restaurant in Hong Kong specialises in serpents. Most are harmless rat snakes, but with the odd cobra on the menu, one false mov
35、e could spell trouble. Chau Ka-Ling has lost count of the number of times shes been bitten, so she always carries a Chinese herbal remedy, just in case. We might turn our noses up at such a strange choice of food, but eating snakes is more than just a matter of taste. The Cantonese believe it can he
36、lp to clean the blood, increase vitality and beautify the skin. In such a crowded land, a tradition of eating everything with very little waste could be seen as commendable thrift. The problem is that there are so many people eating wild food in south China, that the illegal supply chain stretches w
37、ell beyond its borders, contributing to the disappearance of wildlife not only within China, but from other countries, too. A visit to a traditional Chinese medicine shop reveals another aspect of the use of animals and plants. Dr So has been practising for over 20 years. The most important part of
38、his diagnosis is the pulse, examined in several places. Dr So also observes the colour of the tongue and eyes, and asks questions about the patients taste, smell and even dreams. (BOTH SPEAKING CHINESE) Once satisfied with his diagnosis, hell write a prescription, using a script unique to doctors. C
39、hinese traditional medicine uses an incredible array of animals, vegetables and minerals to treat the individual rather than the illness, aiming to restore the harmony of opposing but complementary forces, known in China as yin and yang. The concept is rooted in the ancient belief that the universe
40、is harmonious and that people are intimately connected to, and affected by, their environment. Despite the seemingly bizarre nature of the ingredients, Chinese traditional medicine has been successfully treating people for thousands of years. But although the use of endangered wildlife ingredients i
41、n medicine is now banned in China, some wild animals and plants are still used illegally. Once again nature bears the cost. But Chinese tradition has borrowed from nature in other ways which are not in the least exploitative. In ancient Chinese philosophy, man was considered part of the natural worl
42、d and able to benefit from its wisdom. Thousands of years ago Buddhist monks on sacred Shaolin Mountain incorporated their observations of wild creatures into a system of exercises to help the flow of energy and build strength. This animal-inspired art-form became kung fu. Today, ancient Shaolin Mou
43、ntain, the place where kung fu began, remains its prime training centre. Shi Yanting is a master. (SPEAKING CHINESE) Students from all over the country come here to learn the ancient knowledge derived from the natural world. The emphasis today is perhaps more on the physical rather than the philosop
44、hical elements that underlie kung fu, but its a significant re-awakening. This seven-year-old is perfecting the devastating punch of the praying mantis. When combined and perfected, these animal forms, such as mantis, monkey and crane, become an unstoppable force. Ancient Chinese philosophy took nat
45、ure itself as the inspiration for its most fabulous creature. Fertile rivers may have shaped this civilisation, but the Chinese believed that the rivers themselves were formed and controlled by a dragon. Unlike the destructive dragon of the West, the Chinese dragon was benevolent, provided it was treated with respect. The ancient Chinese called themselves descendents of the dragon and knew they needed to live harmoniously in the dragons realm. This respect for the dragon has relevance today for a rem
