Chapter 6: Roads to Xanadu: A Case Study

This chapter presents an analysis of Roads to Xanadu, a 4-part series broadcast by BBC2 in July and August 1990. It recounts Chinese civilisation, focusing on science and technology, from Marco Polos times down to the end of 1980s. The selection of this series is based on three considerations. First, it is a comprehensive documentary that deals with the broad expanse of Chinese history that is the focus of the current study. Second, it presents a full account of the notion of progress, which is a recurrent central theme in many documentaries covered by this study. Third, it demonstrates narrative and discursive features that share broad similarities with these other documentaries. The chapter focuses on three interrelated questions: (1) how values, assumptions and subjectivities are constructed and conveyed through the notion of ‘progress’ imbedded in modernity; (2) how such a portrayal is intertwined with constructing identities of China and the West; and (3) identifying the verbal and visual features of the representation and mechanisms of meaning realisation…