Promotional material of the documentary Immersed with the World Heritage. Photo: Sina Weibo

Immersed with the World Heritage, a China-Japan co-produced documentary series focusing on China’s iconic natural and cultural world heritage sites, debuted on CCTV’s documentary channel on Sunday with the aim to introduce these places to Chinese audiences. 

The biggest highlight of the documentary is the ‘immersive’ experience it provides audiences through techniques such as voiceovers from voice actors such as China’s young musical theater actor Ayanga. 

“The immersive design for a cultural production caters to audiences’ increased sensorial demands, like using eyes to eat. Besides VR and AR, it is also about narrating. Whether to say it is an improved technology, it is a change in our content designs that all our efforts serve the goal of having the audiences feel they are there,” Ma, an immersive stage play director, told the Global Times on Tuesday. 

The new show was co-produced by the Documentary Center of the China Media Group (CMG) and the world’s top-tier documentary studio NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation). 

This is not the first time the two parties have worked together to introduce China’s cultural legacies to the world. NHK was the first foreign documentary studio to enter the hinterland of China to film a production after the founding of New China. 

Back in 1980, the two studios co-produced The Silk Road, which was rated highly by Western audiences as it revealed the mysterious civilizations along the Silk Road. 

Through such collaborations cultural understanding and appreciations between China and Japan was increased. 

“Cross cultural collaborations have been seen by industry insiders as a second chance to think about their own cultural roots. For us, this is essential especially if we want to show the real China to international audiences,” Zhu Yu, an indie documentary filmmaker who worked on a project about China’s disappearing dialects, told the Global Times. 
The crew went to cities such as Lijiang and Hangzhou in Southwest and East China’s Yunnan and Zhejiang provinces to film. The series is also airing on NHK's 4K channel and BS premium.