“If we had not been there ourselves and recorded it all, you might never believe it.” In Croatia and neighboring countries, this striking line has become widely known as the eight-part documentary series What’s Up Kina has gained popularity. The documentary was created by Goran Milić, an 80-year-old Croatian documentary filmmaker. He has directed more than 300 documentaries and traveled to 73 countries across five continents.
Born into a diplomatic family, Milić had followed China with interest since his youth, but he did not set foot in the country until his seventies. To make the documentary, Milić and his crew visited eight Chinese cities over more than 50 days, using extensive footage to capture the vitality of modern China: expressways stretch for nearly 200,000 kilometers, with flowers blooming along both sides, making a drive feel like passing through the gardens of a palace; in some megacities with populations in the tens of millions, more than half of the cars are new energy vehicles (NEVs), moving quietly along orderly roads...
China’s level of digitalization deeply impressed Milić. On a high-speed train, he used his phone to order lunch in advance from a station hundreds of kilometers away; a train attendant delivered it precisely to his seat, still hot. Hotel robots were ready to respond to guests’ needs at any time. In a park in Shenzhen, a drone delivered steaming hot coffee...
What moved Milić even more was the spirit and demeanor of the Chinese people. He shared with the reporter many memorable moments from breaks in filming: while visiting a residential community in Shenzhen, a security guard proactively brought him a chair out of respect for him as an elder; at the Temple of Heaven in Beijing, a mother holding her child for a photo waved happily at the camera; on a food street, a young man gave the crew a thumbs-up...
“The friendliness of the Chinese people and their respect for the elderly and care for the young are rooted in an uninterrupted Chinese civilization,” Milić said. His team witnessed how the Chinese government is advancing rural revitalization. “China’s rural governance perfectly combines the information age with an agrarian civilization - by offering university programs that integrate information technology with agronomy, restoring cultural heritage, and developing tourism on the strength of a world-class road network, among other measures.”
In Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro and other countries, Milić’s documentary aired during prime time, drew consistently high ratings and generated a strong public response. Months after the broadcasts, people still stopped him on the street to ask whether the striking scenes were real — fleets of modern vehicles, forests of skyscrapers, and warm and friendly Chinese people... Milić always answered such questions by recounting what he had personally seen and experienced during his visits.
“Against the backdrop of growing global uncertainty, China’s rationality and steadiness are playing an increasingly important role in global governance,” Milić said. “Through filming the documentary, we discovered the vitality of China’s development and its unique appeal. We also hope to uncover more stories about China through our cameras in the future and present a true and lovable China to people in Croatia and across Europe.”